Well, I don't think this is "useless" information. I was not aware of the change of head of product development, but it makes sense; whomever was in charge usually had their "pet" projects to the detriment of other projects. When there was an S favorable person there things like the Y-3 came about (one of the best large engines I think they made in S--it negotiates AF track and turnouts beautifully).? Big L doesn't seem to have a lot of corporate history/pride governing their product development. They make one thing (like an engine) and nothing on it is shared by any of their other products, which would provide savings in production costs, improved reliability (because there would be time to get the bugs out) AND spare parts availability!? One reason the old ACG trains are still repairable today is because so much of the pieces are shared between units that this gives enough demand in production?numbers that reproduction folks can make them profitably.
Granted, demand is falling (and not helped by the current "big name" producers) but there are enough numbers out there that clever folks can still make some money doing it!
How does this carry over to the scale market?? It provides more variety of "raw material" to be converted to scale, and sometimes even provides scale products!
David Dewey