Thanks for the reply Lee. Yes, before making a final decision I want to see what MTH will be charging for locomotives, cars, etc. I agree their HO stuff is pricey but it certainly looks good and from what I hear it runs good too. Still HO is cheaper than O.
So everything in S scale is made to run on a 21" radius? That would be a big space savings over O scale (2R) which is what I have. I was planning a layout with 54" radius curves (O108) as a minimum. With S I would surely go larger than 21" radius. Just a guess but I would think 36" (O72) or 40" (O80) minimum radius would look good for running S scale equipment.
I apologize for not making it obvious that I am a 2 railer.