Made in USA trains

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm new to the forum, and I wanted to ask if it was ok to talk about the manufacturing (or lack thereof) of trains in the USA.  I wanted to check if that was ok, as in another forum I was tossed for even mentioning it.  Thanks,  Joe

[BaltACD]

As long as you are talking about 1:1 scale trains you are OK here.

[CShaveRR]

What would you like to discuss?

Locomotives for U.S. railroads are built in the U.S.A., for the most part, though I believe much of EMD's production is still in Mexico.

Passenger cars are often built in the U.S.A., though the parent companies of the manufacturers are usually elsewhere.  Most companies are subject to legislative "Buy America" regulations.

Freight cars can come from the U.S.A., Canada, or Mexico.  The larger manufacturers, like Trinity Industries and Greenbrier, have plants in both the U.S. and Mexico; they generally concentrate on different cars from each other (for example, Greenbrier's double-stack wells are usually manufactured in Portland, Oregon, but other types of cars often come from their two Mexican plants).  Another large player in the market, National Steel Car, still uses its one plant in Hamilton, Ontario.  Not many tank cars are built in Mexico...most of Trinity Industries' tank-car production is U.S.-built, and I think American Railcar Industries and Union Tank Car Company are exclusively in the U.S.

[Andrew Falconer]

Which forum were you on?

Scale models of locomotives, passenger cars, and freight cars are produced in the USA, China, Korea, and many other countries.

Full size real railroad locomotives use to be exported. Now they build them in the nation they are being used.

[Firelock76]

We've got a lively and fun discussion going on about this on the Classic Toy Trains Forum, come on over and have a look!

[Andrew Falconer]

The Canadian National and Canadian Pacific used to buy their diesel-electric  locomotives from Canadian subsidiaries of GM-EMD, GE, and ALCo.