Any sightings or are they on a ship awaiting dock space?
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I talked to Scott Saturday and the shipment is awaiting dock space. It is anyone's guess how long that will take but they are getting much closer to delivery!
@GG1 4877 posted:I talked to Scott Saturday and the shipment is awaiting dock space. It is anyone's guess how long that will take but they are getting much closer to delivery!
Nuts what's going on these days at the ports and everywhere else.
@GG1 4877 posted:I talked to Scott Saturday and the shipment is awaiting dock space. It is anyone's guess how long that will take but they are getting much closer to delivery!
A week or two especially if its Long Beach, CA!
Looks like 40 boats waiting outside long beach. 30 or so are container ships. Could be a few weeks...
@biscuitag97 posted:Looks like 40 boats waiting outside long beach. 30 or so are container ships. Could be a few weeks...
Going to be a LOT longer than "a few weeks". Some container ships have been sitting off the coast for more than 30 days, because the ports on the west coast are so massively backed up, mainly due to shortages of all the various working crafts, even truck drivers.
@Hot Water posted:Going to be a LOT longer than "a few weeks". Some container ships have been sitting off the coast for more than 30 days, because the ports on the west coast are so massively backed up, mainly due to shortages of all the various working crafts, even truck drivers.
Time for shippers to start using east coast ports that are expanding and are cheaper than west coast ports.
@superwarp1 posted:Time for shippers to start using east coast ports that are expanding and are cheaper than west coast ports.
Except for the added transit time, fuel costs and Panama Canal fees.
Rusty
@Rusty Traque posted:Except for the added transit time, fuel costs and Panama Canal fees.
Rusty
How much is it costing to sit off shore? Not including the cost of west coast ports and high wage Union labor.
@superwarp1 posted:How much is it costing to sit off shore? Not including the cost of west coast ports and high wage Union labor.
I'm no maritime expert, but if it was worth it, the shipping companies would be doing it.
Rusty
Fyi, Scott Mann sent out an e-mail today explaining the delay to all his customers on the GP7/9 project plus an update on the Amfleet and Viewliner cars.
Don't know the cost of ocean shipping, however my buddy worked in a blast fce steel complex that got ore delivered by Lake Ore boat. I think he said it was a 1000 dollars an hour if they delayed the boat.
@superwarp1 posted:Time for shippers to start using east coast ports that are expanding and are cheaper than west coast ports.
Interesting thought. I was not aware that all the east coast ports were unaffected by the pandemic, and thus have no labor issues.
@Hot Water posted:Interesting thought. I was not aware that all the east coast ports were unaffected by the pandemic, and thus have no labor issues.
Haven't read about any issues, there could be, have you read anything? I am reading about tons on the west coast
It’d be nice to see some pictures 
@SANTIAGOP23 posted:It’d be nice to see some pictures
Pictures of what? The container ship waiting for port space and time? I'd rather wait until the locomotives actually ship and see pictures of them.
Our Freight Forwarder keeps us well informed. In their opinion they have never seen such a disruption in shipping in the last 30 years. I asked if there was any way to redirect to Seattle and truck things in, but sadly any ships that go to Ports north of San Francisco go through LA first, and that's the bottleneck. Now there are bidding wars going on for getting your container on the next vessel. Published rates for a 20 footer are $3750. Add about $1500 for port duty, insurance and transportation costs. But if you don't offer to pay $6000 or more for your container cost, they will take the one's that do offer that first.
The basic cause of the delay is 20% more stuff being shipped this year, than last year, before the pandemic, and employee's calling in sick, waiting for their vaccines are slowing the ports too.
Seems like very poor coordination in ship schedules. Planes are held on the ground if there are delays at the other end, why aren't ships?
Because of the high fees for a container we are shifting to LCL (Loose Container Load). That way you're not paying for the whole container if your shipment is only 50% of another container. But there are built in delays when you go LCL. The entire container has to be off loaded at the port (devanning) and then pallets need to be picked up individually on to a delivery truck. This can take an extra week.
Some companies with critical needs are charting their own freight vessels or biting the bullet and doing Air Freight.
Business is tough when things are down or up. I don't know which I prefer.
Thanks Scott, There's bottle necks all over the place. Is the IC shorted for electronics next? It's hurting the auto industry, consumer electronics, Playstations, Iphones and the like. Are our trains next?
@ecd15 posted:Pictures of what? The container ship waiting for port space and time? I'd rather wait until the locomotives actually ship and see pictures of them.
