As frustrating as it is for those with immediate need, the rest of us have to think that a heavy demand for C55 track is a good thing, and means the hobby is most likely fairly healthy and rebounding from the recession.
I recall the Sam Posey book just before the recession, and Walther's said they sold 29 miles of Atlas HO C80 track the year before. Hard to image, but I figured that was like 1500 new 4 x 8 HO layouts (although probably much was sold to veteran modelers expanding layouts, but not using C83, Shinohara, etc., so it was probably a third to half that.
