. A whole segment of S is not buying the new high end steam just because they physically won't run on scale track. Those folks aren't going to replace their track with Fastrack so unless scale wheels are offered they will never buy. Priority 1 should be scale wheels. Why? S Scalers could buy and swap the electronics. At least they would run on their track. After that adding a common socket with DCC support would be icing on the cake. Remember, you are talking about a group that has no problems dropping $2k+ on a brass steamer. $800 for a Y3a with scale wheels that just needs an electronic swap probably isn't a big deal.
I just feel that if Lionel is going to really do these scale offering right, then both diesels and steamers need to be on equal footing so at the very least one can have a common rail to run everything on. I don't see a lot of sense offering scale wheels only for diesels.
I totally agree with you. I don't model the steam era so it doesn't affect me but if they want to attract the most S scale modelers they need scale wheels for steamers. Either in the box to be swapped or factory installed as an option. I kinda like the supplying both kinds of wheels in the box the best as it eliminates the need to stock two different kinds of locos and it allows one to re-sell the loco to either a scale track guy or a hirail track guy. I'm guessing Lionel is just taking it slowly and seeing how the scale stuff sells before getting too far into it so I think scale wheels for steam will come along eventually. MTH did something similar in O scale a few years ago when they marketed 3/2 rail steamers.
After so many years of little new S stuff to look forward to it's great to be talking about these possibilities. ....DaveBranum
