I have a question for the folks here on this thread... I am toying with a DCC decoder (derived from a design I created 8 years ago!) as a swap for our TMCC radio board.
The logical way to go if you want to capture the scale market is use the NMRA standard DCC plug so folks can just buy a decoder and plug it in. No reason to re-invent the wheel. Scale guys like off the shelf tsunami and loksound decoders better than proprietary stuff. Just make scale locos without sound and with a DCC plug and folks can run them on DC or add decoders as they wish.
More important than bells and whistles are a good running, slow speed gear ratio,and rugged easily repaired drive. Scale modelers are not afraid of doing a little work to customize a loco to their specs as long as the basic product is top quality. SHS switchers are a good example of how to build S locos for both scale and high rail use and please both groups.
When thinking about S scale the goal should be to expand the S market beyond the number of present S participants by building something that will appeal to the HO crowd and the older O scalers who want to downsize their houses.
I'm looking forward to new Lionel S scale modern freight cars as I've converted O scale Lionel freight cars to 2 rail use in the past and found them top quality. I like the quality of Lionel scale O stuff but I like the size of the S stuff much better, I can fit a lot more railroad in the same space. ....Dave Branum
