Francine posted:Any new products from any manufacturer will grow the pool, probably from existing scales.
And that is the magic phrase. However, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of new product coming down the pipeline to wave the wand.
MTH is missing in action. Pure and simple. They seemed to be more concerned with wi-fi, bluetooth and slapping mini-LED strings on everything.
While Lionel is producing some new stuff, they seem to be pretty much content with sticking with "traditional" styled Flyer. FlyerChief or the Legacy Berkshire alone will not produce a great influx of new S folks, scale or otherwise. Plus unless an aftermarket scale conversion becomes available for the Legacy Berk, the Scale Folk will ignore it.
While there's always American Models and they have come out with some new stuff recently, they lack the "bells and whistles" today's customer base has become so enamored with. However, at least AM has everything on their website in stock.
Either people downsizing from O Scale or upsizing from HO. Everyone says S is the "Goldilocks Scale" - not too big, not too small.
Unfortunately, Goldilocks is a fairy tale. The lack of new product availability and glacial pace in S is the big bad wolf. And the wolf is winning. Modelers from HO will be disappointed there's no real equivalent to likes of Athearn Genesis, Broadway Limited, ExactRail, Rapido Trains and others. I doubt HOer's will really want to scratchbuild everything they can't buy off the shelf. Given the glacial pace of S, I don't see a lot of downsizing O gaugers entering S.
There is a lot of stuff I would like to have, but if it starts to arrive after retirement, it becomes questionable.
That's the position I'm in right now. While i have enough S accumulation over the past 30 years to keep me busy, I'm being very careful now on what I decide to buy new.
Rusty
