1900 containers lost from ONE Apus - hopefully none from MTH or Lionel

Ouch. That often used phrase, "...it's on the water..." most definitely does not apply here.

I picked up a load of hazardous chemicals in NJ once, the plastic blue drums were all wet. I called the trucking company office and told them that it looks like the drums were leaking. They weren't leaking, they were thawing out. This load of chemicals was in a freezer container across the ocean, it had to be frozen when on the water. If the container fell off the ship, the chemical would stay frozen at the bottom of the ocean. This stuff was highly toxic, flammable, corrosive, breathing in fumes would result in death, burn your skin off if the liquid touched it.

"No problem. Fish out the trains, apply a little light oil, and you're good to go." - Louis Marx

IT'S NOT A BAD THING for MTH or Lionel IF all of the merchandise was insured!.

It's just bad for us!

Anything due in December most likely was in an earlier shipment.

@MartyE posted:

Anything due in December most likely was in an earlier shipment.

Marty:

I sure hope so!  My son an I are both waiting on engine orders.

Curt

Not knowing anything about this industry, can someone explain what this means for the company waiting on the shipment. I would assume that the cargo is cataloged and tracked and that the receiving company will know of the loss almost immediately.....true or untrue?

Peter

The tooling to the scale milk cars was on board! 

Jon

The short answer to Peter's question is that until the ship gets to port (in this case returns to port in a week or so) and they catalog and inspect the containers left, they will not know which containers are missing. Further, the shipping company may only know the name of the freight forwarder and not the actual name of the company that filled the containers or will receive the containers. Some of that might appear in customs documents, but a container of model trains may be listed as some "generic" contents for customs purposes. For example, a container of power tools may be described as that. It will not say whether the tools are drills, saws, sanders, etc. Additionally, there would often be tools with various product labels. Even if the container is listed as containing toy trains, since it would be shipped by a factory to a customs broker at the port, MTH/Lionel would  not know for sure what is missing.

The consignees Insurance Company is probably most interested since the money has likely transferred under a "letter of credit" once the items were shipped.

@MartyE posted:

Anything due in December most likely was in an earlier shipment.

My first (and optimistic) thought also.

I have at least four of those "December arrivals."

Well the roll must have been a good one!

@johnstrains posted:

My first (and optimistic) thought also.

I have at least four of those "December arrivals."

My "December arrivals" were initially "March arrivals".   I've given up on 2020 deliveries.

Some of those TEU's will or should have tracking units installed.The ones carrying hazardous will most likely have them. The real danger now is to other vessels that strike the half submerged ones.

Fishing vessels and small craft will not stand a chance if they strike one. The ones that wash up ashore will probably not contain anything use able by the salvors.

Gunny

Well the LCCA CHRISTMAS cars are not in those. They have arrived at the Business office and are being shipped to members ASAP.

If you have not ordered there is a small amount remaining for sale. Don't miss out on this car.

SAL GAMBINO/PRESIDENT ELECT.

@gunny posted:

Well the roll must have been a good one!

Gunny:

When I saw the photo first thing this morning; my first thought was the scene in A PERFECT STORM where a container ship (the Aeolis, I think) is struck by a rogue wave, rolls and dumps a bunch of containers over the side.

Curt

The heck with the train items, I am glad that by all accounts I've found there were only a couple minor injuries of the crew members on the ship

EscapeRocks: I was thinking just what you said when I read the breaking news.

It's time for trains to be Made in the U.S. of America again just like Lionel used to put on their products with pride when they were manufactured in Irvington, NJ.

@gunny posted:

Well the roll must have been a good one!

WOW! This might explain all the new units that show up with broken off parts!