HOGTRAINZ Intermountain Update

[CBQ Fan]

From HOGTRAINZ website.  I have no affiliation with them.

We would like to thank all of our customers for Making 2020 the BEST year in Hogtrainz history! Sales were over the top! When you carry great product lines like Atlas - Bowser - Kato - Micro-trains - Rapido Trains etc. it was an easy task for us to accomplish!
Sadly I have seem many local business in my State of NJ go under due to COVID! It is bittersweet that we had so much success and yet saw so many around us suffer!
We sadly announce that ALL N SCALE INTERMOUNTAIN LOCOMOTIVE RESERVATIONS are going to be canceled. Hogtrainz gets at least 10 calls/emails per week as to delivery status of one of the Intermountain locomotives that we took reservations for. We have many reservations going back to 2016 and thus we felt the need to contact Intermountain to shed some light on what is going on.
First - Intermountain states that there are NO N SCALE LOCOMOTIVES IN PRODUCTION AT THIS TIME. Considering that we advertised product going back to 2016 we have come to realize that these items will most likely not materialize.
Secondly, the few products that came in recently (HO Scale hoppers for example) came in at higher price than when they were originally announced. We shipped out many items at about .75 above cost. Considering the 3 percent credit card fees and .30 per transaction that credit card company charges us - we LOST MONEY on those projects!
This led me to my second question - will Intermountain honor the prices that were advertised on various N scale locomotive projects? The response was - we cannot answer that!
Considering manufacturers that were in same factory in China that closed and have been up and running delivering product (i.e - Atlas) we have not seen a single N scale loco from Intermountain.
The dilemna of having unfilled reservations because:
a) customer no longer in hobby
b) customer might not be willing to pay higher price than what was adverstised
c) contact information on reservations going back five years is no longer valid - and we cannot get in touch with customer
d) no idea when asked as to when product will be delivered if at all
For reasons above - we are canceling all N scale Intermountain Locomoitve reservations. Fox valley will not be delivering locomotives - so all Fox Valley Locomotive Locomotive reservations will be canceled too!
Over the next few weeks - Hogtrainz will be addressing by email that reservations will be canceled on those locomotives! We hope that we will get new announcements from Intermountain in the future as we love to carry their products. When we get concrete information regarding availability and pricing - Hogtrainz will be back onboard with New Reservations to be announced!!
We wish Intermountain great success and hope that soon new N scale Locomotives will be announced!!
 
 

[squirrelhunter]

Really wish IM would sell out to better management. Or at least sell the tooling to someone else who has the capital to actually use it.

[Englewood]

I've had some IM and FVM locos on reserve with the local hobby shop for quite a while. I gave up hope a long time ago about seeing them. Hopefully one day I'll be surprised. Especially the FVM locos. They were great runners.

[davefoxx]

I tried to preorder an HO scale Fox Valley Hiawatha 4-4-2 locomotive several weeks ago, but Hogtrainz rejected the preorder, because they knew they weren't going to production anytime soon. 

DFF

[thomasjmdavis]

I can't say I'm surprised.  I've been hearing essentially the same thing for years from the folks behind the counter of brick and mortar stores. 

However, I do find it VERY disappointing that Intermountain's web page shows dozens of locomotives as "confirmed for production"- https://www.intermountain-railway.com/newsncomingsoon.html -but none are being made, nor is anything actually scheduled, according to the info being passed along by @CBQ Fan in the OP. 

This kind of message from a major internet retailer should be enough to convince IM that they need to re-think their marketing approach.  Let's hope so, anyway.  The IM products I have are among my favorite locos and cars. When I got my first IM F units 20ish years ago, I planned to "standardize" on IM (really like the handrails and other details and so many roadnames), but I have 5 times as many Katos, just because Katos have been available.  I even found a dealer who will take reservations (thanks to recommendation here on Railwire), but frankly, seems unlikely I will ever see any of it.

[Philip H]

Way to shoot your foot off I guess.

[wazzou]

This has been a slowly burning fuse for years.

[basementcalling]

Way to shoot your foot off I guess.

Who, IM or Hogtrainz?

I appreciate them calling IM on their sloppy practices. I was not at all impressed with my last set of cylindrical hoppers they made either. Body mounted couplers, but only glued on, no screws, and the coupler boxes pop off very easily.

Vapor ware isn't just a technology problem I guess.

[CBQ Fan]

This was a quick cut and paste from an email I received from HOGTRAINZ.

[learmoia]

I don't blame them (Hog Trains)  I've been dissapointed by Intermountain several times.. Months ago, I asked my dealer to cancel my IM pre-orders simply due to the fact that I doubt the items will ever be produced.

~Ian

[mu26aeh]

Sad part is all those pre-orders go out the window so how many projects now get shelved if IM looks at a mass cancellation and starts going over numbers of confirmed for production units.  Might not be en mass, but certain a few roads are now on the chopping blocks

Any word on freight car production ?  I know you said that was a cut and paste from an email, but has anyone heard anything confirmed other than what their website says which is pretty much useless seeing locos are confirmed but not scheduled this year

[Mark5]

From the subject I thought this was an update from Intermountain (it isn't).

It is an update about Hogztrains. 

FWIW, a few months ago I emailed Intermountain about the availability of a locomotive part for a project I am working on. Not long ago, the part showed up unexpectedly in the mail - along with an invoice based on the honor system. I quickly paid the invoice and was glad that they are still alive.

I'm not sure what's going on with them, but they are not the only model train manufacturer that is currently struggling.

I have more than a few complaints about cancelled products - but I do not have ill wishes toward them.

Mark

[Philip H]

Way to shoot your foot off I guess.

IM

[mu26aeh]

From the subject I thought this was an update from Intermountain (it isn't).

It is an update about Hogztrains. 

FWIW, a few months ago I emailed Intermountain about the availability of a locomotive part for a project I am working on. Not long ago, the part showed up unexpectedly in the mail - along with an invoice based on the honor system. I quickly paid the invoice and was glad that they are still alive.

I'm not sure what's going on with them, but they are not the only model train manufacturer that is currently struggling.

I have more than a few complaints about cancelled products - but I do not have ill wishes toward them.

Mark

I had same experience, asked for ditch light housing and windshield wipers for SD40-2.  One day box shows up with a complete shell, albeit covered in CA in various places.  No invoice though.

[CBQ Fan]

I cancelled my F unit order when they scrapped the old design for the DDC Sound chassis.  I recall receiving a bit of flak for sharing that decision. That was the beginning of the end for my mass preordering for me.