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