I agree with Earl... but let's keep one thing in mind - Lionel has had the AF/Gilbert line for... how long, now? And still S scale remains in the back or at the bottom of the hobby when it comes to popularity. What does this tell us? What does it tell you? What it tells me, when you consider that Lionel has not (until recently) had ANY interest in catering to the SCALE modeler, is that the product they have been offering, a product designed in the early 20th century, is not of interest to the new generation, therefore S scale has not grown in popularity. Now, as narrow as you may think my thinking is... and maybe it is, I grant you... the fact that the largest group supporting S scale is well over 60 (or is it 70?) years of age proves my point.
So... I'm betting that IF MTH continues Don and company's commitment to quality and simple AF-to-scale convertability, and increases the production of existing models AND adds new models to the SHS line (both modern stuff and older, never-done-in-S-before models), we will most likely see a rise in popularity of S scale. Otherwise, as Lionel's continued production of AF-like stuff has shown, it will remain stagnate. So, an ancient product being produced a new, big name manufacturer is NOT going to make a difference... the quality of the PRODUCT is where the difference has to be made... or, in this case with MTH with the SHS line, the product has to at LEAST retain the already-existing quality AND CONVERTABILITY to continue to thrive. It MUST remain convertable to scale, or it will not help the scale grow. My local model railroad club, the Coastal Rail Buffs, has quite a few younger modelers under 20 years of age... the vast majority of which are 'realistic' modelers, and the vast majority are 'modern' modelers.... CSX, NS, etc. Every one of them install Kadee couplers on their models and replace the plastic wheels with metal ones, etc... and a few even use Sergent Engineering couplers. None of them, to my knowledge, even own any of the cheaper stuff that is available from Bachmann, LifeLike and Model Power or any older stuff from Tyco or AHM, etc. One little guy, Dillon, has nothing but Genesis and Proto 2000 models... and quite a few of them... more than me, in fact. These youngsters are a sign of the times and an indicator (to the manufacturers) of what is wanted by the majority of the newcomers into the hobby. But I digress... and hang up my horse flogger for the day. John Degnan [email protected] [email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, July 13, 2012 01:07 PM Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} New Lionel + New MTH = Muddy Waters Regardless of what one thinks about it, it is going to be extremely interesting. I am rather fascinated by what is going on even though I am not a likely candidate for buying much new stuff, especially the modern stuff. Sure would like E6s or E7s from MTH or AM.
