InterMountain factory news update

[GhengisKong]

I wouldn’t hold your breath on a quick turnaround. How likely is it that these factories are just sitting around with all kinds of excess capacity. My hobby spending has all but dried up and I have lost all interest in the hobby. I think this will be years to resolve and return to normal.

I don't find it too hard to believe. There are several hundred million workers ready to take jobs over there, I'm sure. They have the worker capacity to make quick turnarounds.

[jpwisc]

Plus they had all the workers from the factory that closed. They are all trained and ready to go.

[flight2000]

Plus they had all the workers from the factory that closed. They are all trained and ready to go.

That's assuming the factory was in the same city or do we know that it is already?  China's not exactly the size of Rhode Island...  

Brian

[jpwisc]

That's assuming the factory was in the same city or do we know that it is already?  China's not exactly the size of Rhode Island...  

Brian

The majority of the model train factories are in the same province. Workers also live in dorms at the factories, so it really doesn’t matter where the factories are, as the workers will commute in and they stay for the working season.

[Maletrain]

...the workers will commute in and they stay for the working season,

And we wonder why there are no such factories in the U.S.?!

[OldEastRR]

We had that here, once upon a time. People lived in housing fairly close to where they worked or on a short bus/trolley ride. when I was a kid my dad walked to work every day, about 1,5 miles one way. I could walk to church, school, library branch, public playground and candy store; my mom could easily walk to the grocery, fruit stand, butcher shop, bank, movie theatre. I walked to all my friend's houses. We only used a car on weekends to visit family "in the country".
Now it seems an amazing existence like a fantasy.

[SandyEggoJake]

Great news.  And with it, perhaps there is hope for Intermountain to release an N scale version of their excellent HO Caswell gons.  I'd buy the GA-x to the -12 by the dozen. 

https://sfrhms.org/Reviews/HO/Freight/ImrCas/Index.htm

[Mark5]

We had that here, once upon a time. People lived in housing fairly close to where they worked or on a short bus/trolley ride. when I was a kid my dad walked to work every day, about 1,5 miles one way. I could walk to church, school, library branch, public playground and candy store; my mom could easily walk to the grocery, fruit stand, butcher shop, bank, movie theatre. I walked to all my friend's houses. We only used a car on weekends to visit family "in the country".
Now it seems an amazing existence like a fantasy.

"Next stop Willoughby! Willoughby!" 

[peteski]

"Next stop Willoughby! Willoughby!" 

Willoughby?  There is no Willoughby on this Railwire route! 

[Cajonpassfan]

Great news.  And with it, perhaps there is hope for Intermountain to release in N scale of their excellent HO Caswell gons.  I'd buy the GA-x to the -12 by the dozen. 

https://sfrhms.org/Reviews/HO/Freight/ImrCas/Index.htm

Yeah, me too, but I think it's been talked about and dismissed. I'd settle for the ATSF original caboose they announced many years ago and never produced...
Otto K.

[Maletrain]

We had that here, once upon a time. People lived in housing fairly close to where they worked or on a short bus/trolley ride. when I was a kid my dad walked to work every day, about 1,5 miles one way. I could walk to church, school, library branch, public playground and candy store; my mom could easily walk to the grocery, fruit stand, butcher shop, bank, movie theatre. I walked to all my friend's houses. We only used a car on weekends to visit family "in the country".
Now it seems an amazing existence like a fantasy.

There is a big difference between people living in homes close to where they work and people moving into dormitories for an entire "season" at factories that are located far from where they normally live (and their families probably stay).  I just don't see U.S. citizens dong that in the U.S., these days, especially for low wage jobs.  We used to get Mexican labor with green cards doing that for seasonal jobs like picking crabs, but the Feds have messed that up, now, too.

[peteski]

We used to get Mexican labor with green cards doing that for seasonal jobs like picking crabs, but the Feds have messed that up, now, too.

If they had Green Cards then they were legal (resident alien status) individuals living in this country.  They could work legally, just like citizens.

[muktown128]

There is a big difference between people living in homes close to where they work and people moving into dormitories for an entire "season" at factories that are located far from where they normally live (and their families probably stay).  I just don't see U.S. citizens dong that in the U.S., these days, especially for low wage jobs. 

Isn't this sort of what the work camps in the North Dakota oil fields are?

[nkalanaga]

Yes, but those are temporary jobs, even if some last for months or years, and in most cases there is nowhere else TO live, as there are no motels, or sometimes towns, with easy commuting distance.  Construction camps like that have always been a part of the American workplace. 

I'm with the others who say that Americans are unlikely to accept spending most of the year in a dormitory, far from home, in order to have a job.

[nickelplate759]

I just returned from a business trip to China.  I did indeed notice that quite a few factories, even modest sized ones,  had dormitories - often in or attached to or part of the same building.  What surprised me is that major construction sites also had dormitories (obviously temporary structures) - even in the middle of large cities.   That suggests to me that either a significant portion of the construction labor force isn't local, or that the commute from wherever construction workers live to downtown building sites is so bad that they need to keep them close.

I wasn't visiting factories, though, I was visiting software companies.  Their employees do not live in dorms.

In the 19th century and early 20th century it wasn't uncommon in the US for large industrial enterprises to provide nearby housing for employees and their families, even in cities (e.g. 19th century textile mills in New England) - not necessarily dorms, but small houses or row houses.