Kadee Products

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I know the couplers are made in the U.S.A. But are the Micro Trains and Z scale items too?

2

I don’t know the answer to your question, especially because I do not model in N scale, but MicroTrains has been a seperate company, in a seperate building from Kadee for some time now, since 1990.

http://www.micro-trains.com/about.php

I could find no mention either way on the MircoTrains web site about product production locations.

Yet on the kadee site “Made in USA” is clearly promoted. Could have something to do with why they made it two companies?

Sheldon

3

There was a segment on one of the Tracks Ahead episodes a couple of years ago about Kadee and Micro Trains. At that time, all products from both companies were wholly made in the USA. They even showed the initial research, design, tooling, and production steps involved in producing both Micro Trains and Kadee products at their factories in Oregon.

4

Before the breakup of all Kadee products it was run by Keith and Dale, or known as Kadee ( don’t really know their surname ). Somewhere in the 1980’s the brothers split the company down the middle.

I believe it’s Keith who owns and runs Kadee HO and G scale in White City, Or., while Dale owns and runs Micro-Trains line Company in Talent,Or. Mfg. N and Z scales…

AFAIK all Kadee and Micro-Trains products are pure American made.

5

And the joke has long been that Micro Trains collectors never open up the packages because releasing the “Oregon air” causes them to lose value.

Dave Nelson

6

I visited my LHS today, and in addition to MR, and a Classic Trains special issue, I got the January-February 2011 issue of N Scale Railroading. There is an interview with Eric Smith, CEO of Micro-Trains (and son-in-law of Keith Edwards, co-founder of Kadee, and founder of Micro-Trains).

According to the interview, Micro-Trains makes 95% of their product line in their Oregon plant. The Z scale track, and N and Z scale locomotive power chassis are made overseas. Smith says that the major consideration is quality control, and also control of costs and lead time. But Smith said that " ‘made in the USA’ pride" is a big factor.

From the photos accompanying the article, I get the idea that the plant is heavily automated to do exactly what Micro-Trains wants to do, and I would think this investment in specialized production would also influence Micro-Trains’s decision to keep production at home.

7

Yesterday, Micro-Trains had an announcement on Facebook that Keith and Dale Edwards were celebrating their ninetieth (90th) birthday.