I talked with Andy Edleman at York, he was cordial and I think answered my questions honestly. S Gauge is not dead at MTH, as suggested on a related thread. The status has not changed much since Roundhouse Bill did the interview last year. They are still working on F7s and Switchers, some more rolling stock re releases. The catalog will come when they are closer to having items available, so as not to have the multi year gap between catalog and availability. S gauge is a niche market for them, does not sound like new tooling type things are in the immediate future. They are pleased with how the F3s did, with a near sell out of that production. They had S track on the show layout, although it had a short and was not running. The S display in the booth was in a more prominent spot than it has been in the past. So the SHS tooling is safe, product development somewhere in the queue.
The Lionel booth was busy as usual, talked with Dave O. and Ryan K., they are also fun to chat with. An unpainted Baldwin was running on their layout. As expected, Ryan just said wait for the next catalog when I asked what was coming new from Lionel for S.
Lots of Gilbert American Flyer in all the halls, my impression is that people are buying less of this these days, but the seller's prices don't reflect the diminished demand. Still lots of fun to see all the stuff and talk with the people. Newer S gauge is scarce in the member halls, but the dealer halls had a decent but somewhat pricey selection. I think American Models would sell a lot of product if they had a booth here. The S helper booth was always a highlight.
The North Penn club S Gauge layout in the White hall was beautiful, and I heard a lot of comments from on lookers saying, what gauge is this, it's just the right size.
Finally, the weather was brutal on Thursday: 42 with rain and wind. Better on Friday and Saturday!
Bill, hope you can make it next time.
Mike
