Well I'd like to thank Phil for kicking this topic off and all the others who provided input. I had pretty much the same questions/concerns Phil did about s-scale. I became interested in S-Scale a couple years back when I started into On30 ...using AM & SHS cars to supplement my rolling stock fleet. I started noticing the details such as using real wood for decking on flat cars or lining OB gondolas, etc.. I looked seriously into O-scale 2 rail but the price of turnouts really discouraged me. I've signed up for a couple S-scale newsletters and I'm anxiously awaiting to see what MTH comes out with. Thanks again for all the well timed info.
Mark