Oh bother. These aren't supposed to be guys turning out trains in their garage. Marketing is what sells product (even bad product, look at Mc Donalds), my input was meant to be suggestions that they need to improve their delivery. I am actually thinking about the new Berks, although I really don't NEED another engine on my layout--but I want to see the "new and improved" features (question, if something is NEW, how can it also be improved--isn't it either one or the other???. OK, if you don't get it, that was an attempt at reality humor poking fun at typical marketing wording.) so I can make an educated decision. I can no longer afford to just go out and buy stuff to "support the hobby" like I did with the Big Boy and the Challengers--back then I was an employee, now I'm just a part-time self-employed guy. I suspect more and more of us are becoming that, so new market share is critical to a viable group to support these manufacturers. Better video production will help!
Thinking about this, the idea of production to just meet pre-orders does not indicate any long term commitment to the product line. There is a major economy of scale when you produce stuff in larger quantities and production parts are interchangeable with other items. Why do you think we can keep the old ACG products running? Because the same parts were used over a large variety of products. ACG was frugal almost to a fault on that point. So was the old Lionel. But I'm getting far afield of the subject line now.
