My view on the engines at this point is, who cares. SHS made some very nice freight cars and MTH is continuing to make them, I am still purchasing the freight cars. SHS made a nice track system in 3 different radii but it was incomplete. MTH is remaking the track components, I purchased and took delivery of 700' of their new flex track. Unfortunately the rail metallurgy is different making the MTH flex more difficult to work with than the SHS. When the MTH rail is stripped from the ties it has a significant curvature both horizontally and vertically. It is impossible to completely straighten even with a 3 roller rail bender. Hand laying turnouts with the new rail compared to the original SHS rail is a real pain.
The SHS diesels were plug compatible with DCC. Putting DCS in the F7 seems ill advised to me. I doubt very many S gaugers will buy a DCS system and convert their layouts to star wiring just to run one engine. I will not. The SW1 and SW9 are not large enough to accommodate the DCS system. I currently have 12 American models engines converted to TMCC/Railsounds with another 7 in process. Lionel produced enough TMCC and Legacy engines in S gauge to make purchasing the Legacy system worthwhile and ERR provides the products for great conversions. The entire layout is modeled and controlled in LCS on an iPad. I think MTH missed the window of opportunity for other than DCC compatible engines. On the other hand I sure hope I am proven wrong with a surprise release of new products.
