Dog, I don't know about the made in China as I gave up HO for HON3 20 plus years ago but I had some Atlas engines that were made in Austria (excellent runners) and had some that said made in Mexico (trash)
Yes,Atlas locomotives and cars are now made in China..They are very smooth runners but has been known to be problematic according to some on the Atlas forum..I did have 4 GP38s to go dead on me but I fixed the problem by installing new decoder/light boards..I also had a very minor glitch in a SD35 foreign matter in the gears causing a clicking noise.Other then what I mention they have been very good locomotives.