--- In [email protected], "ctxmf74" <ctxm@...> wrote:
> The guys coming to S to re-live their childhood flyer fantasies are a
> dying breed. Any new modelers are going to come from the scale ranks as they
> were never flyer kids. S should join the ranks of the other scales and grow
> based on it's perfect size for the folks who want larger than N or HO trains
> but can't fit in O trains. I would not even mention to potential modelers
> that it's related to old flyer and just go with flyer being one of the
> current manufacturers along with American models, MTH, Des Plaines, SMMW,
> etc. The future can begin now with no looking back.
> Do the other scales have separate divisions within their ranks? Why
> should S scale be any different? Flyer can stand on it's own just as 3 rail O
> does and S scale can stand on it's own just like HO and N scales do. I model
> in all scales and see no reason to treat S as anything other than a specific
> size in the range.Maybe new product from Lionel and MTH will get the ball
> rolling toward more S scale modelers, the pent up demand certainly is there.
> New cheap product created the unlikely ON30 gauge success so new S product
> should have it much easier. Where's Bachman when you need him? :>)
> ....DaveBranum
>
The past can't be ignored. Even with less folks who had Flyer as a kid are
dimishing, there is still an underlying and unspoken tie to the traditional
American Flyer that's never going to go away.
The growth in 3-rail O over the past 20 odd years has been phenominal and many
of these folks didn't have traditional Lionel as a kid. We are now in the
second, third and fourth generations of O gaugers with new people coming
onboard all the time. Some will remain "toy train" folks, some will scalify
their efforts to various degrees and others will graduate to 2 rail scale O.
There's no reason the same can't happen in S, but in today's world, without
"star power," it ain't gonna happen. Lionel and MTH hopefully will translate
their "star power" into S with a wide range of offerings. We may have to
tolerate some NASCAR or M&M's starter sets to expose more folks to S, but if it
gets someone interested, I'm all for it. If someone gets into S after
developing a facination for traditonal style Flyer, they're welcome in my eyes.
If 11 people get into S and 10 are interested in Flyer or hirail and 1 in
scale, it's still a win.
S has the advantage over O in that we, with VERY few exceptions, don't have all
the oddball, selectively compressed and crunched mis-proportioned rubber-scale
models running around on the same track gauge. You can take a Gilbert-Flyer
freight car, throw some scale trucks and couplers on it and have an acceptable
(not perfect, but acceptable) scale model. Can't do that with a 6464-based
boxcar in O.
Back in ye olden days, folks were converting Flyer to scale. I've still got a
couple of converted Flyer cars running around on my railroad and unless they'er
pointed out, no one's the wiser.
I came up from HO. It's wasn't just "Hey, S sure is neat, I'm changing
scales!" It was a multi-year conversion process, being worked on by a friend
who convinced me to go to some S Fests, going to a bunch of CASG meetings and
finally, the American Models FP7.
And that was before all the command control scenairos were popularized. S now
also has to do battle with that. not everbody's going to fall in love with
DCC, folks coming from O will want DCS and/or TMCC.
S is in a unique position to offer all three with MTH's entry into the market,
with DCC being the common thread. We, as a scale in general, will have to
accept that fact, just as we'll have to accept the adaptations of scale product
for the Flyer crowd, lest we turn away any potential convert from O or other
"toy trains."
There will always be folks interested in both the serious and non-serious
aspects(and everything else in between) of S. We need to welcome them all as
the prodical son.
Rich G(ajnak)
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