Just Another Reorg

Where I work, we have a saying: The only thing that's constant is change. This tends to be a universal truism. Evidently, K.K. Eishindo is now licensing production of its T Gauge line to The Railway Shop, a business in Hong Kong, which will assume all responsibilities for overseeing the manufacture (still in China), shipment and servicing of merchandise, as well as all communication with distributors. Product design will, presumably, remain under the control of T's inventor, Mr. Hirotsugu Hirai.

This business shuffle has manifested itself to the outside world as a huge delay in both the shipment of goods and the release of new products. As a natural consequence, all of us "outsiders" have been left to speculate, and such speculation often veers off toward the cliffs of doom and gloom. This is quite understandable, although with better communication from the businesses involved, it could also have been avoided. For instance, the only hint from Eishindo that anything of this nature was going on was the announcement of an email address change some months ago, which appeared only on the Japanese half of their woefully-neglected website; all of our most reliable news has come from a few of the larger distributors.

Regardless of how the news has emerged, it is good news all the same. Indeed, it's a relief to know that, not only will the products be flowing again soon (which includes a rumored second-generation version of the 103 trainset), but some long-promised new additions are on their way. So, take a deep breath, dust off your T Gauge set, and rest assured that it hasn't become a collector's item yet.