"In our little corner of "The Market," the numbers usually thrown around for S Scale is about 15% vs. 85% for Flyer. This has been a fairly constant number ever since I got into S in 1985.
So we have to acknowledge the Flyer side and even embrace it to a degree. It's where the growth is going to occur if it's going to occur at all.
As I try to get my some of my scale brethren to understand: We're better off attracting 10 people to Flyer/Hirail rather than wait for one person to be attracted to Scale. Even some of the O Scalers don't like to admit they've reaped some benefits from the growth of the 3-rail side over the past few decades.
According to the owner of one of my LHS's, the Flyer Polar Express is pre-sold out. I've not heard of any scale S product over the years achieve that goal."
I see a fundamental difference between the O-27/ O scale and the Flyer /S scale relationship. O has long been a stand alone scale with many modelers who do not consider Lionel to be relevant to their needs while many S gaugers seem to think flyer is relevant to S needs. I'd rather see S scale viewed in context of it's size between HO and O scales instead of it's common size with flyer. Size when comparing O to O-27 or S to flyer don't mean as much as the scale modeling bond between HO,S,and O scales. Toy trains are more closely related to other size toy trains and scale trains are more closely related to other size scale trains, it's just a fundamental difference in interests. As an S scale modeler I'm more interested in the latest N or HO developments than a new S product like the polar express. I don't view polar express buyers as prospective new modelers who can add to our buying power like a bunch of S scale converts from other scales could. As modelers age and if enough want larger trains but don't want to maintain the space required for O scale we might see S come into it's own without help from Lionel, perhaps MTH will get it right or perhaps it will be a new company like Atlas S or Athearn S( which would be great from my standpoint as my first toy trains were early athearn HO products) :>
......DaveB
