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Awesome! Could not be clearer!
New statement from Atlas on their Facebook.
Glad to see them bring some clarity. From what I had understood Vietnam has been the country taking in a lot of the low paid skilled assembly labor that we (and increasingly China) cant do by hand due to shrinking working age populations, expanded educational opportunities, and high end (in complexity and price) production. I’ve worked in plants that ranged from hand feeding and stacking machines, continuous run machines where operators primarily monitor and set up runs and connect material to run through the line, and am currently working for a company doing relatively low run high complexity assembly of widgets for machinery. The “no one wants to work” narrative for our country really misses the mark on several key things, several of which also affect China and are why assembly of items like model trains and vacuums:- 1) Wage competition: where I am in the US has an insane amount of manufacturing. In my county we build everything from BMWs to F16s, plastic packaging film to industrial components, plastic vinyl components, garden hoses, and so many other suppliers and vendors supporting BMW, Lockheed Martin, and others that the workforce is stretched thin. Super thin. So thin that Walmart and fast food places pay at a rate reasonably close enough that people would rather go work those jobs than have the added demands of production for only a couple dollars an hour more (remember, it doesn’t matter what you would do, it only matters on what is important to each individual). China has slightly different pressures in that they have been rapidly spinning up a workforce for complex manufacturing and assembly, and even with the recent influx of robots for things like car assembly they still have more workers moving into those knowledge roles than repetitively putting trucks and couplers on a freight car.- 2) birth rates are going down and have been for a while. While some Southeast Asian countries are at the edge of a literal cliff, the US is experiencing this as well. Something like the next 15 or 18 or so high school classes will collectively be smaller and smaller nationally every year, which is pressuring colleges and universities because they don’t have enough of a student pool to fill seats. This has already started leading to colleges closing, as Limestone college did locally and many other small liberal arts schools are already doing. China, while not at a cliff, is experiencing the same due to their one child policy. There simply aren’t the people to backfill the roles like there once was, and that’s only going to get worse. Keep in mind we are already dealing with a shrunk labor pool in the US from the early retirements and yes, deaths, during COVID. -3) there are also just emerging countries where the labor pool is ready to learn a skill and the governments are opening up people getting income. Much like the US had booming factories and many returning workers after WW2 and China opening up its economy in the 90’s, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries are looking to gain value producing work to grow their societal classes. And much as is happening there now, the next cycle will be Africa. After that who knows.The key thing is, just like my signature says, American manufacturing did not die. The menial jobs which we had grown from went elsewhere, and we started producing higher value things. We still make everything from adhesives to composites for use in making other machinery, widgets, and vehicles, and these have and will continue to become more high tech and automated as technology advances (although I’m not convinced that we will see a rapid sea change in only a couple years unless humanoid robots get *much* cheaper at scale than they are now). But a company like Micro-trains, I’m sorry to say, did not stand a chance. Especially where they were located. Part of what makes my area so ripe for manufacturing is the fact we have two great deep water ports only a couple hours away (Charleston and Savannah), as well as a massive inland port facility served by Norfolk Southern where intermodal comes in from the west coast. Medford is not in a good spot for getting product in or out. Same reason a lot of manufacturing has left the hills of the Blue Ridge around here to move north, to move to the Piedmont, or to move overseas. Having your workforce leave because of wildfires and having to compete with larger companies also doesn’t work well because you can’t match pay and benefits. And finally, if your owners are looking to retire, because of those reasons above, you’re highly unlikely to find another owner who can operate the same way with the same investments, and especially if it requires new investments.What I’m especially interested to see now is how Micro trains in Vietnam does. If this goes well I suspect we will see more and more manufacturers move there as this Microtrains move expands the workforce from just doing injection molded kits to actually assembling freight cars.
There is a way to shave off 6" from the MTL PS-1 heights either 40' or 50' w/o having to trim bolsters, use lower riding truck, etc. The car roof and sill heights then ride at the same height as true scale PS-1s like Atlas. Markings, paint job, road paint scheme all untouched. The only thing is there's no way to shrink the MTL car ends to reduce the space between the ribs, but since nobody really notices the end ribs -- but they do a car 6" higher than the same type car next to it -- that's a minor point.
I wish I could gift you a lifetime Railwire Plaid membership for this.
I can no longer seem to find this item on the MTL websitehttps://modeltrainstuff.com/products/preorder-micro-trains-n-02500366-50-rib-side-boxcar-evaluation-car-canadian-pacific-kansas-city-63-35-96
Like this, where lower body shell hacked away, and roofwalk thinned (silver-roofed Atlas on left, modified MT on right). I also don't think the end differences are noticeable. Both have plus and minuses in how they handle detail.
\But a company like Micro-trains, I’m sorry to say, did not stand a chance. Especially where they were located. Part of what makes my area so ripe for manufacturing is the fact we have two great deep water ports only a couple hours away (Charleston and Savannah), as well as a massive inland port facility served by Norfolk Southern where intermodal comes in from the west coast. Medford is not in a good spot for getting product in or out.
I gotta be honest, I feel a tiny tinge of validation. Atlas decided not to be shady. (after they got called out on it, but I'll shut up and take the dub...)
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Topic: Atlas acquires Microtrains (Read 25236 times)
