We all know that a large percent of our "US" made autos are made out of the states. What about our railroad equipment??

DBH

Less and less all the time. We are installing track parts by the ton that are made in China. It floors me that it is cheaper to make this stuff over there, add in the shipping halfway around the world and it still be cheaper than making it in the US. Wake up America. Our country is going to he!!. The only question at this point is what is our arrival time?

Some commuter rail contracts require a certain percentage of US content to qualify for public funding, but there are all sorts of ways that can be achieved, including purchase of the highest cost parts in the US, and doing the final assembly work in the US with components that were built elsewhere.

One of the reasons it is so slow and difficult recovering from the current recession (called a depression by non-US media lately) is that we have lost a major portion of the manufacturing industry that "added value" through taking raw materials and processing them all the way into finished products. At every stage of the manufacturing process where we lose work to foreign countries that also eliminates a lot of small business support for the large businesses, and a lot of jobs along with it. All the things and services the big businesses need, like machine tools, materials, maintenance services, etc. that never get provided because the bigger project is being done somewhere else in the world.

PC

I think a lot of our politicals knew this and this international trade agreement was signed, the north American treaty making trade to mexico easier.

I have heard stories of mexican workers walking in from their hot homes on their feet to their "Whirlpool" job doing design work, and being paid fraction what you would in the states, and then go home to their adobes.

For the Chinese, it may be unlikely to see any change as it is an autonomous government. With over a billion in population keeping motivational control on so many
actually needs a more solid control over your people. Sorry to say democracy may not work for the Chinese. Just a political humanitarian person collective viewpoint, even if we don't agree with it, but one thing my one college professor told me, "people are the same the world over, just governments are different."

But maybe one day the Chinese people will wake up and it will all turnabout, but in the end ultimate greed is the cause of all this. It would be years and years to see change in this, but so many Chinese products fly thru the store I work at, and its a big duh whu happenned. Point is as mentioned before on this forum, the US has turned from manufacturing to design origination and it ports manufacturing to china.

Returning the the original question, I think freight railroad rolling stock (locomotives and cars) are still made almost exclusively in the United States (and Canada). I think 100% of the freight diesel locomotives and almost all passenger diesel locomotives used in the U.S are made in North America, and there is even a healthy export business. In fact I am under the opinion that North American designed and manufactured mainline diesel-electrics are considered by many as the best in the world. It is one manufactured product where we export far more than we import, a product where we still are a world leader.

Is that not the case?

Pete Schmidt

We Americans have lost our desire to manufacture products. It is dirty, hard work, never ends and at every turn there are pitfalls that threaten to wipe you out. We Americans have also lost our tolerance for those who do manufacture products. Would you tolerate a noisy, smelly factory down the street the same way that your grandparents would? Most would say no, and when that happens manufacturing must move to a part of the world where the question is answered YES.

The price structure that you demand in the products you purchase cannot support the cost structure that you place on manufacturers with your desire for a highly regulated business environment. You have made your choice that you prefer foreign made products, so why come here to complain? You are getting what you asked for!

Aren't EMD's built in London, Ontario Canada only? That's the only plant listed in the January 2011 Trains magazine with the big article about EMD coming back to go head to head with GE. It does mention that EMD does export complete locos from there to all over the world and slightly South to the U.S.

Box cars have been made in Mexico, even for U.S. railroads. NHIR bough 50 near the end of the boxcar craze about 1979.

Before you call the end of American industry, wait and see what the inevitable rise in the cost of fuel will do to the status quo. You may not have to wait that long, either.

To tie things back to rail preservation, I personally see one of our roles in preservation as helping future (and often current) generations understand just how well things were done in an age not that long ago when domestic resources, technology and hard work accomplished great things.

It's important that someone preserves this knowledge because, in my opinion, our current era is an aberration made possible by ridiculously low fuel costs.

I grew up in a small town in East Central Illinois. "Hoopeston IL".
We had two canning factories, a can making company, FMC made food harvesting & canning equipment, John Deere had a small foundry, their were several electronic manufacturing plants. A plant that built organs and a couple of machine-welding shops to keep all these plants going. 99% of these jobs are GONE. The people of Hoopeston would love to have these jobs back as most of the people off ALL income classes worked in these plants. For a small town not on an interstate highway we shipped lot's of products out to the rest of the country & beyond. Sure we all complained about the smell during corn pack but we new that that smell was money in the pockets of our people.. Up to the late 1970's, there were plenty of jobs then the decline set in.
Sad but true.

DBH

Friends,

Please keep discussion to preservation. While once in a while something interesting might pull us off-topic non preservation threads are a distraction. If you have any questions please have a look at the guidelines.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27206

Tom Gears
Moderator

From a historical point of view, I recently learned that as far back as the 1970s, the Missouri Pacific was having freight cars built in Mexico. Evidently the MOPAC was a big player in the cross boarder interchange of cars and even had run-through power with NdeM.

Sorry Tom!

It occurs to me that everyone seems to be "up in arms" mentally about an increasing amount of foreign content in American manufacturing, yet these same folks seem to forget just how many locomotives and cars have left our docks for foreign shores--and still do, every year. Imagine if every nation looked down on imports, and kept cobbling together inferior home products rather than buying EMDs or GEs or Alcos......

Come to think of it, just how many export locos have we managed to repatriate from overseas for preservation/operation--if any?

I don't think most Americans want to see all imports stopped but when a whole manufactoring base is lost to imports, I believe that is a different story.
Why has little or no export railway equipment been brought back to the U.S for restoration & preservation? I would say there are three main reasons. 1. Money 2. Lack of interest 3. Refer to reason 1.