Made in USA

   Very well said!!!The same comments apply to: consumer electronics, clothing, shoes & other industries that have been outsourced overseas.

One thing... Buying previously made stuff by Lionel and others when they made trains here does nothing to improve the current manufacturing environment in the USA.  The profits made on those items have been absorbed years ago and the factories that made them are long gone.

Rusty

I read somewhere that some prewar Lionel dies were made in Italy, because the Italians were good at it and probably cheaper...

Kieffer

Sorry I disagree with you.  I think YOU are wrong.  I guess we all have our opinions.

Yes b.ut it would help the person selling those older trains.   Keep money in HIS pocket

If it was cheaper to manufacture in the USA then it would be done. Stop the fantasy of thinking that they will move back. Not going to happen in mine or yours life time. Manufacturing left the USA for a number of reasons and I'll give you a few, regulations, unions, environmentalists, EPA. So manufacturing moving back in large numbers is just a fantasy. 

Pittman motors are made in the USA.

QSI has their pc boards made in Canada.

There's a manufacturer in my town that does die-cast work for Chrysler including the actual parts production..that's where I learned to appreciate the complexity of the molds.

LGB was made in Nurnberg, Germany..Family bickering broke the company.

Piko is made in Germany.

Aster is made in Japan.

Part of The USA Trains lineup is made in Massachusetts.

Heartland Locomotive Works is made in the USA.

Mainline America is made in the USA.

NO reason why MTH & Lionel can not be made in the USA other than due to their own shortsightedness, if they did decide to move back here, they'd have no molds as the Chinese won't let them leave the country..The Chinese do protect their work & jobs...Something this country forgot about decades ago 

As would buying a new train from him...

Now, let's say I find a 1950's 736 of my dreams at my LHS:

Made in USA? Yes.

Warm fuzzy from buying it? Yes.

Helps the LHS owner? Yes.

Helps the local tax district? Maybe, depends.

Helps the old Lionel Corporation's bottom line? No.

Helps any surviving employees of the old Lionel Corporation? No.

Helps any surviving suppliers of the old Lionel Corproation? No.

Helps the manufacturing tax base of New Jersey? No.

Helps the Lionel LLC bottom line? No.

Helps any current Lionel LLC employees or contactors, both foreign and domestic? No.

Helps any current Lionel LLC suppliers? No. (Remember, the folks at Lionel LLC have to get their office supplies from somewhere, pay rent and utility bills for the offices.)

Helps the state of New York tax base? No.

Rusty

Increases demand for US Made Trains?  Yes.

Is the supply of US Made Trains relatively fixed?  Yes.

Will the supply adjust (eventually) to meet market demands?  Yes.

Will the supply adjustment require new jobs in the US?  Yes. 

If enough people buy trains, and if enough only buy US made trains, someone will start making trains in the US.  Lots of big "ifs".... but there's still a little bit of logic in buying only US made products if you want to support US manufacturing (or, in this case, support the idea of bringing manufacturing back to the US). 

There are plenty of examples where a "Buy American" market demand has kept (some) manufacturing in the US:  Cars, Guitars, American Flags, etc.  Yes, you can find lots of "made in China" examples of all of these, but there's a (still) substantial portion of the market that's willing to pay a premium to have a "made in the US" version....

In the case of toy trains, in reality I think most of us realize it's probably a lost cause... but the "likely outcome" shouldn't dissuade people from taking action in line with their personal principles. 

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Manufacturing can come back if we take care of a few things. Get rid of unions, EPA, dept. of labor, environmental rules. Are we willing to do this?  I don't think so. Are you willing to work for $8.00 per hour to assemble our trains, I don't think so. 

Mike wolf said that prices would increase a minimum 30 percent if production came back to the USA, are you willing to pay that, I think not. So please stop the fantasy of thinking it is coming back to the USA in yours or my life time. 

I'll add some more "IF's" for you... 

IF a US manufacturer makes a model of train of what I want, Ill buy it. 

IF they don't and someone else makes it, they will get my business.

It's that simple.

Rusty

Seeing the big picture has nothing to with it. My opinions on our favorite train mfgs. could be the same for any mfg. that has moved overseas. Yes the USA is on the losing end of the trade imbalance but whose fault is it. We want cheap prices, is that wrong?  Mfgs. and workers have to learn to compete if we ever bring back mfg. to the USA. There are just too many restrictions for mfg. to ever come back unless we change our policy's. Also what is going on with the coal industry, the fed govt. and environmentalist is trying to shut down all coal fired plants. Coal mines closing, laid off workers, hello, we are doing it to ourselves.

Sorry, but I gotta disagree.  Its not unions, the EPA, OSHA, or otherwise.  It is wages.  Chinese workers in these types of assembly activities get paid about $1 an hour.  Folks can blame the government and unions all they want, but the simple facts are that wages in Asia are only a fraction of what they are in the U.S

For high tech assembly, American workers and plants are among the most effecient in the world.  For manufacturing that is labor intensive, there really is no competition with low cost countries like China.

Jim

You are showing your politics when you say unions, regulations and enviromentilists were part of the reason companies left.  I think you left off CORPORATE GREED.