I think Santiago is wanting to model a container ship to go with his beutifully detailed 3rd rail livery. Am I right Santiago?
@sdmann posted:Seems like very poor coordination in ship schedules. Planes are held on the ground if there are delays at the other end, why aren't ships?
A ship can sit off shore and bob around on an ocean breeze. A plane can't hover around in the air space near the airport.
Rusty
@sdmann posted:Business is tough when things are down or up. I don't know which I prefer.
My head hurts just from reading this, Scott. I can only imagine what you must be going through...ugh!
@Bryant Dunivan 111417 posted:I think Santiago is wanting to model a container ship to go with his beutifully detailed 3rd rail livery. Am I right Santiago?
Yes, containers are my specialty!
@superwarp1 posted:Thanks Scott, There's bottle necks all over the place. Is the IC shorted for electronics next? It's hurting the auto industry, consumer electronics, Playstations, Iphones and the like. Are our trains next?
There were a number of articles recently about the devastating effect the power shortages/outages in Texas during the Feb. storm had on the large plants (Samsung and others) around Austin, TX, that produce integrated circuits (chips). Pretty interesting to read about the production - not surprisingly, making chips is extremely delicate work that requires, among other things, precise temperature controls and other things that all go haywire if power is disrupted, and it takes a bunch of time & money to recover operations.
@Rusty Traque posted:A ship can sit off shore and bob around on an ocean breeze. A plane can't hover around in the air space near the airport.
Rusty
Well, technically, they can .... briefly.
@superwarp1 posted:Haven't read about any issues, there could be, have you read anything? I am reading about tons on the west coast
I was in a meeting last week with a hydraulics supplier and they reported east coast ports are almost as bad as west coast ports. Supply chains in every single industry have been severely interrupted. Our purchasing director is anticipating supply problems until at least June. The company I work for has been paying high prices for expedited freight: overnight air freight, hot shot courier vans, etc.
Model trains are not going to take priority over the majority of the industries who are fighting for trucks, planes, ships, drivers, etc. Most other companies have deeper pockets and a lot more money on the line if their production lines shut down. I’d recommend being patient and you’ll see your trains when its Scott’s container’s turn to be unloaded.
Well this shipping delay maybe good news for those orders that are on a monthly payment plan.
I tend to stock pile things that we use to make our Trains, so I have plenty in stock and plenty of time to restock motors, gears, pulley, belt, electronics, speakers, bearings, etc.
I used to work at Lockheed, and I saw what happened when JIT (Just In Time) manufacturing didn't work so well. The production manager of one of these big Airplane projects had a saying, "Don't do production on an engineering schedule. " and I live by those words now.
Remember Gant Charts? All the engineers on this Project were sitting in a small, dark meeting room, taking their turn in front of the Production Manager. Each one stood up and presented slips in their schedules due to anything you could imagine. After the 3rd presentation the Production Manager slammed his fist on the table, knocking over the projector, "The next man or woman to show me a delay is fired". He yelled in a booming deep frustrated voice. The rest of the presenters declined to present their schedules at that meeting. They had to regroup to see if they could bring their schedules in.
You see, Lockheed doesn't get paid the $110,000,000 per plane until they are delivered. A good lesson for this young engineer.
@Hot Water posted:Interesting thought. I was not aware that all the east coast ports were unaffected by the pandemic, and thus have no labor issues.
@superwarp1 posted:Haven't read about any issues, there could be, have you read anything? I am reading about tons on the west coast
I live in New Jersey .... the NY / NJ ports are handling record levels of cargo, but I know of no notable delays. They've spent mucho billions in recent years to improve efficiency and capacity.
Looking forward to the geeps.
@Hot Water posted:Going to be a LOT longer than "a few weeks". Some container ships have been sitting off the coast for more than 30 days, because the ports on the west coast are so massively backed up, mainly due to shortages of all the various working crafts, even truck drivers.
Truck Drivers ??? Man - have you driven on an east-west Interstates lately? Where I’ve been, they are positively Jammed Solid with semi’s.
@TrainBub posted:Truck Drivers ??? Man - have you driven on an east-west Interstates lately? Where I’ve been, they are positively Jammed Solid with semi’s.
True. But, I was referring to the "Truck Drivers" that transfer the containers from the ship un-loading piers to the departure staging lots, where the long distance drivers then take the container eastward.
