From Lionel's point of view, this hurts about as badly as finding a large valise full of used small-denomination currency!
With all due respect to the software vendor, I seriously doubt that his main audience will be, "Kids who don't want the bother of assembling train sets." How much bother is there in pushing some sectional track together and getting the cars on it? (Skills which I had mastered by my third birthday, incidentally.) Methinks he might have confused toy trains with assembling craftsman kits - a real apples vs. oranges comparison if there ever was one. (If so, he's still wrong. Kitbuilders usually enjoy the construction process, and the unique-to-them result. You don't get that with the rather generic stuff seen in the train simulator screen.)
I have fond memories of those department store Christmas displays. If they really are making a comeback...
Note who they cite as authorities - folks associated with Kalpubco! Got that one right!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070303/en_nm/life_trains_dc
This is a Reuters article so may very well show up in many print and on-line publications. It can't hurt can it?
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum