From: Alan Lambert Fort Worth, Texas Michael,
I agree with you. We need to unite together. I believe that the "United" word is on the NASG patch that everyone gets when they join the New NASG. I have one. The Lionel S SD-70 will be at my next month's train club meeting. I will get first hand look at this one. I will give a report back on what I see. It is a step in the right direction in my opinion. Alan Lambert ________________________________ From: Michael Greene <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2013 2:15 PM Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Re: S Gaugers in the NMRA I want to echo this comment (below) from Bill Winans. To move S forward we need to pull together as much as we can. But sometimes it seems (perhaps I am just too close), many S modelers have a genetic trait to look for divisions as often as possible. In this case "divide and conquer" will IMHO not work to grow the scale. That doesn't mean we should have targeted promotions -- people will come to S from many different avenues. And what will appeal to someone coming from HO or N will not be the same as what appeals to someone coming to S with the goal of wanting to re-live the fun of their AF experience as a kid. In fact targeted promotional work will be key in some areas -- much like the S Scale SIG is doing. But one targeted promotion does not mean we need to exclude others. In the mid 1990's (1992-1997) I modeled in N scale prior to moving to S. At the time I belonged to NTRAK (roughly the equivalent to the NASG for N) and to the NMRA. If you were in N you belonged to NTRAK (the source of the best N scale info), and many also belonged to the NMRA. Some years we had joint conventions and some years not -- sound familiar ??? Today I believe that N is the second largest scale represented in the NMRA. But the important point is that the N crowd was never looking for dividers...N scale had its share of couplers (Rapido, Micro-Trains, and I understand that there are several new ones since I left) and multiple size flanges (high profile - we called them pizza cutters, low profile (as introduced by Micro-Trains -- sometimes called fine scale, and standard which was in the middle). But we never let them divide us. Sure there was some good natured ribbing between the pizza cutter crowd and the low profile crowd at N only events...but it never really mattered much. NTRAK standards accommodated all of them, but it took good trackwork to support low profile. And you could not use Code 55 rail on a layout and use pizza cutters. But most modelers using Code 55 would not want to anyway. And it really didn't negatively impact NTRAK or its membership that I could see -- N was a growing scale. Seems like its the same in S -- we have the AF crowd, the hi-rail crowd, and the "scale" (Really mostly the Code 110 Std gauge crowd -- not counting Proto 64 and S narrow gauge). I've seen some really great modeling by folks who have adopted hi-rail wheels as their standard, and also seen really poor modeling by some so-called scale modelers. Perhaps we might take a lesson from our N scale brothers and embrace our differences and move on. It's clear that manufacturers are moving where the market is -- compare the detail level and flange size on the Lionel from the 1960's with that of the new SD70. And great modelers in S are among the best modelers across all scales. And (gasp!?!?!) some use hi-rail wheels -- it's still amazing modeling... Yes there are some enabling products I'd really like to see -- like ready-to-run standard gauge turnouts in smaller rail sizes. I believe they will come if we keep growing the number of S modelers. The one other point is that I would make is that we do have to pursue multiple angles to bring new modelers to the scale. While I don't much care about numbers per se, it's true that with more modelers in the scale we'll have more product choices...and that is an advantage for all of us. And the more modelers we have, it will drive manufacturers to pay closer attention to what the modelers in our scale want -- much like N scale has seen a move away from pizza cutters as the delivered standard for rolling stock, and much like I see Lionel doing today for the S market in delivering a single loco that runs on DC, AC, TMCC, and DCC, with a much improved detail level, and a choice of flange options... (even the large flange option looks smaller to me). Best regards Michael Greene Sent from my iPad On Feb 20, 2013, at 12:34 PM, "scale S only" [email protected]> wrote: > I would also add that is does not diminish the need for S modelers of all > persuasions to participate in the NASG, if they want the organization to > survive and be a force for the advancement of the scale.
