Ask Mike ("Cricket") O’Rourke about the trials and tribulations of manufacturing locos in the US. This was a labor of love, not profit, or even break-even.
Several of us are building John Barrett coal-fired Atlantic kits from the UK. Mr. Barrett is having production problems because one of his employees passed away and another has health problems associated with advanced age. This is not an indication of vigorous capitalism at its finest. This is an example of some dedicated craftsmen who do what they do for love, not money.
When you spend your $4000 at Accucraft for a China-built D&RGW K-27 locomotive, I'll guess that $3000 of that stays in the US, either in import duties, taxes, salaries of American employees or profits. When you spend $7000 for an ASTER locomotive I'll guess that a whole lot less than $3000 stays in the US. Accucraft is US owned, their locomotives are US designed, mostly US developed, mostly US marketed, mostly US retailed and mostly US serviced. That probably isn't true of ASTER.
My Toyota was designed in Toyota's California design studio (Toyota doesn't sell most US models in Japan), built in Lexington, Kentucky by United Auto Workers from a mixture of US, Canadian and Japanese manufactured parts. Did I buy an imported car?
The only way to beat low-labor-cost manufacturers is to maximize automation and minimize labor costs so that shipping costs and delays from overseas negate the labor cost competitiveness of imports. Check out the "imported" tires on your car. The "French" Michelins on my "Japanese" Toyota are made in the US, just like the car. The reason that this works is that tires and cars have a very high production quantity, low profit per cubic foot and low profit per pound and the manufacture of which can be significantly automated. The problem with live steam locomotives in this context is that they are inherently low production quantity and are high cost per volume and high cost per pound, so the shipping cost advantage is significantly reduced.
So here's the dream/fantasy: Paperless CAD design, computer simulation for development (see Mike Martin's www.panyo.com), 3-D photolithography to check assembly, look, fit and feel, automatic electronic translation of CAD drawings to tool paths on machine tools: Numerically Controlled (NC) lathe, NC milling machine, NC precision grinder, NC laser cutter, NC sheet metal punch and NC sheet metal forming tools. Inert gas or vacuum furnace brazing, instead of torch to make boilers. Capital investment of a couple million bucks required. Then of course, you still need real (paid in Dollars) people to paint, assemble, test, decal, package, ship the product. Now the really difficult question: Can you do it with 200 unit-sized production runs and not go broke? Clearly ASTER is able to do it. The Japanese worker makes pretty a large fraction of the salary of a US worker.
Is it possible for a US manufacturer to compete with foreign manufacturers of live-steam locomotives? "Maybe" is my answer. I applaud anyone with a lot of capital and nerve who will try it and above all, anyone who will regard it as a labor of love, not profit.
================
Gary wrote:
Speaking of buying American, I have Chevy and Dodge van, but since our kids have graduated from college we are looking over roadsters and most are imports that catch our eye. Trains, hmmm, let's see, I buy from American hobby shops, but most is made in Germany, Japan, China or Switzerland. This is a tough hobby to buy American unless we buy a custom made item. I don't think any track is made here other than Sunset Valley http://www.svrronline.com/ and Laagas Creek http://www.llagastrack.com/. I didn't want aluminum and I discovered Sunset Valley after I had laid my track. H & R Trains track is French I believe and far more expensive than Aristo Craft's China made rail. If LGB can manufacture in Germany and compete world wide, why can't we in the USA?
If anyone has a list of actually made in good ol USA garden train products, I would be interested in keeping that list handy.
Speaking of smoking . . . I don't, but club members have suggested when I move to have a trestle fire. Some want to watch the trestle burn and others want me to sell or give away bents. I expect a fire would require fire permits and a pumper truck with engine idling otherwise I would burn down two or more trees.
Steaming & Sparking over Terror Trestle in Eugene, Oregon ~ Gary
http://www.angelfire.com/or/trainguy
http://community.webshots.com/user/raltzenthor
