-The "entitlement" attitude which is so pervasive in the hobby, though it is certainly in the general culture as well. It is simple arithmetic because the HO and N scale markets are so much LARGER, that there is more financial incentive and benefit for more variety in product. Given the sub-divisions in the O gauge and O scale market, it is amazing how much product actually IS available, yet people are continually unhappy. I thought a hobby was something you were suppose to enjoy, and that would make you happy?
-The various train forums should be (and sometimes are) a place to share pointers, tips, creative ideas, etc. about the hobby. But - no fault of the forums themselves - they just as frequently have become a place of grumbling and complaining. Funny how some folks don't mind telling the train companies how to operate, and yet don't want anyone telling them how to run their trains - and then throw a fit over forum moderation.
If you are so unhappy with the types of products available or unhappy with the fewer existing train companies, start your OWN train company and show the other companies how much more you know about the market. You'd better have at least a minimum $100M of your own money... no bank will loan you the money: Start your company in the USA with a brand new US facility and offer a complete full product line of items never before made by anyone else in your first year. Put a lifetime warranty on your products too. Oh and sell them for far less than everyone else. And then you'll learn the hard way what so many other train makers have stated, that what people "say" they want and what they actually "buy" are two different things.
Some other miscellaneous observations:
-If China is the problem as many maintain, then why is it I have never had a single defective product? Not a single one. And they're made in the same place. Quality is better than some of the last US made trains.
-Lionel didn't move overseas to selfishly make gobs of profits. They moved overseas so yes, it would decrease their bottom line costs BUT THEN they PUT THAT MONEY into NEW TOOLING (of mostly high end scale products). Don't believe me... compare Lionel catalogs before and after the move to China.
-If dies and tooling are such a minimal expense as some think, then why aren't the train companies making everything requested here? Must be an intentional conspiracy. Hint: If the consumer cannot afford the new train products, maybe the train companies cannot afford to make everything either. And before anyone mentions Menards, they're not a train company, and they're not doing tons of new tooling. Rather they're using existing or duplicated dies of larger O gauge items - walking the middle ground between O scale and O gauge. Their structures don't require injection molded dies and even with them, they're walking the middle ground to please the greatest number of consumers, meaning O gauge versus O scale.
-"Kids today are too interested in their cell phones and video games." Well... who bought them the cell phones? Maybe the parents, because maybe they don't want to take the time and responsibility to be parents. Nevermind (depending on what statistics you read) that nearly half of this nation's children are growing up in a single parent household (IE: no dad). Given the choice, what is a single mother going to purchase... a train set or a smart phone?
When I was a kid and I stayed after school, I went to a pay phone with a dime and called home for a ride. When was the last time anyone here saw a pay phone? It is almost necessary for kids today to have a cell phone, as sad as that is. And as long as you're buying them a cell phone, for the money, it might as well be a smart phone.
- Another sign of the times, for thought: When I was a kid, Dad bought me a Lionel train and built ME a layout. They were my trains on my layout, and sometimes Dad played trains with me. Back then the trains were marketed to sons and their fathers (smart move too).
-Today, the trains are marketed to the fathers. And if Dad buys his son a starter set, it is most likely to be played with ON DAD'S LAYOUT so the child won't ruin DAD's expensive trains. It's no longer the son's layout... it's dad's layout. And if the kids are being annoying (as kids often are) dad can say, "Why don't you go play with your video games." Yep, the train layout isn't the kid's, but the video games are!
Little wonder we're seeing what we're seeing. Of course, it's so much easier to blame the train companies (and especially Lionel, who gets the lion's share of blame and criticism) then to point the finger at ourselves.
That and the lack of quality in them. I have never received so much brand new defective product in my life as now and the trains far surpass everything else we own. 
Yet they conveniently miss the posts where we give kudos when kudos are due. But no... that doesn't fit their agenda to disagree, so they quote selectively to support their twisted point that we're "complaining" rather than providing "market observations". You don't need to agree with the observations, but PLEASE don't twist what is said either. If you haven't noticed, you're communicating the same level of cynicism and negativity you're claiming of our "observations". But I guess you don't see it that way. Why would you?
