I have to ask, "What's the goal of any of these efforts?".
Are the people involved in these initiatives simply hoping to draw more
people into modelling in 1:64?
Is it to create some special forum(s) for the publication of material
that does not currently make it into the existing media?
Do the S manufacturers need a dedicated, centralised (and immediate)
place to announce new product and services?
Will it be an effort to entice the AF and hi-rail people into "true
scale" pursuits?
???
I haven't been to 100's of model railway shows, but I've been to quite
a few. I haven't spoken to every modeller out there, but I've spoken to
many more than a handful. The closest any of them came to wanting to
venture into S was to say. "If I didn't have all of this HO already,"
It's complete and utter BS. None of them would REALLY consider taking
the plunge, because a) selling everything off is far too much work, and
b) it's tantamount to admitting that they made the wrong choice when
they became involved in the hobby.
I submit, once again, that the only people that will be attracted to
this facet of model building are those in situations where S meets some
particular need or offers some special incentive that no other scale
can manage. If the cons line up too heavily against S, they simply
won't buy into it.
Why did Sn3 become so popular? Because modelling Colorado in HOn3 was a
reliability nightmare in the early days (and it probably still is).
Sn3 locos offered more heft, room for larger motors, and negotiated
the same radii as standard gauge HO. It met a need that neither HO nor
O could at the time. Bingo.
Why is the Sn2 niche enjoying a popularity seemingly out of all
proportion? Firstly, someone put their money where their mouth was and
imported a bunch of really nice engines for a particular (and very
emotionally charged) prototype. Secondly, the adherents have taken
their show on the road with some well detailed, prototypical scenes
done with taste and skill. Doing it in On2 would take up too much room
at much higher cost, and in HOn2 would require a skull examination.
Today, what can S offer that N, HO, or O cannot? It has fewer diesels,
steam engines, and traction equipment than the other scales. It has
less choice of detail parts, structures, and off-the-shelf trackage.
The RTR equipment that is available largely clusters in the later half
of the 20th century, and is understandably limited in its roadnames and
variants.
When our S layout is at a show, we get a lot of people asking about the
size. "It's not HO, is it?" and so forth. Some people eventually broach
the subject of buying equipment. Our end of the conversation usually
goes like this: "Sorry, that engine is not available; only 25 kits were
made." or "Sorry, it's not RTR. You have to build that boxcar from a
resin kit. And decal it. And paint it." as well as "Sorry, that
locomotive really was $750. In pieces. I had to assemble it. With a
soldering iron. See my fingertip burns?" 99.9% of them turn and walk
away with a look of mixed disgust, disbelief, and possibly pity. Over
the course of 4+ years, we've had exactly 3 people (that I know of) buy
equipment based on their contact with us at these shows. One of them
now participates in exhibits with us. The other two have shelved or re-
sold their rolling stock kits because they cannot readily obtain steam
engines used by the roads they wish to model.
What about the scratchbuilders? S is a scratchbuilder's scale, right?
If you are modelling rolling stock, you have a much greater choice of
detail parts in HO or O than S (unless maybe you're in the Colorado
camp). If you are modelling structures, you get a wider variety of
architectural components (like windows and doors, unless maybe you're
in the Colorado camp) in HO or O than in S; you can even buy DPM wall
sections in O scale!
Without a MUCH more massive selection of inexpensive, ready to run
rolling stock and motive power you are simply not going to attract the
average newbie to S, and certainly never dislodge the entrenched HO
scaler, despite his/her failing eyesight. On30 will sink its claws into
them before you can say "Bachmann? We don't need no stinkin' Bachmann!"
Without greatly increasing the range of detail parts, you are not going
to attract the average scratchbuilder (is there an 'average'
scratchbuilder?), because even a dedicated scratchbuilder gets sick of
making hinges and window sashes pretty quickly - not to mention
underbody brake details or any of the myriad of appliance fittings
ubiquitous to the railroad genre.
Even the SHS starter set cannot manage to grab the newbie. The price is
seen as too high - despite being good value BUT the average newbie has
no way to know that the engine, rolling stock and track provided in the
SHS set is made better than virtually any HO starter set. The newbies
have no frame of reference to compare these data; they only see a
premium cost associated with S that cannot be readily explained.
Positing the following (with respect to S _scale_):
- there is a limited choice of RTR equipment
- there is an established (small?) fraternity of scratchbuilders
- rapid communication paths for the exchange of ideas are extant
- reference materials for prototypes are readily accessible
- good quality, low volume production methods are available
then where should the energies of this group be best spent? Building a
website or writing a magazine? What's going to give the greatest return
on the time invested?
The only sure way to attract people to the scale it is to MAKE THE
CHOICE A NO-BRAINER. Give them an undeniable reason to adopt this size.
There are already lists of what's available, where it can be bought,
and what can't be found any longer. None of this rhetoric puts one more
new piece of rolling stock on a store shelf, or one more new detail
part in a bag or kit.
There likely isn't going to be a Bachmann to catapult S into the same
spotlight as On30. No white knight is going to champion the cause with
seemingly inexhaustible reserves of cash. There aren't enough "scalers"
who are "on the same page" to create sufficient demand for large
production runs of any product. However, if it's more RTR choice that's
the necessary draw to get newbies into the scale, then SOMEBODY (the
real somebody, presumably) is going to have to build these RTR items
for sale. Otherwise, we're going to remain on our own.
ChrisA
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
