Other scales have so many different companies

In "O SCale" there are a lot of companies making different things.    If you look at N, most of the "million" make cars, or locos, or track, or electricals, but few making everything.    The full line business that tries to pull you into using only one manufacturers products such as locos, track, controls, cars etc is more of a feature of 3 rail trains

In O scale we have Stevenson Preservation, Sunset 3rd Rail (and GGD), Mullet River, Old Huff and Puff, Labelle, BTS Car Shops, Key, OMI, Atlas, Weaver, NWSL, Funero & Camerlengo, Precision Scale, Southern Car & Foundry, San Juan Car Co, Kadee, Athearn, St Charles Model Works, The Carworks and Old Pullman that I can think of right off.   Since the "scale" manufacturers follow NMRA standards and recommendations for the most part, everything is compatible.   And most of these smaller outfits, do not supply whole lines, but rely on other companies to provide other components.    For Example Sunset makes really nice locos and some cars but no track or control systems.    NCE, Digitrax, Lenz, and CVP make great DCC control systems for O scale.   Old Pullman, Micro Engineering, and Atlas make track as do some others.   Weaver tends to make more cars than locos but does do both but no track or controls either.   Many of the others make kits for various things on the Model RR.    

So I think we in O Scale have quite a few manufacturers, but as you say, not as many as HO or maybe even N.

Somehow I knew who asked this question before I even clicked on it

For pricing and space reasons, HO and N have waaaay more followers than O. The number of companies serving a particular scale almost always relates to the number of people involved in it.

Most existing HO and N manufacturers wouldn't touch 'O' with a ten-foot pole--too much money to risk and too few people likely to buy.

---PCJ

But are all those companies, supplying the HO crowd, decent companies?

Fact of life, and get use to it if you want to be happy with O-Gauge, we are NOT N Scale or HO or anything else and have a much smaller niche in the marketplace. Our equipment takes up more room for a layout that has a built-in limiting impact.

Most of us are pretty happy around here with the fine manufacturers who represent our interests and supply us with an abundant resource of new and innovative products.

You might like to try looking at our O-Gauge hobby, while not perfect, as pretty darn good. Otherwise, why would you want to make yourself miserable by telling us that we don't have enough structures, or enough manufactures, or enough anything else.

Enough said.

Economies of scale, plain and simple. 

O gauge is a much smaller consumer market compared to HO or N, has been for decades.  The ability to do more railroading within a given space compared to O is the biggest factor.  That's why HO overtook O in sales starting back in the 1950s.

So with a smaller market, you're going to have fewer (mainstream) manufacturers, and as such, a smaller product selection.  Opposite tends to be true if the market is larger.  With a larger market, there's more room for a manufacturer to play while making a profit and staying competitive.

There will always be "niche within a niche" vendors regardless of which scale you're in that will also sell specialty items ranging from OEM or reproduction parts, detail parts, building kits, scenery, etc.

You're entirely correct.  I think you should immediately switch to one of the more DECENT scales like HO or N.  Leave the rest of us to suffer with O-scale.  Please!!!

I find the selection in O gauge to be quite overwhelming and extremely good. Sometimes I still can't believe the selections available to us today. I am quite pleased with what I have to choose from, which is way more than I can afford to purchase or have room for. As I have said many times before, it's a great time to be in O gauge, and has probably never been better.

I was in N for many years.  Overall, I think there are more companies in O, frankly.  

N scale market is bigger than O

HO market is bigger than O

Thus both have 'room' for more manufactures.

Simple economics really.

O is pretty well off.....additional major manufactures might just dilute the market.