Hi John,
One could counter your argument by citing some of the instances of HO equipment produced in the past that had no prototype at all. The most classic example is the Chessie Pacific steam engine produced many years prior to Chessie choosing a similar scheme for it's Chessie Special steam excursion train. In that case the model was the prototype for the real thing! I worked at Orange Blossom Hobbies in the 80's and 90's, and we carried all of those details you mention. Only a handful of modelers purchased any of those parts, and I'm reasonably certain that only a small percentage of those parts ever actually got installed on a model (many just ended up in a parts drawer in the train room). I seriously doubt that the sales of those detail parts justified the money the store had invested in on hand inventory, and when Orange Blossom closed, there were thousands of dollars worth of those parts in the parts drawers. And please don't mention decals! None of the local hobby shops will stock any of those parts (or decals), if you want them, they'll order them for you, but there isn't enough sales demand to carry them in inventory. Just as there are some HO modelers (in all scales, actually) that wouldn't give anything but an exactly prototypical model a second glance, there are a lot more who are less concerned with scale fidelity than just having fun with their trains. Look at some of the items MTH has released that are knockoff's of non-prototype O 3 rail pieces (like their aquarium car). It's not that anybody is right or wrong in their pursuit of the hobby, that's just the way it is... Bill in FL --- In [email protected], "John Degnan" <Scaler164@...> wrote: > > Sorry, William... but you clearly have no knowledge of what goes on in HO. > > If you don't think HO modelers care about prototypicality, then why do you > think all the detail parts companies offer so mant detail parts in HO? I > can't even begin to tell you how many companies there are that produce > prototypical detail parts for HO modelers. > > There is even a prototype modelers group on Yahoo specifically for those who > model prototypically... it's called the Railroad Prototype Modelers Forum : > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RPM-forum/?yguid=291770215 > > > John Degnan > Scaler164@... > Scaler187@... > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
