What if Lionel were to build S Gauge steam engines with plastic shells.

Here we go again with the "Flyer is bad for S Gauge" chant.  S gauge wouldn't exist today if not for Flyer and ACG's adoption of it! I don't here the 0 Scalers chanting that "Lionel is bad for 0 Gauge" and knocking that three rail track. Face it, the "casual modeler" (i,e, those that just want to run trains) is the largest marketplace for any trains, and their purchases make possible the neat scale stuff that follows.

As to Steamers "ensconce the Flyer name deep in the past" I don't see that effecting manufacturers in the other scales, who sell LOTS of different kinds of Steamers, along with modern and not-so-modern diesels. Most model railroading is nostalgia, and stuff from the past fits in. YES, longer, modern freight cars would be good to have for many folks, and contrary to the L engineers' thinking, they will run on standard track, although you will have to have truck mounted couplers and be happy with extra space between cars, like the AF passenger cars. Around these parts you mostly see container car trains. I would think a container car would be a fairly simple car to make, and the containers can be sold separately as loads for other cars and track side "scenery."

I do wonder how much more it would cost to have a detailed floor instead of the stamped metal floor on boxcars--but, one seldom sees the bottom of a car, unless they pick it up to look at it! One reason I've not fully understood the exacting attention to detail some modelers do to the "under floor details" on their work. Incredible work, but to what end? ("My car's better'n yours; see, if you apply air to this brake hose, the linkage actually works!" "Oh, do your locomotives have air brake supply?" "Uh, no, but look at this detail!"--OK that's kinda extreme, and I would be amazed at it, but it's just an example.).

Somewhere this begins to smack of the "I OPERATE Miniature Railroads; you just PLAY with trains" conundrum. Let me make this clear, before you haul me off to the asylum; I play with trains, sometimes even the full-sized ones! ("My name is David and I play with trains." "Hello David!" -- TTA meeting (Toy Trains Anonymous); Where's Mr. Doakes when you need him?

On the other hand, in most scales the "transition era" seems to be the most popular, so one might wonder is there low demand for modern products because there is no product or no interest.  This is not as dumb as it sounds.  In diecast cars there are innumerable castings of 1957 Chevys and not very many 2014 Castings-do you suppose that if they made lots more 2014 Chevy castings that the demand for them would increase?

Just Sayin' (and yes, I know this is pretty off topic)

Little Tommy

Message to Lionel

The car length issue is bogus.  We can have longer cars and you make track and switches with R27 radius.  Autoracks in S would sell.  TTX cars with loads would sell.  Stop telling us what we want and start listening to us if you want your sales figures to go up!  Admit your mistakes and work with us to fix them.  If you are unclear as to what we want to buy, just put out a survey and ask us.

--Rocco-- 

They will probably tell you, 'We already did TTX piggyback cars & they didn't sell. . . Wellll, that's true, BUT they were 027 cars with S trucks under them, and were way over-sized for S, so they didn't clear most layouts' track side stuff.

traindavid posted:

Here we go again with the "Flyer is bad for S Gauge" chant.  S gauge wouldn't exist today if not for Flyer and ACG's adoption of it! I don't here the 0 Scalers chanting that "Lionel is bad for 0 Gauge" and knocking that three rail track. Face it, the "casual modeler" (i,e, those that just want to run trains) is the largest marketplace for any trains, and their purchases make possible the neat scale stuff that follows.

 

Hello David,

I don’t see that at all. I believe that most people who are on more than just this forum know that there is more to S gauge trains than Flyer. Flyer has its place (at least on my layout). But from this list I get the feeling that Flyonel is all there is and the rest be ****ed. Unfortunately for this forum, nothing could be further from the truth and if Lionel wants to have a broader market, then they need to address the S community as a whole.

From a marketing point of view that would mean adapting the standards of model railroading – meaning the universal DCC socket in each engine so the customer could choose. From this list I see the Flyonel people can’t even agree on which Lionel operating system they want to have… some want TMCC, others Flyer Chief and still others want Legacy. Lionel should offer their various systems as chips like other DCC manufacturers do. The market will decide.

Otherwise Lionel can choose to cater just to the Flyer segment of the market and that would not be good for S gauge in general… and probably very limiting for them.

A plastic steam engine? Sure, if it is up to the detail quality of their Mikado or Pacific, but another Flyer Atlantic or Berk… forget about it.

Tom Stoltz

in Maine