Well said. Ken
-----Original Message----- From: Chuck Harrington [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 1:48 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [S-Trains] WOW - Did I start all this? ! This is a very tuff audience! Probably no S offering is going to please everyone. Some guys wanted inexpensive stuff that could be played with by kids. K-line is now offering that. An inexpensive and attractive S starter set could be a reality soon. It will not be a model train set, but maybe a very nice "toy" train set. Some are now unhappy that the new K-line cars are not more like S-helper or American Models. K-line used Marx molds. That kept the price down to $20. Had they made new molds the price would have been much higher. That would not have gone over well, again. But, it is hard to buy even a pair of trucks for less than $10! S-helper and American Models are doing a fine job making scale models. Lionel is offering cars made with original Gilbert molds with the trademarked American Flyer name on them. Do we need K-line to make more pricey scale models, or do we need them to make toys that can be handled by children of all ages without parts breaking off? For the most part our "S Gauge" accessories are O gauge or larger, just like Gilbert made them. The toys that K-line is offering are no more out of scale than a Mystic Station or a 752 coal loader! Most of us are not collecting and operating scale layouts. We are playing with toys. Toys that in many cases that are not the correct size, just as much of the Gilbert stuff was not the correct scale. Gilbert made toys, wonderful toys! Most of us are playing with toy trains. We need to deal with it. The S scale guys are on a different list, for the most part. You won't catch them putting a Mystic station or a cattle pen on their scale layout! The Timken car is attractive to me, though I suspect it may be too big. I would like to see one and compare. My mind is open though, to looking at the actual piece, and giving it a chance, seeing what I can make of it. The duplication of original Gilbert cars is perhaps being overdone, but if you are going to give them to a child to play with, you perhaps do not want to turn them loose with a real Gilbert Penn Salt tanker! The K-line cars may not look right next to a Gilbert one, but my guess is they will be fine toys for a 6 years old to play with, just as our beloved American Flyer cars were decades ago. Some older kids may want a few of them too. :-) I am looking at the Penn Salt and Hooker tankers thinking they might look just fine running on my layout. (Were they to make a car that said "Hershey's Chocolate" on it, you can be sure that I would buy it!) I for one appreciate the new offerings by Lionel, K-line and others. Will I buy all their stuff, No. But I have bought some and will continue to do so. If you want "real American Flyer" there is plenty of it out there. As the Baby Boomers age and attics continue to be cleaned out, there will be more and more of it. There is and will continue to be plenty of real Gilbert American Flyer. But it seems to me, that everytime someone tries to give us some of the S stuff we have been asking for, we kill the fruit on the vine, without giving it a chance to see what it can perhaps become. These manufacturers invest and risk their time and money to test the waters with S offerings, and we slap them down, and then later complain about how few companies support S gauge. S-Trains list sponsor: http://www.americanflyertrains.com All the Flyer you desire...books and accessories too! To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ + + S-Trains list sponsor: http://www.americanflyertrains.com All the Flyer you desire...books and accessories too! To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
