Gentlemen and Ladies,
It's not the rail, flanges, accessories, craftsmanship or RTR
manufacturers that will make our scale what it is or perhaps should be.
It's marketing and advertising to a somewhat less interested and smaller
audience that can help S have a future.
In the past and present we've had some good publicity in the press, but
it's never been a long term effort. We've had various time-line
articles (50 Years of S as example--we've never had a 51 or 52 years of
S article), Overland once ran a back cover ad featuring S scale brass,
I've had a few published articles, as did Frank Titman, and recently
Brooks and Dick have done an excellent job, BUT it's rarely been a month
to month thing or year on year thing. in all publications at the same
time. The only thing that has come close had been the SHS ads in
Classic Toy Trains, but they too have faded into history. I don't
recall what those ads cost but they were pricey at a fraction of what MR
or RMC would charge. Of course at that time you also had the other
publications like Mainline, Railmodel Journal and a couple of others.
If you look back a while ago you'll see consistent ads for MRC,
Bachmann, Overland, Athearn, Walther's and few others--month after
month; sometimes for years. Those guys wouldn't be running those ads
unless they brought in results month after month year after year. Face
it, Bachmann pretty much started On30 from scratch to the success they
are now--prototypical or not! (I haven't heard much about the past or
current RMC S Coop ad, but I hope it is doing it jobs in some form).
If a couple of million for advertising were dropped in our hands things
would be totally different, but I know the collection plate is empty.
Since S isn't that unique we have to play a different game. We are not
Toyota, Ford or GM, we'll have to be the Subaru or Volvo and offer
things that are different enough to pick up those who look a little
harder for railroading satisfaction.
But that's what it's all about--Rhett seems happy with SW-1's, boB won't
give a nickel for a DCC plug, others want to fabricate boiler courses in
brass and your's truly wants a bit of everything to reach a point of
satisfaction. I think even the gripers (myself included) will admit
we've come a long way on that long road to where most people will be
happy with S as a choice
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
Hi guys --
I had six guys come up from Phoenix yesterday, all except one was AF. We
had a grand time, and they got to see what scale is all about. At least
one was starting to convert to scale, though he had a lot of things to
learn. And that is the deal – we can’t expect the AF guys to move to
scale without a bit of help, and the same for converts from other scales.
I agree with Rich’s assessment, but I am not sure having major suppliers
will make that much difference in our current generation of young model
railroaders. To run scale S in the same manner that smaller scales are
able takes a bit more room – something that younger people haven’t
got. It
all takes money, and I think that if you look at the overall situation, a
person’s scale selection has a LOT to do with their assets – more money =
larger scales in general, and that usually comes with age. Hi-rail / AF
and 3 rail O have the advantage of being able to fit into smaller spaces
comparatively speaking as well as not requiring the finer modeling skills
needed to make scale work well, and so are better suited to a lot more
modelers. All this points to AF / hi-rail being a significant part of S
for as long as model railroading remains a hobby.
As I have said before, ALL the trains and their accessories are just
toys,
scale or not, costly or not, big or small. Let’s just have fun playing
with our toys. Time to get off this topic!
Bill Winans
------------------------------------
Simple question then. If S SCALE could survive and grow WITHOUT the toy
train aspect, it should've/would've have done so a long time ago.
If we use this anti-toy train logic, folks SHOULD have been moving
raiply to
S when American Models started and SHOULD have been practically
stampeding
to S when SHS started up. Pacific Rail Shops SHOULD have drawn in even
more
modelers.
Overland came and went. Sunset came and went. What would have happened if
Des Plaines hadn't picked up Pacific Rail Shops? Anybody remember Modern
Models???
What happened? Where are the masses? What are they afraid of? We can't
just
blame the American Flyer connection.
When I got into S, folks in the scale were still thumping their chests
saying you'd better d*mn well like scratchbuilding because S is "the
scratchbuilder's scale." Apparently, it was considered like it was a
badge
of honor to be so exclusive.
Simple fact. S has been stagnent because of the LACK of a major, big-name
manufacturer to provide some cover for the likes of AM and the former SHS.
BTW, Atlas O still sells more 3-rail than 2-rail. And there's still
quite a
bit of low-end HO and N being manufactured out there.
The club I used to belong to is primarily a Flyer club and they were FAR
friendlier to the few lonely S Scalers than we seem to be towards the
Flyer
folks here.
Pogo had it right...
Rich G(ajnak)
