Yep! IP (from whatever country) that gets to China stays in China! It's no surprise and companies that know this still go there for their manufacturing.
Here's something I don't understand: there are four N-scale roadbed tracks commonly available in the U.S. - Bachmann, Atlas, Kato, and Tomix. Atlas and Bachmann are made in China while Kato and Tomix are made in Japan. If it's so cheap to have stuff made in China, why is it that, at least from what I've seen, Kato and Tomix track are for the most part less expensive (sometimes significantly so) than either Atlas or Bchmann?
CSX Robert, That is a good question on the nice low cost for Japanese track. My guess is the that the Japanese love and buy a lot of N-scale trains and so exporting to the USA is just a side benefit which is really good for us. It is interesting to me that NA Kato items like the Big Boy sell well in Japan. The Chinese have a small home market, so are reliant on exports. So, we should thank our lucky stars that we have high quality, reasonably priced vendors in Japan. - Tonkphilip [QUOTE="CSX Robert, post: If it's so cheap to have stuff made in China, why is it that, at least from what I've seen, Kato and Tomix track are for the most part less expensive (sometimes significantly so) than either Atlas or Bchmann?[/QUOTE]
Higher sales volume? Also, while I'm not certain about Tomix, at least Unitrack has a vastly superior rail joiner that reliably conducts power from piece to piece. There's more to Unitrack than just the attached roadbed. Kato and/or Tomix offer a far greater variety of track pieces (lengths, curve radii, switches & crossovers, double-track, bridges, etc.) This variety was developed over time, but fast enough to establish and drive the market. It's much harder for newcomers (to the unified-roadbed/track market) to establish their market share in the presence of existing market leaders.
Big Jake, I agree on The Unitrak variety. Kato handed out a free and wonderfully detailed Unitrak catalog at the Costa Mesa train show. It includes complex diagrams for all the options and colored photos. - Tonkphilip “Big Jake Quote:There's more to Unitrack than just the attached roadbed. Kato and/or Tomix offer a far greater variety of track pieces (lengths, curve radii, switches & crossovers, double-track, bridges, etc.)” This variety was developed over time, but fast enough to establish and drive the market. It's much harder for newcomers (to the unified-roadbed/track market) to establish their market share in the presence of existing market leaders.[/QUOTE]”
From personal experience with manufacturing both in the USA and China for the deLuxe innovations version one, we had a difficult time establishing a baseline quality level, but once established, they did continue to meet it. However, we lost tooling like you would not believe when Sanda Kan (owners of Bachmann) shut off all 'other companies'. There was no retrieving of the tooling for many of our products. All of our tooling was made in the USA. The products we chose to have produced in China were sent to China. When I sold the company, the new owners had some difficulties and the tooling forever was gone. I learned a lot from Paul at Atlas about dealing with the Chinese, and he was invariably correct on how to manage them. The biggest variable is the size of our industry as compared ot the size of ther things that are run in their factory. When Scalectrix wants to produce 25000 1/32 scale Porsche 935 Kremer Editions having a run of 300 Illinois Central boxcars takes a huge back seat. It makes schedule slips like happens to a lot of US 'manufacturers' common. We survived by having both USA production and sent our growth potential to China. This is because we could not find enough workers to actually populate all of our shop in Burbank. Frankly, we couldn't pay enough to attract people away from easier work. When the new owners took over, they depended entirely on China, and you know what happened. Viet Nam is the next China. How long until the same thing happens there, we do not know. Will tariffs affect our industry? Maybe, too early to tell if it will or how long it will last. Lots of uncertainty in the market.
- Plastic wheels. There are enough metal wheel options out there. - Not adding weight to rolling stock (passenger and freight). Don’t be that guy at a train show constantly re-railing your equipment. - Kato. I actually love Kato but please stop mothballing stuff for 15 years+ driving the the aftermarket prices through the roof. Amtrak passenger cars and SD45’s I’m looking at you.
Don't get me started on this as I have previously made comments about why a $2.25 Atlas 90 ton hopper in 1982 now costs almost $30.00. Meanwhile, I bought 2 Kato SD 40-2's and two Kato SD 70m's for less than $100.00 each. These apparently were reruns but I never saw any announcements about them. I believe the MSRP is $125 for each. That is not very much different than 25-30 years ago. This is what happens when you lose control of your production facilities. Atlas and everybody else have to buy time in the queue and are allotted just so much time. They may even have to bid for time. As a result, production runs are small and the fixed costs drive the prices up. Back in the premillennial days a Kato engine cost more than an Atlas. Now the opposite is true. We were told that going to China would reduce costs. That hasn't worked out at all and the loss of tooling on top should be enough for Atlas and everyone else to get the Hades out of China. I don't want to get political about this but while I am not a fan of Trump I like the Communists even less. I would not mind a tariff of 100% on everything coming from China. Here's a thought, why not kill two birds with one stone? Invest in factories in Central America give people work in their own countries and solve the illegal immigration situation. These people are good workers (just ask any landscape contractor) and their countries have a significant lower cost of living. People would rather stay in a locale they know as home where they have family and can speak the language than go to a foreign country and be an outcast.
I don't know how the NA markets work, but in Japanese markets Kato (And TomyTec/Tomix. And Greennmax.) are famous for very, very short shelf lives. Many times I'll see a release and think "that would be fun", and within months it's sold out and discontinued. Trying to buy those items here is a challenge on a good day if it's more than say 6mos since release. I've had a time tracking down everything I've wanted. If not for that online auction site I love to hate, I probably couldn't have. That said, Kato's detail and quality is something I will (and HAVE!) pay through the nose to get over cheaper brands for the same prototypes. So even if it's more expensive, I'm looking for it in Kato first, and there are brands that I would not buy at all for the same reasons. I won't say which of those brands fits this conversation, but I like Atlas just fine lol
