David Weber wrote: “why not move the whole manufacturing process back to the US. what a concept”
All-
Having observed what a manufacturer has to go through running a fairly fully vertically integrated model railroad factory in the Chicago area, an awful lot has to change in the attitude of the labor pool, federal, state, county, and local agencies (ranging from building code, fire, signage, environmental, workplace, social engineering, tax policy, reporting requirements and other forms of bureaucracy ) as well as bank monetary policies before we’ll see the establishment of many new model railroad factories in the US.
Not saying it will not happen; Lionel is doing some small scale work in the US and costs are driving in the direction towards the day when it may be possible to see more done domestically. But there are still tremendous barriers to doing everything here from tooling through final production.
Of course, if someone is sitting on a few million dollars that wants to be a leader in bringing Model Train production back to the US I would love to consult on setting up such an enterprise!!!
Charlie Vlk
Railroad Model Resources