Following on Rusty's comments, what matters most to Scale Trains is how many people will be active purchasers of their new S scale products. Active posters on a S Forum are not a reliable indicator. There are many people who post but either purchase nothing or just the occasional old Gilbert item for their collection or layout. I think partitioning this group out of the high railer pool brings the scale vs high rail closer in percentages.
As a member of the high rail group that spends an excessive amount of money buying new trains each year (a direct quote from my wife), I hope SC can design the engines and their power train arrangement to facilitate retrofitting the old tech and large, TMCC/Railsounds and cruise control boards into a DC only version. If they cannot be easily converted then I will not purchase any. For me, scale wheels and large radius requirements are fine.
