I was reading a thread where everyone was discussing the S Gaugian article and was about to reply but it disappeared (Maybe it is my PC). Anyway I noticed a few comments seemed to say that most S owners prefer not to have Legacy or the DCS system. Although I strongly disagree and fall on the opposite side of this that I only want engines with those features and I only want HiRail, I respect everyones opinion on this. Part of the argument for not including these features is that they add to the cost of the train so why should you pay extra for a feature they will never use. I completely understand this and I wonder if the following compromise would be available from Lionel or MTH.
1) Make trains that are Legacy or DCS ready. If Legacy and DCS chips/boards cost so much, then sell the trains without them an allow people like me to buy a board that will add these feature. I have some Kato N scale and they do this all the time with DCC.
2) Another option may be to continue to follow up on Lionel's built to order program that they used for the D&H and SP Alco's. THis way they could release a new engine such as the Bershires but allow for a "Built to Order" version with Legacy installed. It will cost more but I would be willing to pay it.
The problem as I see it is I only want to buy Legacy Engines and the person next to me only wants to buy conventional Engines. The S market is not large enough to have either one of us not buy and still have enough orders. Lionel and MTH need to make engines in such a way that we all will buy them.
Thoughts?
--Rocco--
