D500-
for the love of Mike, man, read my freakin' post: I clearly stated that " I have no evidence, anecdotal or otherwise..." And then said " I suspect that the WBB line represents....." So I think you can safely conclude that this is my opinion and not fact. I don't know what the populations of Germany and the UK have to do with WBB 3 rail O gauge. I will bet you that neither Germany nor the UK has even one single retailer for the WBB line. Perhaps this is why many of our forum members from the UK purchase their WBB from US sources.3 rail American O gauge is simply not a big seller in Europe. And that's a fact. And whether we like it or not, HO is a much larger market here in the US compared to our beloved O gauge.
having lived in the UK for four years I can attest that British OO gauge represents about 60% of the British model railroad hobby with N gauge at about 30%. O, HO and G make up the other 10%. And Germany? Marklin, Roco, Fleischmann and Bachmann Germany are the big HO names and HO is easily 80% of the German model rr market. WBB is never going to be a big player outside the US and compared to Lionel and MTH, it's a small player in a small market here in the US.
Oh, before I forget: all of the above is IMHO
PS- in the UK, Bachmann competes head to head with Hornby for the large British OO gauge market. British Bachmann produces beautiful OO gauge trains and accessories but still is a distant second to Hornby for market share.
