I also have agree with Rusty, that Lionel has essentially done 2 different runs of scale challengers (JLC and Vision Line) and 2 different runs of Lionmaster ones and they should have it down by this time. One example I would point to is MTH. I would say they have been more effective at translating what they have in O into HO than Lionel has in bringing their strengths to S. Lionel has been "trying" for the S crowd for some time now. Why should we not expect more from Lionel? To your point about sounds, granted, Lokomatic is VERY POOR and IMO Lionel's current gen. of Railsounds is the best in any scale. I would love to have even the opportunity to put Legacy and Railsounds in my SHS F3's.
As for heavyweight passnger cars, who in S has done a truly good, affordable version in plastic? You are correct in that Lionel has put out more product in S that Am or SHS combined, but would this not suggest that Lionel does, in fact, have much more resources to use for S? Also, both SHS and AM have been literally crippled by the whole Asian builder situation. Hopefully we will get to see this issue played out a bit more in actual product offers as SHS and AM are getting close to being back up and running. I for one am ready to see that and the new Lionel catalog for 2012 should be here soon. We can see if the potential about another new steamer, a new diesel and more Fastrack are going to be comming soon.
Lastly, to those who have the "If you don't like Lionel, then don't buy it" type of comments out there. How does that make any sense at all when we are on a forum dedicated to talking about trains!?! With that type of logic, I could easily say to you if "You Love Lionel so much, go be in 3 rail" but neither is to the point. Really?? Most of the guys raising these issue have in fact bought alot of Lionel and still want to buy more in the future. Be careful!! You just may be looking for those same guys the next time you have a post entitled "would you buy _____ if it was made in S".
