Roy, 195 pure scalers: that sounds about right. I wonder how many of them have layouts with enough completed scenes to be photographed and featured in a non S magazine. That is what, along with train shows, captures the attention of converts to S.
You’re right, that number is too small to support an exclusive magazine. The “S Gaugian”, with all it’s shortcomings, has survived all these years due to its blanket coverage of all things S. Products from MTH and Lionel, like those in the past from SHS and AM, will hopefully continue to expand the market for S. If they put some of their resources towards advertising, it will. Whether it’s hirail or scale doesn’t matter to me, as long as it’s close enough so that I can modify it for my use. There is so much more available now compared to 25 years ago when I reentered the hobby! Roger Nulton From: Roy Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 5:39 AM To: [email protected] Subject: {S-Scale List} A healthy discussion That 13% figure is probably an accurate reflection of just how many pure scalers exist. If the NASG membership is about 1500, it would mean that there are about 195 scalers. That's not a whole lot when you consider how many total model railroaders there are. The 13% is probably close to the ratio of scale vs highrail sales at AM and formerly SHS. When you hold it against the 18,000 NMRA members, the percentage becomes 2.34%. That's about what you get when you read the results of the various polls that are conducted. The magazines that catered only to pure S scale have struggled. If I were going to start up a new magazine, I would include every aspect of S that was not related to collecting only. That might not guarantee success, but it would give it a fighting chance. We talked about people coming into S because of AF childhood memories, etc. Tony Koester once suggested that we reach out to them through the World's Greatest Hobby program. However, most of these types gravitate to collecting for obvious reasons. I saw hundreds of them at York last year. However, it would be interesting to see how many folks have entered S scale modeling including highrail due to the products of a companies like SHS and AM. I'll bet that it is a growing number vs the AF route. Companies like MTH and Lionel are betting on it. I for one am happy to see all these positive opinions being expressed. This thread has been long overdue in my humble opinion. Roy Hoffman
