QUOTE: Originally posted by Allan Miller Why wouldn't you want O scale to become the next HO? After all, HO is by far the most popular scale, and along with that consumer popularity comes a tremendous assortment of items, a competitive marketplace, and generally reasonable prices. Sounds like a pretty good sitiuation to me! That said, I don't think you have to worry much about O scale becoming the "next HO" or whatever. HO enjoys some inherent advantages--space requirements being one of them--that O scale simply doesn't have. If anything, I assume that O scale, like O gauge, is at the crest of its popularity for now, and that you won't see a whole lot of additional growth in the coming years, aside from some who will switch from three-rail O gauge to two-rail O scale. Even then the numbers electing to make that conversion will undoubtedly be less than stellar. O gauge itself is in a bit of a bind these days, with tremendous supply/variety serving a relatively fixed market; high costs of a lot of the items (which are destined to increase even further); undependable delivery times; and the increasing reliance on made-to-order (preorder) production that limits exposure in the marketplace. None of those things, among others I could name, are solid indicators of future growth. As I see it--and I could certainly be wrong--O gauge will be lucky to hold its own over the next five years or so. Unless or until, that is, someone or some mass of someones decides to give the hobby a kick in the butt to make it visible and appealing to the vast number of potential customers and enthusiasts who may be out there.
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