About ten years ago, on an HO forum I was on, a few people were complaining about locomotives and rolling stock being manufactured in China. They thought someone (it’s always someone else) should start making HO locomotives in the the good old USA. After some mixed responses, yeah and nay, a model railroader who happened to own a US injection molding business, chimed in, and posted a spreadsheet showing what it would cost to manufacture in the US, and it worked out to be somewhere between $700-800 for a plastic locomotive, and that’s was with a meager profit margin, and the assumption that sales would be in the thousands. So that leaves dealing with China, and I’m thinking not many people would want to even bother given the limited 2-rail market, and with all the headaches in design and production, and with the current shipping mess due to the container shortage. I’m not even sure why people even bothered with those very limited brass runs of late. It doesn’t seam worthwhile for the quantity of locomotives being made, even at $1500 or whatever it is each. How much do those guys end up making an hour on that? I’m guessing its a labor of love, or a retirement job? Don’t get me wrong, I admire anyone that manufactures anything in 2rail and would support them if I could without paying for a divorce too. And, I actually don’t see a problem with the price, other than it obviously puts a lot of us out of the market, but nice things cost money. I think the only thing we can do is a create a market, where there is a financial incentive for Atlas, or Intermountain, or whomever, to make an effort in 2rail. Promoting this scale is the way to go about that. I’m a lifelong HO model railroader that switched (still work on a little HO too) to O scale 2r at 52. I don’t find it anymore expensive than HO, thanks to the Strasburg show, and occasionally eBay. Obviously, the lack of product which we are talking about here, is a bit frustrating, especially in the 1968-76 era I model. Club Shows, articles in MR and RMC, modular groups, blogs and YouTube, etc might get a lot more HO folks interested and create a demand?
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