Latest news in Intermountain F units?

[cjjd6901]

   Looking forward to seeing the newest Western Maryland F units from Intermountain.  Anyone hear any sand house chatter as to when they are to arrive?

...And always if you have some extra Black Fs from back in the day...drop me a PM.

Best,

Chris 

[reinhardtjh]

  Looking forward to seeing the newest Western Maryland F units from Intermountain.  Anyone hear any sand house chatter as to when they are to arrive?

...And always if you have some extra Black Fs from back in the day...drop me a PM.

Best,

Chris 

Intermountain just updated it's "Coming Soon" List
http://www.intermountain-railway.com/newsncomingsoon.html

69294(D)(S)    Western Maryland - Circus        May

Just like my PRR units.  Of course, last month the listing said "April" 

Not sure what the holdup on these is.  Unless it's the ESU LokSound decoder, but I would think it's a different board for the F's from the SD40's.

[wcfn100]

Intermountain just updated it's "Coming Soon" List
http://www.intermountain-railway.com/newsncomingsoon.html

69294(D)(S)    Western Maryland - Circus        May

Just like my PRR units.  Of course, last month the listing said "April" 

Not sure what the holdup on these is.  Unless it's the ESU LokSound decoder, but I would think it's a different board for the F's from the SD40's.

It's the decoders.  It's the same board.  That's the whole crux of the hold up from ESU, one size fits all instead of multiple custom decoders.

One bit of good news maybe for some is IMR is planning ahead to sell replacement frames for the f units to convert older units.


Jason

[reinhardtjh]

It's the decoders.  It's the same board.  That's the whole crux of the hold up from ESU, one size fits all instead of multiple custom decoders.

One bit of good news maybe for some is IMR is planning ahead to sell replacement frames for the f units to convert older units.


Jason

Thanks Jason.  So based on the SD40-2 thread where IM said ESU told them the next sample board is due in June, The ETA of May is a pipe dream also.  Even if the next bard iteration is right, it will be a several month delay after that for production quantities to get to China for locomotive assembly.  I'd guess September.  I can by more M1a/b's then.

[wcfn100]

Thanks Jason.  So based on the SD40-2 thread where IM said ESU told them the next sample board is due in June, The ETA of May is a pipe dream also.  Even if the next bard iteration is right, it will be a several month delay after that for production quantities to get to China for locomotive assembly.  I'd guess September.  I can by more M1a/b's then.

Based on what was was told, yep.  I don't know the status of the F unit like if they've been painted and shells assembled just waiting for frames of they're just a pile of parts still.  I do know IMR wants all these models out just as bad as anyone.

Jason

[reinhardtjh]

I do know IMR wants all these models out just as bad as anyone.

That's the part most of us seem to forget.  Whether it be delays by Atlas on the S2, BLI on the M1a/b, IM on their F's, SD40's, rolling stock.  They all want the items to ship.  No shipping means no income.  No income means no company at some point.  Or layoffs.

My only point was that IM knows that ESU can't come through with the decoder board until at least June, so why put May as the ETA on a page updated April 10th?

[mu26aeh]

That's the part most of us seem to forget.  Whether it be delays by Atlas on the S2, BLI on the M1a/b, IM on their F's, SD40's, rolling stock.  They all want the items to ship.  No shipping means no income.  No income means no company at some point.  Or layoffs.

My only point was that IM knows that ESU can't come through with the decoder board until at least June, so why put May as the ETA on a page updated April 10th?

This has been my complaint during the wait for the SD40-2.  They knew all along there was a backup with the board design etc, yet continued to say next month, 2 months, etc.

[davefoxx]

This has been my complaint during the wait for the SD40-2.  They knew all along there was a backup with the board design etc, yet continued to say next month, 2 months, etc.

That's not exactly correct.  It's been public for months that the sound decoder was a problem.  I will agree with you, though, that IM's announcement page did only continue to push back a month or two at a time, which was very misleading, if you weren't aware of the decoder issue.

DFF

[mu26aeh]

That's not exactly correct.  It's been public for months that the sound decoder was a problem.  I will agree with you, though, that IM's announcement page did only continue to push back a month or two at a time, which was very misleading, if you weren't aware of the decoder issue.

DFF

I was speaking about before they told us about the decoder issues.  For at least a year after the initial missed delivery, nothing was known as to what the hold up was, at least to my knowledge.  We've only been clued into the decoder issues are continuing to plague this project in the last month

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=34581.msg469821#msg469821

And they continue to be misleading, by stating a release date for May for the WM F units, when in the post I linked, the next sample board is not available until June which @reinhardtjh pointed out also.

[drgw0579]

I asked about this; as was noted, ESU wants to develop a single decoder that will fit any future N scale model.   I've been tracking this since they first announced sound, and I believe there have been several iterations of ESU providing the factory in China a design proposal or prototype board only for them to eventually reject it for undisclosed reasons.   Let's be considerate and understand that all parties want to see this work, but it's not like they have a cast of 100's available to work on it.  I have no way of knowing, but perhaps other US vendors are waiting on this just has much and will be able to finally announce more models with sound once this decoder is in production.  IMR just happens to have taken the risk of delaying anything new until this happens.  It certainly didn't work out the way they wanted.  They want to get this right the first time. 

The way I understand manufacturing in China works is that only after a firm commitment has been received by the factory, will they even schedule the production run.  So there is no way to have them build part of the model and then wait for the missing parts to show up.  Once everybody is happy with the decoder, the factory will make it, and we will eventually see the product show up.

If anyone is going to the Calgary show, you can ask them for more details.

Bill Kepner

[davefoxx]

I was speaking about before they told us about the decoder issues.  For at least a year after the initial missed delivery, nothing was known as to what the hold up was, at least to my knowledge.  We've only been clued into the decoder issues are continuing to plague this project in the last month

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=34581.msg469821#msg469821

And they continue to be misleading, by stating a release date for May for the WM F units, when in the post I linked, the next sample board is not available until June which @reinhardtjh pointed out also.

Like I wrote in my last post, I agree about the misleading announcement pages, but in IM's defense, the decoder issue is not a new disclosure within the last month.  It's been public for months.

DFF

[cjjd6901]

Intermountain just updated it's "Coming Soon" List
http://www.intermountain-railway.com/newsncomingsoon.html

69294(D)(S)    Western Maryland - Circus        May

Just like my PRR units.  Of course, last month the listing said "April" 

Not sure what the holdup on these is.  Unless it's the ESU LokSound decoder, but I would think it's a different board for the F's from the SD40's.

Thank you

[mu26aeh]

Like I wrote in my last post, I agree about the misleading announcement pages, but in IM's defense, the decoder issue is not a new disclosure within the last month.  It's been public for months.

DFF

I know it's been public for months, I said the decoder issues are continuing to add delays, which was just disclosed two weeks ago.  End all, be all, this all goes back to IMR inability to effectively communicate with the buying public instead of just the few .

[wm3798]

Not sure how practical a "one size fits all" decoder is. 

[gdmichaels]

Looking forward to receiving mine.  I collect B&M and I am constantly running my AB pair from the last release at NTRAK events.  It will be nice to see some new ones.