Well…
- A great number (a plurality) S gauge layouts are established Gilbert or hi-rail layouts. DCC (and DCS) will not readily handshake with many of these without a good deal of effort. TMCC and Legacy work with existing layouts of this type with a simple connection. With its track-born signal quality issues, DCS is not likely to happily coexist with layouts built with traditional Gilbert-style track.
- TMCC is simple and robust in a way that DCS is not.
- Lionel is working on making future all-new Flyer DCC capable. Legacy-compatible speed control can be engineered for the DCC crowd.
- Historically, Railsounds have been and are of superior quality to PS-X, particularly for steam locomotives
- Lionel has the more interesting and numerous steam engines in their lineup at the moment.
- Lionel could decide to respond to the MTH-SHS news with numerous additions in rolling stock and to the Fastrack system in the next catalog.
- Lionel will likely be first out with an SD70Ace and new contemporary cylindrical hoppers.
- Lionel has the American Flyer tooling and name with which to continue to fulfill the interests of those operating and collecting S gauge in the style of traditional Gilbert. Some of our colleagues tend to loose site of the fact that a significant portion of S gauge activity continues to reside in the traditionalist camp.
Neither company will stand still and both shall coexist by servicing the wishes of various S gauge enthusiasts just as L-AF, AM, and SHS did in the past. The competition will be a good thing.
Bob
