Classy Woods, LLC posted:Maybe It is not totally grim American Models has some nice stuff. However, I want modern era. There are a lot of guys in HO who do modern era. If they had a quality offering in S and in a scale version, I'd bet they would switch. I mean S is so attractive with 2 rail, scale track, scale wheels and smaller radius. It is the curves in two rail O that makes it unfeasible for me. S allows me to work with something that is a little heftier and I can see the detail. All that being said I still think I'm barking up the wrong tree.
I think I waffle back and forth about once a month. While there has been enough done in the past to make a railroad, that depends on what you want to do. If you want road specific equipment then you are in trouble. If you want a fantasy road then you are in better shape, but still lots of holes. Then there is the Scale or Hi-Rail problem. S has just divided itself into too many different factions. Example, the new Lionel Legacy Berk will probably be a really nice model. It will have Sound, Smoke, Kadee couplers, LED lights, etc... but it won't come with scale wheels. So how many scale modelers who have invested thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars into scale brass models do you think will buy the Berk? Maybe a few?
S-Helper was the company that introduced me to S. That's why I fell for the scale. MTH has all but killed that company's legacy. Then Lionel did the great about face on S scale Legacy engines. Ugh...
Let's be honest, the best AM models are only about as good as the economy models in HO. There are no companies in S like Rapido, ScaleTrains, Athearn, Atlas, Bachmann, or Walthers in HO. Heck there aren't even any companies that are as good as the smaller niche players in HO.
Most of all, I want the scale I choose to model in to have a future. I want to be able to purchase new products. I don't want to wait years between new offerings. As I see it, the pace in S is only going to decline.
6 years ago I had optimism. It's gone now... Sorry.
