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SoundTraxx builds new station

Model-train audio company growing in Tech Center

SoundTraxx, a local business that makes audio technologies for model railroaders, is building a new, 18,901-square-foot headquarters to provide room for more manufacturing equipment.

The site of the building at 141 Burnett Drive, in the Durango Tech Center, is being excavated, and SoundTraxx hopes to move in next May or June.

“What’s working well for us is to continue to find ways to manufacture things in the city of Durango,” said Nancy Workman, vice president and chief operating officer.

The company was founded in 1990 on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, by Workman and Steven Dominguez, who is SoundTraxx’s president and CEO. They continue to co-own the business.

SoundTraxx engineers record actual train sounds to incorporate into their audio units.

“What we’re known for is bringing a level of realism to model railroaders’ layouts that didn’t before exist,” Workman said.

Durango architect Steve Eccher designed the building. SoundTraxx broke ground in early September, but the company is still awaiting a building permit from the city of Durango. Its current location is only a short walk away at 210 Rockpoint Drive, also in the Tech Center.

SoundTraxx has about 30 employees. “We supply some decent jobs here that pay reasonably well and provide some decent benefits,” Workman said.

She declined to release SoundTraxx’s annual revenue, citing the company’s privately held structure. In 2012, SoundTraxx was named one of 50 Colorado Companies to Watch, an honor that requires companies to have $750,000 to $50 million in annual revenue.

SoundTraxx sells mostly through hobby shops and distributors. It ships its small, scale products around the world, primarily through UPS.

Workman said SoundTraxx enjoys a good working relationship with Durango’s tourist draw, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, but the two companies have no formal ties.

Jack Llewellyn, executive director of the Durango Chamber of Commerce, said SoundTraxx is valuable an economic development perspective because it exports products outside the region and brings dollars in. SoundTraxx also succeeds by focusing on high-tech train sound products, he said.

“It’s a very unique niche market,” Llewellyn said.

SoundTraxx will celebrate its 25th anniversary in January.

cslothower@durangoherald.com



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