I can understand your frustration NotinWi, but the sky isn't following yet. The U33, SD70, and Y3 are all still due Sep-Oct according to the website. Was there an announcement that I missed?
I have also found myself frustrated by the pace of S. I am hopeful that things are headed in the right direction and this is just a bump in the road because of all the China issues. It's a minor miracle that the scale has survived these past 3-5 years at all.
The biggest problem for S is that it is a minority scale that is divided within itself into the Flyer vs. Scale camp. Lionel is taking steps towards including more scale offerings and MTH has stated that they intend to continue the practice started by S Helper to support both Flyer and Scale sides. If the products support both, and they can come up with some common denominator for an operating system (DCC) then there could be real growth coming that will draw in modelrs from other scales.
While I'm rambling... There is another issue that needs addressed. There are no RTR and very few structure kits in S scale. What about bridges, prototype signals, etc...? Very slim pickings. I asked MTH about these things and they gave me hints that we may see RTR structures like they have in their O gauge line. I don't think it is coincidence that the biggest scales have the most RTR product available. That's what the vast majority of todays model railroaders want.
So what I have learned is that there is reason to think that S is headed in the right direction, but I also had to realize that it will not happen as fast as I would like. That's why I never gave up my O gauge trains. Personally, I'm going to give it another year or two and see what happens. I'm anxious to see the new catalogs from Lionel and MTH. I think they will tell us a lot about the pace that we should expect.
