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Reply to "Impressions Of An Interview Of Ron Bashista of AM"

Quote:

"The future: Ron sees the [Gilbert] Flyer market pretty much non-existent in 10 years. <snip editorial comments> He also doesn't see if there will be enough Scalers to keep S going."

Wow, talk about being brutally frank.

Unfortunately, the sad realities are that his view makes sense:

* Us baby boomers are aging out. This is complicated by the fact there are FAR TOO FEW new entrants into the AF/Traditional side of S scale.

* The scale side of S has been dependent upon the AF side of the hobby for scale converted product in meaningful quantities for decades, so it stands to reason when the AF side of things flat lines... the scale side of S is in deep trouble.

I do not foresee "HO, N, O" being the dominant scales. Indications are that O is slowly fading away. Z scale is slowly on the rise. Thus, it could be the major remaining players will be HO, N, and Z. All of the other scales combined will account for less than what O scale represents now. For a while, On30 provided a boon to the scale of O, but didn't really help those modeling standard gauge in O in regards to engines and equipment for their gauge. However, On30 peaked some time ago, and their boom is over.

Speaking of O scale: What a bummer to model standard gauge. Your options are: Accept 5' gauge (and the excess width is often noticeably wide to my eyes) or go to the trouble of converting to P48. What terrible options.

Andre

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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