Not knowing much about S scale, are scale couplers the norm?
Do you think MTH will sell with scale couplers?
I remember seeing Lionel lobster claw type couplers on some older S scale.
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I suspect that MTH will sell their new line of S with AF compatible wheels and the SHS version of coupler that is AF compatible. Having said that, I hope they sell the SHS scale Kadee style coupler with the scale wheeled cars. All supposition on my part but they did get the SHS couplers with the deal so scale and AF style are available to them. It still is a wait and see thing. I hope they follow the SHS lead for car design, trucks and couplers on their new offerings which would make them easy to adapt to which ever style of modeling you are interested in. MTH has a clean slate other wise and they are offering more O scale cars with scale operation in mind. I hope that continues with S.
Greg
I'm sure that MTH will keep the design that SHS had and have everything designed so that converting to Kadees or SHS's "Kadee Clones" will be easy. BTW: Kadee couplers for S scale are the #802 (black) and #808 (brown). Same design, but different colored plastic. The SHS "Kadee Clone", IIRC, were a design used for close coupling on their F-units.
I know it wasn't mentioned, but on the wheelset front, MTH will still sell scale wheels (which is good news for the scale folks). However, from my understanding, they will be available as a separate item only, rather than included with their products like what SHS was doing and including them with their locomotives (with the exception of the 2-8-0) and rolling stock.
Robyn (CarolinaRail)
Originally Posted by Bluegill1:
Not knowing much about S scale, are scale couplers the norm?
Do you think MTH will sell with scale couplers?
I remember seeing Lionel lobster claw type couplers on some older S scale.
Actually, AC Gilbert had their own "lobster claw" coupler, and that's what Lionel still puts on American Flyer.
As far as MTH goes, it's all just pure speculation right now. We'll have to wait and see when their first catalog comes out.
The former SHS included their Kadee Clone with F-units and ore cars, but everything came equipped with a Flyer compatible coupler installed. Us scale guys bought and installed Kadees for the SHS products otherwise.
Rusty
Are the majority of S scalers scale orientated(couplers/wheels) or more towards hi-rail when it comes to couplers/wheels?
David,
The vast majority of the S scale market is Hi-Rail which explains why much of everything available is targeted to that segment of the market. The scale side has been a small fraction of the scale because, until American Models came along in the 1980s, there hasn't been any scale plastic locomotives and cars available in S outside of converted American Flyer pieces.
Robyn (CarolinaRail)
