"S has always been a tough sale, even in the good old days of the 1990's. Few hobby shops carried anything S and those that did, there was usually a nice layer of dust decorating the packaging. Even at DesPlaines Hobbies.
Sure, modelers from other scales say they like the size of S, but they "have too much invested in..." A nice polite cop-out."
They have too much invested simply because there's much to buy. If there had been that much S stuff available they have bought it instead. I remember the first time I saw an SHS PS2 hopper and my first thought was HO is dead, this is such a nice size. Then the production stalled and the critical mass was never reached. It's hard to compete with a well supplied market even with a superior product unless one has faith like Apple did when it kept plugging away at the PC competition till people took it seriously. How many people would be using Apple today if it had decided to stop production and just build it's first products in limited numbers till they were gone? Same thing with Toyota and Honda in the US market, they were bit players but didn't pack it in when folks said they had too much invested in Chevys and Fords to switch. I highly doubt that the US model railroad hobby would end if suddenly the major players said they are gonna stop making so much HO and O stuff and start making more new S stuff, I imagine there'd be a surge of new buying from folks waiting to ride the new wave. ...DaveB
By the way, along with my Windows PC I have an Apple laptop and I'm not impressed with the Apple...
There's always been "too much to buy" in HO. Personally, I think it's good time to be out of HO because of it.
All someone has to do is make the decision and jump in. That's what I did back in 1985. I also got out of 3-rail O (which was a parallel hobby, not a replacement) for the most part the same way, but not for the same reason.
There's plenty more avenues to unload used trains now than 30 years ago. But, many will look at it more as a financial loss rather than an opportunity to start anew.
In the end it all boils down to availability and what the remaining hobby shops and alternative dealers are willing to place on their shelves. They want and need to have items that will rotate out in a reasonable time and the ability to replenish stock. Unfortunately, under today's conditions it's not going to be with S.
I would like it to be different, but it's not. That's why I'm disappointed with Lionel's recent handling of the truck thing and reefers. Lionel's brand could help greatly with exposure of S to the general market, but right now I'm not so sure. We'll have to wait some more to see what direction they're going to take with Flyer now.
As far as MTH, hopefully they'll at least offer the former SHS stuff as a separate item with scale wheels. I don't see them ever following SHS's idea of including both set of wheels on the freight cars. The true test for MTH will be what they've done to the F3.
I don't see Athearn or Atlas riding in on white locomotives and getting into S. They've both got their hands full with what they're doing currently. The same goes for Bachmann and Walthers.
Rusty
