Category: Made in USA

Kadee Isn’t Worried About Tariffs

This is a great post from Kadee. They really take pride in their independence. Very inspiring to see this kind of statement and leadership!

From their post:

Everyone knows that Kadee’s high-quality products are made in the USA. But what does that really mean? Here are some insights you might find interesting:

    • We do our own die casting and injection molding – we perform every step.
    • We start with pallets of raw materials – no pre-made components.
    • We design everything right here – our engineers dream it and build it.
    • We make our own dies and molds in-house – no outsourced manufacturing.
    • We even make our own springs – those are some tricky machines.
    • We make our own packaging – car boxes, printing, etc, etc.

They go on to state:

When we say Made in the USA, we mean it in the most literal sense. American workers, creating American products, to provide for American families. We’ve been doing this since day 1 for over 75 years.

Read the full post here:
https://www.kadee.com/blog/post/worried-about-tariffs-not-us

Labelle Woodworking is Going to Close in June 2026. Potentially Seeking a Buyer

LaBelle Woodworking posts on their homepage:

After having owned and operated LaBelle Woodworking since 2001, I have been in the model business longer than the original or subsequent owners, I have decided to call it a day. I will be closing the doors and turning out the lights on LaBelle after 25 years on June 1, 2026. I have posted this as a courtesy to you, my loyal and well received customers, so that there will be no future surprises.

If anyone is interested in getting into the Model Railroad business I am not adverse to selling LaBelle to someone who is interested in purchasing it. I will be entertaining serious offers for LaBelle and the all of the equipment used to make our kits. I would love to sell the business so that the names and products that we produce, such as LaBelle, Silver Streak, Mainline Models, Ye Olde Huff and Puff, OnTrack and Valley Car Shops don’t disappear from the modeling scene.

Please contact me at info@labellemodels.com for further information. If there is any further information about the future of LaBelle, I will keep you informed here on the website’s introductory page.

LaBelle Woodworking Company is one of the oldest companies still offering wooden model railroad kits. The Company dates back to 1947 and originated in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. The first review of our passenger cars appeared in Model Railroader in January of 1960. LaBelle moved from Oconomowoc to Watertown to Fairchild, all in Wisconsin. The company was then moved to Pendleton, Indiana. We continue producing kits today in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

https://www.labellemodels.com

Prototype Couplers moves into new building and can produce year round!

This excellent news! Alex is certainly showing leadership to the community here. 

From their Facebook page:

Quick and well needed update for everyone. I finally have finished construction on a 640sqft facility to strictly handle coupler production. I now have the capiblitiy to manufacture all year round. Production on products has resumed again after a 2 month hiatus to allow for time to be spend constructing and moving equipment. This new facility includes a manufacturing area, office, warehouse, and QC area. The hope is to be able to better serve the hobby during the colder winter months and provide more consitancy in our investment cast line of couplers.
On a side note, the hybrid line of couplers will be discontinued. Truthfully they were always weaker than the other coupler offering and had a larger failure rate, and they didn’t move all that fast either. We still have stock from our first casting runs in 2023.
We had them in our line-up to pay homage to Frank Sergent and his original couplers line but I believe we have reach a point where the our investment cast couplers are stronger and look just as good if not better than the hybrid line.
I also want to take this time to thank everyone who placed an order in the past 2 months for their patience while I was construting this facility. It was a true undertaking to building it with just 2 guys, and took up all my normal order processing time. I am working through the backlog with only a few outstanding orders remaining. I should be all caught up by Thanksgiving.
Thats all for this update. Next update should be on the long awaited release of the O scale Protocraft compatible shank couplers. I now have time to work through the last bit needed to get them casted and should have them out by the end of the year.
Cheers,
Alex

Kadee Shows Leadership and Gives Comfort to the Community

Kadee posted on their Facebook page:

To our friends in the hobby,
Many of you have asked about the Micro-Trains/Atlas news. We wish the Micro-Trains team and Atlas all the best during this transition, and our thoughts are with the employees in Talent.
For everyone wondering about Kadee: Nothing has changed, and nothing will. We remain completely independent, family-owned, and 100% manufactured in White City, Oregon — exactly as we have for decades.
We’re not selling.
We’re not moving production.
We’re not going anywhere.
Thank you for your continued support.
— The Kadee Team
White City, Oregon

Still here. Still American. Still Kadee.

 

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