Well WS now has a special place in my heart, anyway; in their recently released thank-you video, that was MY quote that they used, from Canada...love those guys!
Was so shocked to hear of the fire and so relieved to hear that things aren't nearly as bad as most assumed.
On the real estate issue, small towns and older buildings can be a bargain for a company looking to set up shop. Usually, owners are more than willing to sell rather than rent. Also, many smaller municipalities will cut property and payroll tax deals for new companies.
I am personally acquainted with several Digitrax officials who decided to move manufacturing operations from Atlanta suburb Norcross, GA to Panama City, FL. Bay County cut a very good deal with them as they were able to put many locals back to work at reasonable pay scales for both employee and corporation. I'll bet WS has a similar story to tell.
Rick Shivik
HO D&H Champlain Division
Conyers, GA
BroadwayLion What do you think buildings look like in rural America? The company has been there how long?Why would they replace a perfectly good building? We build nice modern buildings out here, but we do not tear town old buildings just for the fun of it.
What do you think buildings look like in rural America? The company has been there how long?Why would they replace a perfectly good building?
We build nice modern buildings out here, but we do not tear town old buildings just for the fun of it.
No?
Try looking up the history of the various "Urban Renewal" projects of the 60's and 70's.
I won't go into it in detail here, but the history of how the state did just that in Moodus, CT is a real eye-opener. Suffice it to say that what was once a bustling mill town is now just a couple of strip malls, a post office, a gas station, and some houses.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
8500HPGASTURBINEI was supprised that the building looked like something from asia. I thought WS would have a good looking setup, not work out a rundown looking alley building.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
"Man cry me a river. Graffen said nothing wrong. I was supprised that the building looked like something from asia. I thought WS would have a good looking setup, not work out a rundown looking alley building. I am glad nobody was hurt, and loosing any job stinks. I alsi think WS makes the best small dioramas and scenery detail parts."
The other "Rural" factor is that they are using all of their regular employees to help with the clearing and rebuilding. Workers in Rural America are versatile and can do any task required of them.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
This notice/letter was forwarded from another source and posted on the NYC Yahoo Group:
"Dear all,As you may have heard we have experienced a fire here at Woodland Scenics and there is good news and bad news. The good news is that no one was hurt during the fire or evacuation process. The bad news is that it took out a couple of our manufacturing buildings. However, and fortunately, there is more good news than bad.We encompass multiple buildings that are spread out all over the town of Linn Creek. We only lost two of those buildings and those two contained just a small portion of our manufacturing facilities. Our shipping department, warehouse and corporate offices were spared any damage, as were most of our manufacturing buildings, so it is business as usual.Thanks for all your concerns.Respectfully,Gale CousinsDirector of Sales & Customer ServiceWoodland Scenics"
Good news, no matter how you slice it!
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/
Over the weekend, my son and daughter-in-law drove down to Linn Creek and took some photos of the aftermath of the fire. Here are a front and side view.
Rich
Alton Junction
I think we are all pleased that WS seems to be recovering nicely, and it appears that they are up and running once again without anyone losing a job. No injuries, no job loss, this is a satisfactory result in what could have been a real disaster. I was also very impressed that WS had an evacuation plan in place that probably saved lives and injuries. A very nice US Company making great products.
Wayne
Modeling HO Freelance Logging Railroad.
8500HPGASTURBINE rrebell: TA462: Geared Steam: Graffen: Aren't there any company insurances in the US.....? I'm not sure what is humorous about a business losing everything and perhaps it's employees being without a job? Well at least Geared Steam and I can agree on something. That icon was just a stupid thing to post. It is just a smile and could be interpreted as don't come back on me if this was a stupid question as I have no idea under your culture what is standard practise, Not everyone is from here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man cry me a river. Graffen said nothing wrong. I was supprised that the building looked like something from asia. I thought WS would have a good looking setup, not work out a rundown looking alley building. I am glad nobody was hurt, and loosing any job stinks. I alsi think WS makes the best small dioramas and scenery detail parts. Mike
rrebell: TA462: Geared Steam: Graffen: Aren't there any company insurances in the US.....? I'm not sure what is humorous about a business losing everything and perhaps it's employees being without a job? Well at least Geared Steam and I can agree on something. That icon was just a stupid thing to post. It is just a smile and could be interpreted as don't come back on me if this was a stupid question as I have no idea under your culture what is standard practise, Not everyone is from here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TA462: Geared Steam: Graffen: Aren't there any company insurances in the US.....? I'm not sure what is humorous about a business losing everything and perhaps it's employees being without a job? Well at least Geared Steam and I can agree on something. That icon was just a stupid thing to post.
Geared Steam: Graffen: Aren't there any company insurances in the US.....? I'm not sure what is humorous about a business losing everything and perhaps it's employees being without a job?
Graffen: Aren't there any company insurances in the US.....?
Aren't there any company insurances in the US.....?
I'm not sure what is humorous about a business losing everything and perhaps it's employees being without a job?
Well at least Geared Steam and I can agree on something. That icon was just a stupid thing to post.
