It's been a very long road to get this model to market.
In 2010, we brought this project to a small Korean builder in Qingdao. He had made our UP FEF, VGN 2-10-10-2 and wanted to make more models for us. He was in the process of moving his operation to the Philippines. We agreed to continue production with him, and he started up in the Philippines in 2012. The Erie Berkshires were under design with the help of Sam Shumaker. So there should be no doubts about the detail accuracy of this model. He followed up with all the drawing corrections and sample corrections in 2012.
In 2014 his first project came out of the Philippines, the PRR L-1. This guy is the only builder I have ever worked with where I can't find problems during inspection. Everything is taken care of before I get there. I was impressed with his ability and I gave him the go ahead to make the Erie S3/S4s. That means, you give him 30% of the money up front to begin. We had good meetings and then I waited for a production sample. The sample deadline of April 2014 came and went. Then the emails went unanswered, the Skype messages unanswered. His partner in the Philippines, Boo Rim, a reputable builder from Korea, offered to broker a deal. He helped order and transport the wheels and frames, a significant purchase from Korea to the Philippines factory. Still no sample.
Finally in December of 2014 we agreed to stop production in the Philippines and transport the project to our main builder in Qingdao China. Well, that is easier said than done. We had to first ask Boo Rim to import them into Korea, which he agreed, and then had to use a freight broker to send them to China. But at the same time, our relationship with our main factory in China fell apart, and the mostly finished Berkshires remained in storage for over 10 months.
Once our old factory finished our final project in December 2015, several key employees left and formed their own factory in the same town. Once it was all legal and we had our contracts signed, we moved the Berks to this location and it only took them 4 weeks to finish these models. They were inspected and Air Shipped home. FINALLY. See our production sample video.
http://3rdrail.com/instock.html#ERIES4
We only made 15 3R S3s, and 35 3R S4s. Surprisingly we still have a few available since it has been delayed for so long. Enjoy the video and photos. Buy one if you are impressed. We have 2 Rail available too.
Regards,
Scott Mann
