Rusty, thanks for the information. I really appreciate it. Great pics!
When I went to 2 rail one of things I liked most about it was going to KD couplers. The "bear-claw" really didn't bother me as far as looks went but I could not do any switching with it. I had to ram cars together at high speed to get them to couple. It was very frustrating and not to mention extremely unrealistic. I've noticed that in S scale the since the bear-claw is the same size and the car is smaller the size of it really does bother me. It's just not something I want or like.
The pics you posted do like great and I agree with you that the higher rail code is not really noticeable but to my eye, and everyone is different, the bear-claw really sticks out (mainly the 3rd pic down) slightly spoiling an otherwise perfect scene. Just my opinion.
As for the code rail I have 148 now in O scale and the scale guys scream it is too large but it doesn't bother me. What does is I have one of the Fast Tracks fixtures for making switches and filing the code 148 rail takes forever. It is a lot of labor. It takes a lot longer than filing the HO code rail FT shows in their videos. So another advantage of going to S, for me anyway, would be going to smaller rail which is much easier to work with and much cheaper too.
MTH is coming out with code 128 rail for O scale. It lists for cheaper than Atlas O track. I wonder what it will look like? I'm definitely going to York next week to find out as much as I can about S scale and the new MTH track which would solve some of my problems with O scale.
I'm trying to look into the future (my future) which is hard to do. Right now I have ranch house with a rather large basement. Even though it is a large basement it is still a little tight for O but would be great for S or HO. I also have to have room for the slot cars and my drums and a place for people to sit so I can't fill the entire room with trains. Even if I had no other hobbies it would be expensive to fill this entire room with code 148 O scale track. I mean what if I lose my job? What if I am forced to move out? It's pretty much a guarantee that the new house will not have room for O scale 2R but probably would fit S scale in some form.
I don't know.... this S scale decision is really tough. Is any of the AF stuff good enough that if it were detailed it could be used on a scale layout? Does anyone make scale detailed trucks for S? How about if I wanted to re-power a locomotive, any drive systems available? I realize this is just speculation but do you think Atlas would ever consider entering S?
I know I said my other question was the last one--sorry about that.