Man cry me a river. Graffen said nothing wrong. I was supprised that the building looked like something from asia. I thought WS would have a good looking setup, not work out a rundown looking alley building. I am glad nobody was hurt, and loosing any job stinks. I alsi think WS makes the best small dioramas and scenery detail parts.
Mike
Gentlemen, please take your sniping back and forth to a PM / conversation. It's not adding anything to the discussion.
Photos of Woodland Scenics fire.
TA462 Geared Steam: Graffen: Aren't there any company insurances in the US.....? I'm not sure what is humorous about a business losing everything and perhaps it's employees being without a job? Well at least Geared Steam and I can agree on something. That icon was just a stupid thing to post.
rrinker G Paine: Thats what I was thinking, the molds for the products made at that shop, also any design work, drawings, digital information, etc. Hope they had off-site backups of all that stuff. Being in the IT buysiness, THIS is where many small companies fall down. They might even have a backup system in place, but the resulting tape/etc never gets moved any further than the network manager's office. Fine if the server crashes, but not so good when the building burns down. --Randy
G Paine: Thats what I was thinking, the molds for the products made at that shop, also any design work, drawings, digital information, etc. Hope they had off-site backups of all that stuff.
Thats what I was thinking, the molds for the products made at that shop, also any design work, drawings, digital information, etc. Hope they had off-site backups of all that stuff.
Being in the IT buysiness, THIS is where many small companies fall down. They might even have a backup system in place, but the resulting tape/etc never gets moved any further than the network manager's office. Fine if the server crashes, but not so good when the building burns down.
--Randy
I'll second that Randy. I'm in IT myself. Maybe they at least had a fire safe.
richhotrainLooks like an exhaust motor fan caused the fire. http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/story.aspx?id=704635 Rich
Looks like an exhaust motor fan caused the fire.
http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/story.aspx?id=704635
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
Uh-oh
"Being misunderstood is the fate of all true geniuses"
EXPERIMENTATION TO BRING INNOVATION
http://community.webshots.com/album/288541251nntnEK?start=588
I wish my kitchen had automatic sprinkles...
I would imagine any personnel that are layed off temporarily, would qualify for unemployment insurance and I'm sure, it being such a small community there will be lots of local help.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
Does anyone know if the buildings had automatic sprinkles?
Peter Smith, Memphis
OK..we can take a few deep breaths and relax...
Don't need to get wrapped up around the axles here.
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Geared steam was probably offended by the laughing smiley icon at the end.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Geared Steam Graffen: Aren't there any company insurances in the US.....? I'm not sure what is humorous about a business losing everything and perhaps it's employees being without a job?
I checked their website an hour or so ago, and found a link to their Facebook page (open to anyone). It's about 4PM Eastern time now, so these comments were posted:
4 hours ago, i.e noon ESTThank you for your support and prayers. We are fortunate to have such caring and loyal customers. Because of our thorough safety procedures and incredible emergency support personnel, we were able to get everyone out safely. Although one of our buildings has been lost we are back at work today assessing what needs to be done and most operations are continuing as usual. Thank you again for your support and encouragement.
2 hours ago, 2PM ESTCheck another one off our list!! Our website is back up!!
http://www.facebook.com/WoodlandScenics
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
If there is really any good news when you have a fire it is the following.
When talking with an insurance adjuster after I had a fire he said not to worry he had never seen a building repaired that wasn't better than before the fire.
Our policy also inculded payments for loss of income.
Lets hope WS is as fortunate.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
So, all we have to fear is fear itself, and the reports of our demise were premature.
JBCA Perhaps someone has already said this, if so I apologize. It seems interesting that the fire was across the street from City Hall, indicating a centre of an urban area, yet they had to haul water to the scene. Surprising that there were no hydrants.
Perhaps someone has already said this, if so I apologize. It seems interesting that the fire was across the street from City Hall, indicating a centre of an urban area, yet they had to haul water to the scene. Surprising that there were no hydrants.
There were hydrants but the intensity of the fire quickly surpassed the capabilities of the small town's water shed. The shed was estimated to have an 80,000 gallon reserve capacity and the fire took an estimated 200,000 gallons to contain. Contain does not mean put out it simply means no longer a danger to other structures.
My heart goes out to those who have lost their jobs, hopefully WS has a living ECP in place to help the company rebuild and also for the employees as well. Alot of small businesses dont think about stuff like this until after they need one. Lets hope the managment is as good as their products.
Oh and 99% of my layout's scenic stuff has always been WS. The other 1% has been natural materials.
Massey
A Veteran, whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve, is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."
simon1966 Seen on another forum This has to be as good a news as can be expected under the circumstances.
Seen on another forum
This has to be as good a news as can be expected under the circumstances.
Simon, thanks for posting that info. That is great news and should keep everyone from panicking.
Simon, I was fearing the worst based on what was known, but I thank you for sharing that. I just called my LHS 50 km away and asked how they were stocked for W/S supplies. Turns out all they have is fall folliage stuff and some earth varieties, almost no turf that is green. I told them they might wish to slip in an order pronto.
Crandell
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
That town is smaller than Richardton!Makes our town look HUGE! (and we still only have one bar, one gas station, and one drug store.)