Just returned from the library after my monthly free looksee at the liberal
mainstream media as it pertains to model railroading. Read MR and the
Gazette from cover to cover while in a comfy cushion chair in a quiet
environment paid for with my tax dollars. Not a bad morning in most
respects except......
MR continues to portray S scale as an AF experience. Example: In the new
product announcement column, the Des Plaines FMC boxcars are shown in
glorious color photographs -- complete with HUGE AF-compatible couplers. At
first I thought this was a paid ad in Classic Toy Trains magazine,
but...nope....it was MR. Then I read the caption which tells about the AF
couplers and wheels without any mention whatsoever of the scale wheels
(included?) and Kadee coupler possibilities for the scale modeler. No
wonder many of the non-S folks out there in the real world continually think
of S scale as being little more than AF toy trains. Cannot blame them when
new product announcements are incomplete at best and flat out wrong at
worst. I sure hope Ron Sebastion takes them to task for incompletely
presenting his product -- or is it "half-misrepresenting" his product? I
also hope that Ron takes off those AF couplers when attending more-or-less
scale-oriented NMRA conventions in the future. Maybe the AF couplers could
be used when attending the TCA meet in York, Pennsylvania where Lionel and
AF reign supreme. Now that John Degnan has claimed the title of COUPLER
KING, perhaps he should let MR know of the error of their ways as only he
can do. As usual, I have endless ideas for others to do. Some things never
change.
So much for the bad news -- now for some good news: The next issue, MR
November '08, will have a very nice S article with lots of photos of a well
known scale layout. Plan to get one and look it over (or use the library
like some cheap guys I know). You will see near-scale couplers, beautiful
scenery, scratchbuilt structures, interesting operations for a specific
industry, everything weathered, mention of plastic and brass S models and
some minor promotion of S scale in the text. A good showing of the scale
side of our chosen proportions of 1:64. No mention of AF at all.
For those of you who think our own COUPLER KING is pushing the envelope,
lemmee tell ya that Kadee is doing some envelope expanding also. An
announcement for a Kadee box car with a working cushion underframe caught my
eye. Heck, if they can do that in HO, it ought to be a slam dunk for S
scale. A new challenge for Jim King after he is finished with the rotating
end caps on roller bearing trucks. Sure glad Jim likes challenges or else
we'd still be without his neat products.
Time now to return to layout building in the other room. Big open house on
the 21st to get ready for.
Cheers....Ed L.
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