Des Plaines Hobbies Test Shots of Intermodal Well Car

Ron hinted at these at the NASG convention when I was praising him for the release of the thrall gondolas. I'm excited that we might get to see images of these soon.

Test shot photo liberated from S Scale Resource Magazine:

This will be a 3-unit Maxi-Stack IV car.  The articulation couplings and details are being worked on now.  Made in USA, assembled and (I assume) decorated in China.  Summer 2019 anticipated delivery.  No pricing as of yet.

Rusty

THIS should make all the ES44 and ACe owners happy! 

I am suprised by the lack of feedback on this announcement.  

Ben

Rusty Traque posted:

Test shot photo liberated from S Scale Resource Magazine:

This will be a 3-unit Maxi-Stack IV car.  The articulation couplings and details are being worked on now.  Made in USA, assembled and (I assume) decorated in China.  Summer 2019 anticipated delivery.  No pricing as of yet.

Rusty

Really? Parts made in USA then Shipped, Painted, and Assembled in China? With the huge fees of shipping to and fro plus the minimal quality control and oversight in China only to return and go through customs with all the paperwork and EPA certs. is cheaper than just assembly in the USA? And this bypasses the newly stated tariffs as well?

NotInWI posted:

THIS should make all the ES44 and ACe owners happy! 

I am suprised by the lack of feedback on this announcement.  

Ben

There is some buzz about it on the FB S Scale group, but not as much as I expected. And on the S Scale IO group only one response. I plan to get 10 or so to run with my SD70's and ES44's, esp. on our club's layout at shows to demonstrate to audiences that S does offer products that you see on the real rails of today. I think they will be big sellers, and I'm sure Ron will be doing lots of promotion through various means between now and next summer.

American Models now tries to build and paint everything in the U.S.; but difficult, time-consuming work such as applying intricate paint masks, is done overseas because of the cost of labor is less. Molding parts is fairly automated. Assembling multiple parts and painting take a lot of delicate time. In the U.S. the increase in minimum wage now being demanded yearly means that a novice, no matter how clumsy or unreliable or unskilled, will get a wage that was once earned over time by people who worked for it. If my own company does not automate and displace workers, we will be driven out of business. Wages in China have also increased, but I suspect that there are levels that award greater earnings to skilled workers while allowing lower wage earners to prove themselves over time.

I have six of S Scale America's 40-ft intermodal cars, and I'll get at least one of the 3-car articulated versions. Now that Lionel has cancelled the Berkshire I had ordered, I may get more than one set of the Maxi-IV car sets to make an intermodal unit train.

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Rusty Traque posted:

Test shot photo liberated from S Scale Resource Magazine:

This will be a 3-unit Maxi-Stack IV car.  The articulation couplings and details are being worked on now.  Made in USA, assembled and (I assume) decorated in China.  Summer 2019 anticipated delivery.  No pricing as of yet.

Rusty

Really? Parts made in USA then Shipped, Painted, and Assembled in China? With the huge fees of shipping to and fro plus the minimal quality control and oversight in China only to return and go through customs with all the paperwork and EPA certs. is cheaper than just assembly in the USA? And this bypasses the newly stated tariffs as well?

Just as a F'instance...  Here's a screen capture from a Rapido Trains factory tour.  The worker is applying brake shoe castings to HO Scale trucks.  How many Millennial's do you know that would be willing to do this kind of work for 8 hours a day/5 days a week?

It's not like sitting at your workbench at home.  If it's anything like the manufacturer recently I retired from, the assemblers work on a rate: so X amount of assemblies per hour.  This determines their pay rate.  And we got one 15 minute break in the morning, one in the afternoon and a half hour for lunch.  And it's difficult to fill positions with responsible people for assembly work.

Rusty

How many Millennial's do you know that would be willing to do this kind of work for 8 hours a day/5 days a week?

For what would be regarded as an "unskilled" laborer with a low piece rate which would mean speed determines what you earn...............

Answer: none.