Originally published at: Tariffs could mean the end of the line for the model railroad industry - FreightWaves
The model railroad industry relies on Asia-sourced parts and pieces for success and tariffs could spell disaster for this niche hobby.
In the garden Railroad area we have already taken a huge hit when Covid happened. Now it could well finish the market, here in Australia, as the Models are as you say made in China, shipped to the US, and then in our case then imported to Australia, often by ourselves direct. [Also the Sound Cards].
Already buying track and Switches/Points from the UK.
Take care
Riverglades Garden Railway
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The model train hobby’s history has been a reflection of American consumer product manufacturing since WW2. Pioneers in mass-produced model trains, particularly Athearn and Model Die Casting, were the pet projects of their founders, usually tool and die men, who rode the Post War wave of prosperity and piggybacked their hobby businesses on other consumer product lines. The genius of Uncle Irv Athearn, for instance, was creating a mass-produced product that a school boy could afford with his paper route money or allowance: the $1.98 screw-together kit in a box. The second and third generation which inherited Athearn and other similar hobby companies did not have the same passion as the founders, and spun them off to giant hobby importers such as Horizon. In short order the tooling was shipped from southern California to China. And that was the end of those California based manufacturing jobs. The so-called City of Industry became a shell of its former self, and the ubiquitous blue boxes are long gone.
As the author points out, nearly the entirety of the model train industry in its mass produced form is outsourced to China. Most of the rest of the hobby are garage-based businesses, and that is probably the majority, but they depend upon the mass production importers. For better or for worse, these are the checkbook maufacturers upon which the hobby now depends.
The history of outsourcing ready-to-run trains has itself been spotty. Lionel learned decades ago about the folly of outsourcing production to Mexico when their tooling was smashed in a labor dispute. The lion’s share of the check book manufacturers lost their tooling as well with the Sandicon (sp?) debacle in China, only to find Kader eventually aquirung the assets of Sandicon. And the checkbook men got left holding the bag. No tooling and no product.
So if one were to place blame for this sad state of affairs, fingers could readily be pointed at NAFTA, “most favored nation status” for the crony captalist regimes, the corporatization of the hobby, the labor-of-love nature of most hobby businesses, and changing demographics. The days of paper routes are gone, and so are the entry level blue boxes. And not many 15 year olds can afford $250-350 for their next plastic diesel after spending the week working part-time at Chick-fil-A. They’d rather spend their paycheck on something electronic.
Would that another genius like Irv Athearn might rise up. And that some of us grown-ups might put our capital towards domestic manufacturing, OSHA and the Feds be damned. A country that does not own its own manufacturing base is a country headed for the dustbin of history.
And yes, I am invested in the hobby industry, one of those garage-based manufacturers making craftsman kits . . . because I still love model trains.
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The hobby has been on the downhill grade since the advent of the millennial generation and its approach to mininimizm, ask any consignment store owner and they can provide a larger picture. We can’t let this most recent and likely temporary environment blamed on tariffs be the excuse given for this setback. Those of us already invested in model railroading have the resiliency to get through whatever Is around the corner. In the meantime there is always an opportunity to work on our scenery.
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And whos responible for the the high labor and compliance costs in the U.S.A. Democrats solely and exclusively. One has to have been alive long enough to see it. Unfortunately this happend over the course of decades. And itll take decades to fix it. The U.S. doesn’t have that long.
Low volume, specialized… It’s almost like… Something that should be manufactured in America or Canada…
Accurail makes their entire product line of HO scale cars and accessories at their plant in Elburn, Illinois. They pride themselves on being 100% made in the USA.
Unfortunately, far too many model railroad manufacturers exited the US market in the 1980’s or thereabouts. I felt that was a huge mistake then and that decision us now biting them. In any comnunist country, the US company really does not own the tool & die equipment and the equipment can be confiscated by the CCP at any time. I had heard about this problem decades ago.
How does AccuRail make it happen? Or similar type companies? It might be time to return to easy to assemble kits.
Modelers can go to train shows and purchase older models and get detail parts. I have been detailing my old Athearn Blue Box models and Atlas models. Perhaps Japan should be back in play again.
The cheap labor in China offered manufacturers a way to make a lot of money. If they had stayed out of communist countries, this might not have been a problem.
Now, the problem has to be corrected!
I’m so tired of hearing this excuse that we can’t build this stuff here just like one of the prior posters stated we had all the tooling here the issue here is greed, not ability. Everyone is looking for the box instead of caring about the passion of the hobby and now we’re paying the price of this tariffs or not we as a superpower that is perfectly capable of making this stuff like we did in California 34 years ago we can reinstall and rebuild this. It’s going to take time but it’s something we can do. It’s gonna have to take the passion of a few just like it did back after World War II