AmFlyer posted:In order to sell more that about 70 to 100 units of any engine the engine would have to be able to work with AC track power and the Legacy control system as well as run on 20" radius curves.
IMHO: And that, in a nutshell, is the biggest obstacle that scale S guys face. It is such a shame that the two major persuasions within S scale (Hi rail/scale) require different operational parameters.
I suspect that one of the main reasons for HO's current total domination within the model railroad industry is that decades ago, the mfg'ers got on the "same page" so to speak, and began to unilaterally embrace the applicable NMRA's recommended practices. Thus, "train set" wheel flanges went the way of the do-do bird, and the later, the awful "horn hook" couplers followed. The result is you can purchase essentially any engine/car and can be assured (given the length of the model) that it WILL go through the NMRA spec switches/etc, and will couple to the nearby car without issue. Along with those changes, you can now figure that DCC is almost universal within the HO modeling world. Again, though, a common standard was embraced by the mfg'ers. Of course, in the realm of control systems, I seriously doubt there is any way that Lionel or MTH will EVER surrender the proprietary concept of their operating systems.
All of the above is only my opinion, and thus should be taken with a grain of salt.
Andre
