Junior is more than right to be worried. In my brief but spectacular time (I watch PBS Newshour), as an O gauge model train enthusiast, brief being the operative word, I have noticed just from searching the web, HO and N seem to be the most popular scales. On many occasions while searching for just about anything related to model trains, I find myself saying, "HO? Everything is for HO. Doesn't anyone sell stuff for O gauge?" Model Train Stuff has ample stock of track, Locomotives, Rolling Stock, Electronics and Accessories, and just from looking at the ads above, there are all sorts of model train sellers that cater to O gauge. But Lionel and MTH have been and until June 1 next year, will probably be, the only class 1 manufacturers of O scale Engines. Class 1 in this case meaning, manufacturers who make and distribute varieties of Engines. When I look at anything built by Bachmann, Atlas, or any other company that make products for model trains, it's HO or N.
I'm actually going somewhere with this that is on point. Bear with me. I may have mentioned this in my previous reply to this post, but it warrants repeating, DCC is labor intensive compared to Legacy and DCS. I watched a video that was part of a series that talked about how "easy" DCC was to set up and all the wonderful stuff you could do using DCC. We need to work on their definition of "easy". To make switch tracks work required something called a turtle device. All sorts of relays and boxes you had to have to make this work and that work. DCS has it's attachment issues but once you wire the track to the TIU, the remote or app does the rest. It's all relative to what you know.
MTH and Lionel are the only two companies the MAKE components for O gauge command and control. If you are accustomed to using Legacy or DCS, television remote or WIFI, if you are me, you are spoiled to how easy it was to set up and use. I use DCS because DCS was designed to run all trains, not just Lionel trains. Maybe this is the door Lionel needs open in order to turn Legacy into a community based command/control system, rather than a company based c&c system. Legacy only runs Lionel engines. DCS runs all of them if it has the proper help it needs to do so, i.e. the Base1L box. When MTH goes out of business and shuts the door and melts the key to the door, I'm not concerned about not being able to find MTH products anymore. Ebay and anyone who sells model trains will have rolling stock and engines up the ying yang to sell. But if my MTH built engine goes south, finding a dealer who fixes them may not be difficult, but finding the part to fix it is going to become, some day, impossible. I don't see a Rockauto.com for hard to find model train parts. My point, I applaud everyone for wishing Mike a happy retirement and best wishes, me included. But, and this is harsh but the only analogy I could come up with in a pinch, we are wishing the captain of the Titanic a long happy life as he floats away in the last life boat, while we the passengers still on board are forced to go down with the ship. I'm happy for Mike but his decision has left a ton of DCS users in the lurch. I can always go back to running one train manually with a transformer if my DCS goes shot. But it would be nice if Lionel could use this opportunity to somehow get Legacy to run all engines instead of just Lionel engines, which would make loss of DCS a mute issue. It's better to get started now, instead of waiting to see what the future holds for what sounds like a done deal. Unless someone buys MTH, we can kiss those three letters goodbye in every facet of the industry.
IMHO
