Here's my two cents of this and every other train product we buy.
1.Lionel pay's factory to make, pack and ship products.
2. Factory pay's the cheapest trucking company to haul container to port. Said driver could care less about cargo contents.
3. Container get's dropped in yard and banged a few times before it's loaded on ship, gets banged a few more times getting loaded on said ship.
4. Depending on where said container is loaded on ship determined's how rough of a ocean voyage it will have. Contents of container are still banging around if not loaded and strapped down.
5. Container get's unloaded and banged around some more, either on a trailer chassis or direct to a train car.
6. Said engine was shipped to Charles Ro, which means it came into port of New Jersey, placed on trailer chassis and driven to warehouse in Easton, Pa.
7. Container was unloaded, counted, placed on a pallet. Then pickers of said warehouse go around with pick sheets and load up another pallet to build, shrink wrap, and placed in staging to get loaded on another truck.
8. Depending on who gets the load, gets loaded on another trailer and taken back to said trucking company's local hub. Get's unloaded, sit's on a dock in staging to get reloaded on to another trailer to head from Pennsylvania to Connecticut. That trailer will get unloaded again at local hub, staged on the dock to get loaded onto another trailer to Boston.
9. Said trailer arrives in Boston, get's unloaded and staged on the dock again. Get's reloaded on trailer to deliver to Charles Ro.
Now, how many times do you think that box with unknown other engines get dropped, hit, knocked over, bouncing up and down on any one of those trailers, before it get's to Charles Ro. Now think about how many times it changes more hands before it get's to your front door.
As a retired truck driver of 29 years, I can assure you that everything I just outlined above is true. Trucking companies today are CUT THROAT slash pricing to fill trailers with freight. Truck drivers are dime a dozen these days, pay is low, you miss the appointment time and you get screwed. You arrive on time, but if your load is floor loaded instead of on pallets you will WAIT. Truck driver's get paid by computer zip code to zip code miles, not what the tires turn. So if you haven't figured it out yet, said truck driver is NOT getting paid to get loaded or unloaded. Said truck driver is still getting screwed, it will not get better either.
Now who do you blame for the damage of the engine, port of Newark is teamster union. They could care less whats in the container, truck driver from port to warehouse is non union, maybe union but not many left. Factory, truck driver or port in china or where ever it was made. If all that was broke was a flip down walk plate between two engines, be happy. Now I do agree that nothing should be broken, but given how today's throw it away society is. Product's we buy are only going to get made cheaper and cheaper. The only one making money are the shipping companies, but pennies on the dollar if that.
If I ship something, I pack so much around the contents that if you try to shake the box nothing on the inside moves. But I am not Lionel, just my two cents.
