The scale wheel vs. hirail wheels problem is not impossible to overcome, but doing so reduces the scale look of your track. You will still have to use oversized rail, and for my layout, I chose to use closed-frog turnouts, which can work with either sized flanges. Originally this was because I wanted to accommodate hi-rail because a friend was a big Flyer fan, though he still hasn’t tried to run anything on my layout. Recently, I have found myself running an Atlantic and a 4-4-0 (both of which are over 60 years old), and enjoying it immensely.
There are other turnout options, SHS (now MTH) had a moving point in the frog which seemed to work, same system for Lionel and their FastTrack. I believe Tom (AMFLYER) was running both scale and hirail wheels on his custom built layout that used switches made from modified commercial Tim Warris turnout fixtures, but you would have to ask him to be sure. Perhaps he’ll see this and comment.
As for power, I personally don’t care for proprietary control systems such as DCS, TMCC, and Legacy, especially if they can’t work with DC. That said, I do like the FlyerChief remote system and have several locos so equipped (R/C & BlueTooth ROCK!). They are able to run on layouts using almost any power; DC, DCC, AC, DCS, Legacy, etc., you just have to be sure the voltage doesn’t exceed 16 volts.
S scale is really the perfect size, it’s just a shame that except for American Models and S Helper Service there has been so little manufacturer support, even though there are valid reasons for that, depending on who you ask.
Bill in FtL
