I totally agree with you there Brady.
I am a lifelong Lionel fan, but I was trying to build an S scale layout. The two kind of butt heads. Lionel is coming from the perspective of the traditional Flyer customer. MTH starts where SHS left off. I really expect their S scale offerings to be like larger versions of their wonderful HO products. I have SHS and Flyonel products and from an operational standpoint it is apples and oranges. Hopefully like in O, MTH and Lionel will make each other's products better through competition and innovation.
I may end up leaving S for HO unless things really pickup in the next couple years. The HO products are so good and so affordable compared to S. Especially MTH's HO offerings. If you are an average modeler that wants to do a scale layout of any specific area or prototype S is a really difficult scale to be in compared to HO and N. You really have to have a passion or nostalgia for S. Perhaps that will change over the next few years? That would be nice. All things being equal, I would rather model in S scale. All things are not equal though as it stands today. That's why I have gone back to just playing with 3 rail O gauge with my son until he gets a little older and we start our scale layout. Then I'll make the call.
