By Ron Brown
WHITE CITY, Ore. -- A small White City company, that pioneered technology used to make model trains more realistic, says it is on-track to recover from the recession. Kadee Quality Products Company prides it's self as producing products entirely of U.S. materials in the United States, mostly right here in Southern Oregon.
Hidden among the plywood mills and other manufacturing facilities in White City, Kadee Quality Products Company is celebrating their 65th anniversary this year. This is a do-it-all-yourself company makes model railroading equipment: cars, couplers...everything. This includes much of the machinery used to make and put these meticulously detailed railcars together.
Slightly fewer than 30 employees design, manufacture, and package all the parts needed to make these model train cars. Plastic scraps are re-melted to make more parts. Zinc used for many of the metal pieces also gets recycled. Dies and molds used to form the wheels and undercarriages are all made here. So are the tiny springs. Signage on the cars is an exact miniature duplication of the real thing...sometimes based on photos since many of these cars are from the golden age of steam and early diesel era.
You'd probably never know just driving by that this rather non-descript building in White City is where some of the best model railroad cars in the entire world are actually made, right here in White City, and all 100% American. Kadee emphasizes that their products are not toys for children, but are actually model railroad cars and parts. Their website and brochures say "not for children under 14 years of age."
They are distributed worldwide, and wholly made in the U.S.
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