Moving production to Vietnam has been a trend for a few years now. HO and N has several products produced there. They are much more business friendly in many cases compared to China these days and the labor is cheaper. Like any new factory, there is a little learning curve.
I like the concept. I'm not huge on sounds, but as Engineer-Joe stated turning down the locomotive volume and having the actual train sound as a whole is pretty interesting. I wonder if the Lionel two rail wheel set work with this. It did not with my N5b Cabin, but that car may not be compatible with the Lionel conversion kit.
