Hi All,
Had great conversations with Dave and Ryan and they assure me that the future of S Guage at Lionel is firm. They hinted at new releases for the second catalog and a new tooling engine for next year. I have no speculation on what that may be.
Ryan made a point of showing me the new Reading Hopper which was very nice. And as Mike said, an unpainted Baldwin was running. Dave said with two motors it was a good puller.
Norm (another NPS member and I toured silver and blue halls, as I waited to get a pouch for my badge, left mine home, and saw tons of S gauge. Ninety percent of it was way overpriced. Scratched, rusted items had A1 pricing and marked "rare". Folks, O gauge like that goes for $5 to $15, there is no way to justify $50 plus dollars for it. It's the same thing on table after table.
Vendors, just a word of advice, you can buy Flyonel, American Models, S Helper or MTH for less, they are way more detailed, accurate and roll much better. I've said this before, show after show you see the vendors with the same stuff. Perhaps if you dropped the price, more people would buy, (probably new entries into S) and you would make money. Understand, that's why I stopped buying old stuff to fix up, I have to buy new trucks, sometimes repaint, decal and add detailing - it makes the new stuff cheap.
One last thing, I found a model of the 1964 Plymouth Barracuda (my first car). That alone made my day.
