That's one reason Big L apparently will never understand the S gauge market. ACG set the standards high (for the times) in terms of scale when it came to engines and rolling stock. The operating accessories, not so much, although the sawmill and baggage smasher were more to scale--the other operating accessories were more left-overs from the O line, and were marketable to both AF and L and MarX owners. Where they missed out on the 75th, (IMHO) They could have done a redo of the 4014 with the challenger's trailing truck and tender, the two major "oopsies" of the original 4014 engines. A steamer with an oil fueled tender would have been a big "commemorative" piece--and the ATSF Pacific would have been a good choice for one (as would the 4014). Personally, I think a rework of the Northern with a daylight boiler & tender would have been a big hit. The other thing they missed on, AND they have the tooling for them--would have been some operating accessories; Sawmill, Oil Drum Loader. A Bell Danger signal would be a nice addition. A replica of the ACG demonstration radio broadcast Pullman car could have been done pretty much with just paint and lettering changes.
75th anniversary, SOO much could have been done with little tooling costs. . . . And it could have made money! At least we got some printed catalogs.
