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Sara a local TV reporter, from Northumberland, PA  Talks with Joe the owner of Weaver Models, and Joe gives the viewers a first class tour of how they manufacture Weaver Models. This is an excellent made video and plant tour.

Published on You Tube, Feb. 24th, 2015 - A Public Video.

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You know, if Lionel was so interested in making trains in America, why didn't they purchase Weaver models instead of making the parts in China and assembling them here? Huh?

Oh yeah right, money!

No doubt Weaver shopped around to Lionel and MTH to purchase their production facility, but it was cheaper for them to do the work in China.

Actually, watching the video, I was surprised how archaic and labor intensive the process was to make a simple boxcar. 



No wonder the Chinese at a few bucks an hour are hired to do it.

So, more unemployed Americans due to overseas labor. I wish all of the former Weaver workers well.

 

 

 

 

Originally Posted by riki:

You know, if Lionel was so interested in making trains in America, why didn't they purchase Weaver models instead of making the parts in China and assembling them here? Huh?

Oh yeah right, money!

No doubt Weaver shopped around to Lionel and MTH to purchase their production facility, but it was cheaper for them to do the work in China.

Actually, watching the video, I was surprised how archaic and labor intensive the process was to make a simple boxcar. 

.................................................

No wonder the Chinese at a few bucks an hour are hired to do it.

So, more unemployed Americans due to overseas labor. I wish all of the former Weaver workers well.

 

 

 

 

Quite a stretch to assume Weaver would have been available for sale to Lionel back when Lionel tried to begin their most recent partial return to USA production, HUH! This was something like at least 2-3 years ago now. 

 

When are you exactly thinking Weaver was "shopped around" (and with "no doubt" - what do you think you know that we all do not?) to MTH and Lionel (and who is to say it hasn't been or won't be?  All we know officially is that Weaver as we know it today is closing).

 

Unnecessary angst/bashing of Lionel in this Weaver thread. 

 

While I'm not a huge Weaver customer, I'm very sorry to see them go (I've got I think 2 engines and maybe a dozen Weaver branded cars from various club offerings - but probably tons of other club items where Weaver did the painting for special issue Lionel cars). 

 

Joe is one of the nicest guys I have ever met while touring the dealer halls at York, and I very much enjoyed participating in the Weaver tour the couple times I went on it with OGR during York week.

 

Best of luck to the employees and wonderful wishes for Joe on his retirement!

 

Thanks for posting the video, trainroomgary!

 

-Dave

Last edited by Dave45681

Thanks for posting this Gary. More people need to watch this to get an idea of just how involved the production of trains really is.

 

There have been threads here by experts who claim it should be "easy" and "not too much trouble" for the train makers to "simply" change one model to another - as if requesting train models was akin to getting a customized burger at the drive thru window.

 

 

NO, it's not easy, nor inexpensive. And this is just the painting process... not altering the tooling and dies, which is even more complicated and costly!

 

The article in the OGR magazine years ago, A Visit to Sanda Kan, explained how cumbersome and expensive just the painting process is. This video illustrates the process in a way the magazine article could only leave readers imagining.

 

And again, this video addresses the painting and decorating processes ONLY.

 

Engineering a new model (or a minor change to an existing model) tooling and die making is another entirely different and far more involved and costly procedure.

 

Good find Gary and excellent video posting. The processes shown here are not just limited to Weaver. It's similar with the other train makers regardless of location.

Last edited by brianel_k-lineguy

Great video share, thanks! I've been happy with my few weaver products sad to see them go. One bit I found very interesting from the video was that they make only 5k to 8k models per year (is that cars)? Selling at $60 a car that only gets you about $500k per year. With eight employees and material costs its easy to see that margins aren't that high, it's not easy being a small niche mfg.

Thanks for the enjoyable video!

After viewing the process, I have to wonder how they would even make a profit.

Lots of non-automated handling and steps involved.

 

I can only hope someone like RMT could own this Co.

My concern is that one of the big 3 will purchase and jack up the prices making this product line unaffordable to most in the future.

Originally Posted by SIRT:

Thanks for the enjoyable video!

After viewing the process, I have to wonder how they would even make a profit.

Lots of non-automated handling and steps involved.

 

I can only hope someone like RMT could own this Co.

My concern is that one of the big 3 will purchase and jack up the prices making this product line unaffordable to most in the future.

RMT has all their stuff made in China, too!!

Last edited by riki
Originally Posted by njscott:

Great video share, thanks! I've been happy with my few weaver products sad to see them go. One bit I found very interesting from the video was that they make only 5k to 8k models per year (is that cars)? Selling at $60 a car that only gets you about $500k per year. With eight employees and material costs its easy to see that margins aren't that high, it's not easy being a small niche mfg.

I did the same mental math, and it can't be right.  There's no way they could support the business on $500k gross.  The number of units must include locomotives.  That said, it's still hard to imagine how they kept it going.

Years ago, there was a tour video of Weaver on PCN Tours, a PA documentary filmaking company through the state. I wonder if it is still available to view. It was very detailed, giving a step by step tutorial from design to finished product. 

I'll watch this video tomorrow, but that will be after my last visit to Northumberland, to bid farewell to everyone. Joe and his staff are first class!

Don

Originally Posted by trainroomgary:

Sara a local TV reporter, from Northumberland, PA  Talks with Joe the owner of Weaver Models, and Joe gives the viewers a first class tour of how they manufacture Weaver Models. This is an excellent made video and plant tour.

Published on You Tube, Feb. 24th, 2015 - A Public Video.

Thanks trainroomgary  for this great video!!!  Most informative and sad to see Weaver leave the train world.  Thanks to Joe for a job well done!!!

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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