Release Date Change for IM SD45-2

[Wlal13again]

I`ve never been happy with their products. I have a few grain cars that needed work to roll and turn correctly. I`m sorry but for $17.99 a shot they should be perfect right out of the box...

I was extremely happy with their earliest products, the steel reefer and 40 ft. boxcar kits. That is all I have ever bought made by IMRC and will continue to buy them when I find them at shows. Why should I pay someone else to assemble something I enjoy assembling myself??

To each his own...

[CVSNE]

TivO -- I'm beginning to wonder if I will ever see them -- or any of the other tooling that was well along more than two years ago -- myself. I suspect I know what the issue(s) are -- but won't go into them here since I'd be speculating.

I will say the issue is not Christmas toys (or Happy Meal toys) taking time away from trains at the factory -- Intermountains' primary assembly and finishing contract is with Sanda Kan, which is an exclusive model train manufacturer -- the same company that makes Life-Like, Atlas, Hornby, Lionel, Weaver, Red Caboose, and about 50 other model railroad manufacturers I could name. Sanda Kan, by the way, is owned by JPM, so enough about how the government of China owns it to use the profits for military weapons -- another pile of steaming you know what many model railroaders find themselves up to their elbows in on occassion . . .)

I love hearing all the speculating about the connections between the US railroad manufacturers and the factories in China -- like the cost of assembling and decorating cars and shipping same . . . typically model railroaders I've heard wax poetic on this topic are way off.

Marty

[TiVoPrince]

Big plans
often smother the true believers.  Unfortunately there is far too much hype and broken promises at the contracted manufacturing sites.  Raising the bar is a tough business, it often falls on you with dramatic results...

[Robbman]

Message deleted

[amato1969]

I was extremely happy with their earliest products, the steel reefer and 40 ft. boxcar kits. That is all I have ever bought made by IMRC and will continue to buy them when I find them at shows. Why should I pay someone else to assemble something I enjoy assembling myself??

Amen to that, 3rdrail!  I love the boxcar kits and have a nice stash of them.  Plenty of (prototypical) decal and dry tranfer options for the 1937 AAR and Canadian boxcars.  I can also add the necessary weight to the kits -- out-of-the-box, they're WAY too light to track properly.

  Frank

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I keep thinking "who cares" about these things, then I see this:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=190772

[SAH]

I keep thinking "who cares" about these things, then I see this:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=190772

They looked better in EL paint.   

[FrankCampagna]

They looked better in EL paint.

Amen, on the head of a long string of UPS trailers. Saw CX-99 several times. Frank

[Wlal13again]

I keep thinking "who cares" about these things, then I see this:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=190772

They looked better in EL paint.   

Mine too. To go with my 2 EL SD45`s...

[SAH]

They looked better in EL paint.

Amen, on the head of a long string of UPS trailers. Saw CX-99 several times. Frank

As Frank probably knows, there's a really fine article in the latest ELHS pub, The Diamond.  Goes into detail regarding CX-99 and the EL UPS service, but not in a mind numbing way.  A good read for anyone interested in piggyback operations of that era.

Steve

[bsoplinger]

… in the latest ELHS pub, The Diamond.  … A good read for anyone interested in piggyback operations of that era.

What era is that, as I no nothing about the EL. I'd guess since UPS was mentioned the 80's?

[3rdrail]

… in the latest ELHS pub, The Diamond.  … A good read for anyone interested in piggyback operations of that era.

What era is that, as I no nothing about the EL. I'd guess since UPS was mentioned the 80's?

The EL was created by the merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western in 1960 and partially absorbed by Conrail in 1976. The remainder became short lines or was abandoned, so it couldn't be the 1980's.

[SAH]

… in the latest ELHS pub, The Diamond.  … A good read for anyone interested in piggyback operations of that era.

What era is that, as I no nothing about the EL. I'd guess since UPS was mentioned the 80's?

Early 70's.  PC reliability was so abysmal by that point UPS went looking for an alternative.  EL took a chance on it and did remarkably well with the service.  TOFC / COFC was not a sure thing money maker back then.  The UPS service was probably the last hurrah for the EL, recalling the days of Erie's solid meat reefer trains from Chicago to the NYC market. 

The ELHS article is quite good.  Lots of stuff you don't often see published.  Daily record of operation, blocking, etc.  If you like learning about RR operation, some marketing and such you'll eat it up.  Vol 21, No 2 2007.  Worth the cover price.

Steve

[bsoplinger]

Since its the early 70's I was going to buy a copy of the Diamond to get the article. Unfortunately between not having any issues past Vol 20, issue 3 and wanting 6.95 S&H I think I'll have to pass.

I did get the CNW NorthWest Lines mag, Vol 2007, Issue 2 that someone here mentioned (its almost entirely on TOFC) for just the $8 cover, sent media mail. Now that's a historical society that knows what its doing.

Time to return this thread to SD45-2