@rdunniii posted:They used to go to all the train shows York, Chicago, etc, but found no one was interested in the stuff for available for reservations only how to fix issues with stuff they already had or to say "if you make X you'll sell a million of them, but I'm not interested in reserving any. If they had a catalog it would be 2 pages long and that flyer used to be all over the place but again got very little response for the effort and cost. So, what "other" ways are you speaking about. You can lead a horse to water but...
There are thousands or tens of thousands of people in the hobby that are using social media almost exclusively to interact with others in the hobby. There are now multiple items that I've bought from Sunset/3rd Rail that have elicited great responses online that people just didn't know about. One of the most active people I know in the hobby is a huge Southern fan, and only this past March found out about the Crescent, and only then because I put him onto it.
If the goal is to maximize orders, then things like train shows matter, even if there is the annoyance 
of dealing with customers and potential customers. In sports, they say you're either getting better or worse, never staying the same. Likewise, in business, your customer base is either growing or shrinking, never remaining the same.
The customer base will never be Lionel big, price/detail/required curves all reduce the number of consumers for this product. However, not seeking to expand knowledge of the product to those moving to more scale offerings isn't the way to ensure that preorder minimums get met.
