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Post by riogrande on Apr 8, 2020 6:38:35 GMT -8
Did he type that from his private train car, bus, or the recreated train car in the basement of what must be a custom home in a major metro area (in other words, not cheap)? I am not saying the guy shouldn't be compensated for what he does, risk he took, money he put up, etc... But I take his "starving artist" / no money in it spiel with a grain of salt. I am sure the truth is somewhere in the middle. It could be that he has family money apart from the train business that affords him some of these luxuries. The usual assumption is that manufactures of model trains are rolling in cash and living lives of luxury from the profits from ever more expensive engines and freight cars. We are told in response that there isn't a great deal of profit in the business and margins are small. Of course none of us has access to their financials so we can all speculate till the cows come home but none of use really know for sure. But guaranteed, the refrain to bring manufacture back to the US will go on and on. Yes. I think most of us know that. Jason has commented on it a number of times and I'm sure you have read them. Another comment you may have read on TrainOrders a couple years ago: "Kadee has produced a bundle of couplers, trucks, and wheels; but only five freight car types to date (over several decades). If we only want one car every 6 - 8 years, we'd be fine." And no engines either.
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Post by wp8thsub on Apr 8, 2020 7:57:16 GMT -8
Jason has commented on it a number of times and I'm sure you have read them. Another comment you may have read on TrainOrders a couple years ago: "Kadee has produced a bundle of couplers, trucks, and wheels; but only five freight car types to date (over several decades). If we only want one car every 6 - 8 years, we'd be fine." And no engines either. And from what I hear out of the industry, even at the anemic rate Kadee develops new cars, their margin on those cars is almost non-existent. Basically they do them because they want to. For manufacturers that have to make a profit off cars and locos to survive, Kadee's business model would not work at all. We cannot realistically expect other manufacturers to bring production to the USA because Kadee does it.
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Post by riogrande on Apr 8, 2020 8:30:20 GMT -8
True Rob, we can't. But who said anything about being realistic? I'd like manufacturing to be brought back to the US as much as possible, or perhaps moved to friendlier countries, but it's already been explained the conditions in China (skilled workers, infrastructure, labor costs and so-on) are most favorable there. I've read of some products, such as a major bicycle maker have moved out and a few others. Some products can be more easily moved. Diversification seems logical so it would be good if model manufacturing could begin to be developed in an alternative country but it won't happen over night.
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Post by Paul Cutler III on Apr 8, 2020 8:58:09 GMT -8
stottman, Jason used to be a "starving artist" back when he started Rapido. He and his wife took a big risk creating the company about 17-18 years ago, and it's paid off for them. Many others have tried and have fallen by the wayside.
There is money to be made in model railroading. I don't believe Jason (or anyone else) has ever said otherwise. But one has to be very careful. The distance between success and failure is very small. You have to borrow a lot of money to make models (all money is spent before shipping from China: 50% on order, 50% on completion of production), and if you make some duds, or the factory closes unexpectedly, or there's a transportation problem, or someone beats you to market, you could lose everything because you still have to pay off those loans whether you sell any products or not. Jason has repeatedly talked about making good business decisions; that is not the same as crying poor mouth. Saying, "I can't make that...it won't sell enough," is not the same as, "I can't make that...I'm too broke."
BTW, just a reminder that Jason spent more money on 4 brand new wheelsets for his sleeper than he spent on buying the car in the first place. It's not like a bought a pristine working car. Owning a rail car is not a sign of luxurious wealth. I personally know at least five people here in Massachusetts that own/owned cabooses or passenger cars; not one of them is wealthy.
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Post by loco8107 on Apr 8, 2020 9:39:12 GMT -8
thunderhawk, China is not a monolith; I can separate the people from their government because they aren't the same. There, short enough for ya'? And last I checked, the Athearn BB SD40-2 required one to open a packet, dump out 6 handrails and 36 stanchions (making sure they are rust free), assemble them, put them on the model, glue or crimp each stanchion to the rail, then paint them to match the model. One also had to apply the eight air cylinders, four shock struts, four headlight lenses, and the couplers. That's over 50 parts that need to be applied. How is that not a kit? I never said it wasn't an easy kit to build, but it's still a kit. It even said it on the box. loco8107, Ha. All too true. But that was because Athearn, et al, would rarely introduce new products and would never change road numbers on ones they had. Yep and I forgot to mention their paint and lettering jobs were very suspect back then. Thankfully the RTR stuff pretty much ended that problem for them. It’s very easy today to make small, unnoticeable changes (if needed) to the RTR stuff.
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