A while back I heard that the company building most of the model railroading stuff decided to make things they could actually make money on and stopped making trains. I’m assuming that someone is making trains now, but since I’ve been out of the spaghetti bowl, I haven’t heard the upshot. So has the quality changed? I’m assuming the prices didn’t drop any.
I don’t remember any of the details so if I’m off base I blame old-timer’s disease.
There was one big company (don’t remenber the name) that made product for a lot of companies. They were owned or closely associated with Bachmann. Last year they stopped producing for many of their model RR customers which lead to some supply problems.
That’s the part I heard. How did it sort itself out?
Someone jump in here if I’m wrong, but I think when this happened, Bachmann bought a Chinese manufacturing plant of their own (the shortage of track was a result of moving production). Going further out on a limb, I think Bachmann was planning on subbing out their unused capacity to other MRR companies. Good news, I think.
Stu
20+ years ago, you had two large companies that made most of the “good stuff” in China: Kader and Sanda Kan.
Atlas did a nice write up of Sanda Kan here:
http://www.atlasrr.com/news/mrting.htm
Sanda Kan eventually was bought out by Kader. Kader owns Bachmann. Kader eventually told their old Sanda Kan clients to look elsewhere.
The problem is that the remaining factories were small fries compared to Sanda Kan and Kader. As such, they were undepenable and prone to making errors and going out of business at the drop of a hat. For example, Athearn’s RTR manufacturer went out of business because the company president took off with all the money and was on the run from the Chinese cops. Oops. It’s why Athearn’s been banging out Genesis models and not many RTR’s lately.
Some companies went the other way and created their own Chinese factories like Rapido. Called “Rapido Maytag”, it makes all the Rapido products for them exclusively…but they are rather small by comparison.
The rumor I’ve heard is that most of the major US manufacturers are following the Rapido mode and creating their own factories in China. This effort is starting to bear fruit, which is why we’re going to see a bunch of product hit the market in the coming year as the taps will finally be re-opened wide.
Paul A. Cutler III
Thanks Paul. Looking forward to seeing the new product.
There was also the Great Atlas Track Shortage of 2012. Atlas announced that they were moving production from one factory in China to another, with the implication that there might be shortages of some products for a while. This started almost a year ago, and I think we are still having trouble buying Atlas track. (I’ve been doing scenery mostly, and I pre-bought enough track to last me a while.)
Bachmann, by the way, has produced a number of new models in their Spectrum line that are very nice engines at prices significantly below the competition. DCC and sound, too.
MB.
Very cool. Probably not any of their oldtime 4-4-0’s though. I guess I’m sticking to MDC for a while.
Chip,Atlas is struggling with track and when it does arrive its usually C100 and sells out quickly.As stated Athearn RTR products was on hiatus but,some long announced RTR products is making their way here now.
Maybe some day things will settle down and back to some type of normalcy.
Larry and others,
I have to ask. I’m planning on doing my next layout in Peco 55. Any supply problems with Peco?
Peco should be fine last i heard there factory is is in the town of Beer in Kent
One of Peco’s new ads states “Peco Track, Always in stock” [swg]
Whew! Thanks guys.
ANYTHING made in a town named Beer has to be good!! [:D] Prosit![B]
I use Micro Engineering track…made in the good old U S A .
It’s a thought Dennis. I’m not 100% set on anything.
There are other train manufacturers in China, but they are not as large.
Bowser did not set up their own factory over there, but has been using one factory for quite some time–that was not Sandra Khan or Kader.
Recently, Atlas moved at least some of their production (I don’t know exactly what) to the very same factory that Bowser has been using. I do not know the name of the company.
Bowser’s C-430 was developed largely in China, and it was developed faster than the C-636 which had much of the design/development work done here in the U.S. That is at least partly why the planned delivery times are so close.
Also–it is worth noting that the most recent Athearn Genesis units (the GP38-2’s and GP-7/9’s) have had noticeably better quality control than previous Genesis models from even a year or two ago. Some of the Genesis GP15-1’s (at least the two I own) are noisy growlers that sound like RTR units from several years ago, compared to these latest Genesis units, and the latest models I have seen have been much more cosmetically perfect than previous runs.
I still love my GP15-1’s, partly because Athearn did a great job on the very difficult to match Frisco paint colors and the satin finish (which isn’t too dead flat like other importers)–but both unfortunately have some minor blemishes. The newest Genesis diesels I’ve seen just look better–cleaner fit and finish all around.
I expect the GP50’s to be fantastic!
John
Just yesterday I attended a presentation on economic trends by the Chief Investment Officer of a major Fortune 500 company. This is OT to this topic but it was astounding what the natural gas revolution has the potential to mean to this country. If we take advantage of it.
OK back to the topic. One slide featured wage growth and wage rates in the US and in China. Just a few years ago you were looking at 87 cents an hour in China and that is when the US and international firms really flocked there. The wage rate differential was staggering, it was laughable, it was impossible. And then the law of supply and demand, and the inevitable rise in expectations that creates problems for every Communist economy, took over – Chinese wages are now midway between $4 and $5, and the push is still upward. Still far below ours, but as a factor of one versus the other that is a huge change because we have stayed pretty steady.
If the model railroad firms were willing to pay top wages in China there would be no problem with finding capacity. Obviously they are not, because if top wages were what they could afford they would ahve stayed here.
The whole economics of the supply side of the hobby have come to mean that our manufacturer/importers are more or less bottom feeders. Well the food is gone at the bottom. Sorry Mr. Carp.
That means that now you are looking at costs of transportation more and more as being the tipping point. In the past you could say “it’s cheaper even with the costs of shipping and transloading to manufacture in China.” Keep your eye on Chinese wages and factory capacity to be sure, but also keep your eye on transportation costs (and there has yet to be a natural gas powered sea going container ship that I am aware of, to return to my first point).
There is another factor and that is, there is alot of criminal corruption in China.
The thing about these Chinese Manufacturing threads is that almost none of these issues are within the modeler/buyer’s circle of control.
Yes, whatever information that is not speculative could be interesting, and this is a conversation forum; but the reality of it is it comes down to supply and demand for most of us.
The only choice we can make is to buy products where the quality/price/availability components are aligned with what we think is appropriate. This is also getting more complicated with the demise of the LHS and the pre-ordering trend that will dominate the hobby.
I don’t know when yet-to-be-built stock will be available, and I don’t know what the quality will be like when it is. So, for me, is the price worth the gamble that the product’s quality will meet expectations or its production schedule is within my time frame? With today’s prices, I don’t like to gamble when buying/ordering a new piece of rolling stock or a locomotive.
The details as to what influences that decision, like where it is produced, etc. are becoming irrelevant. If the item’s production shifts back to the US or moves elsewhere, will I no longer have to take that gamble?
You are right. The nature of the OP was me trying to get the lay of the land. I’m soon going to be starting a new layout from the ground up and I might make some of my choices based upon how easy it will be to get some of the materials I’ll need to to model what I want. I can’t imagine scratch-building a Dash 9 and having it run, let alone be recognizable.