@Hot Water posted:True. But, I was referring to the "Truck Drivers" that transfer the containers from the ship un-loading piers to the departure staging lots, where the long distance drivers then take the container eastward.
Ah !!! I can see that could be a problem. Hopefully that’s improving - even if only slowly. We will just have to be patient.
I don’t mind waiting, but I’d be concern about rusting. Sitting on the water can only make that worse.
In a container, sealed in the shipping boxes and inside their individual boxes plus the plastic, I'm not worried.
@sdmann posted:I tend to stock pile things that we use to make our Trains, so I have plenty in stock and plenty of time to restock motors, gears, pulley, belt, electronics, speakers, bearings, etc.
I used to work at Lockheed, and I saw what happened when JIT (Just In Time) manufacturing didn't work so well. The production manager of one of these big Airplane projects had a saying, "Don't do production on an engineering schedule. " and I live by those words now.
Remember Gant Charts? All the engineers on this Project were sitting in a small, dark meeting room, taking their turn in front of the Production Manager. Each one stood up and presented slips in their schedules due to anything you could imagine. After the 3rd presentation the Production Manager slammed his fist on the table, knocking over the projector, "The next man or woman to show me a delay is fired". He yelled in a booming deep frustrated voice. The rest of the presenters declined to present their schedules at that meeting. They had to regroup to see if they could bring their schedules in.
You see, Lockheed doesn't get paid the $110,000,000 per plane until they are delivered. A good lesson for this young engineer.
Scott,
You got me rolling on the ground laughing because its so true. Working for certain large aircraft company in Washington state. You could not have said it better. Its daily struggle...the best part is when engineering doesn't know whats going on.
Hey. Progress:
SAKA_EXPRESS" target="_blank">https://www.marinetraffic.com/...vessel
SAKA_EXPRESS
The container ship has left Long Beach on it's way to Oakland arrivinig tomorrow, 3-27-2021. There is currently a 7 day delay at Oakland port and 20 ships moored outside the port and outside the Golden Gate. I estimate that the will get our container off loaded by April 3rd and the models to us by April 9th, unless there is a Security Scan. That would add another 10 days. Hoping not.
Scott
@sdmann posted:Hey. Progress:
SAKA_EXPRESS" target="_blank">https://www.marinetraffic.com/...vessel
The container ship has left Long Beach on it's way to Oakland arrivinig tomorrow, 3-27-2021. There is currently a 7 day delay at Oakland port and 20 ships moored outside the port and outside the Golden Gate. I estimate that the will get our container off loaded by April 3rd and the models to us by April 9th, unless there is a Security Scan. That would add another 10 days. Hoping not.
Scott
Hmmm. This at least sounds better than previous reports. Good enough !!! Thanks for update Scott !!!
Cheers
Hey Scott,
As mentioned above, is there any way we can see pics or a video of the models?
Dave
Scott was going to do a special run of Maine Central GP's for Norm's O Scale and I had placed a pre-order. Recently I learned that Scott and Norm had a "falling out" and the special run was cancelled as a result of it. Lionel has since released a Maine Central GP (for less than I would have paid for from 3rd Rail) and it even has Legacy but they got the colors ( yellow rather than Harvest Gold) wrong.
@Cape Cod Northern posted:Scott was going to do a special run of Maine Central GP's for Norm's O Scale and I had placed a pre-order. Recently I learned that Scott and Norm had a "falling out" and the special run was cancelled as a result of it. Lionel has since released a Maine Central GP (for less than I would have paid for from 3rd Rail) and it even has Legacy but they got the colors ( yellow rather than Harvest Gold) wrong.
Too bad about the “falling out”.
But Gee. Wrong colors. Nothing new there. That’s why to only buy Lionel after you’ve seen final delivered product. You might miss an item but would you be happy with a screwed up product ? I’ve been stung before and decided never again.
@Cape Cod Northern posted:Scott was going to do a special run of Maine Central GP's for Norm's O Scale and I had placed a pre-order. Recently I learned that Scott and Norm had a "falling out" and the special run was cancelled as a result of it. Lionel has since released a Maine Central GP (for less than I would have paid for from 3rd Rail) and it even has Legacy but they got the colors ( yellow rather than Harvest Gold) wrong.
That's sad, Legacy good, price point good, I'd be disappointed with Lionel's swinging pilot, which I hate in 3 rail diesels and one of the main reasons I only have one SW7 with fixed pilots but that's just my preference
