HOGTRAINZ Intermountain Update

[Rossford Yard]

I remember seeing loads of those on LHS shelves.  I knew I wasn't going to build car kits in N.  Not sure when HO reached the timeline of RTR rolling stock, but those reefers were the one item that showed me that N should be RTR mostly.  It was a big miss by IM.  Perhaps the one that haunts them to this day, making them more reluctant than others to take a shot on an untested new product.

The last few posts realistically tell us what we can do.  We buy what we can and want when they produce something that appeals to us.  Other than volume, it's what we do with the other mfgs.  I don't buy anyone else's steam, transition era, or even Atlas's "one off" road names. 

But, I do appreciate them doing those for variety and to address other modelers' needs.  I do the same for IM, just, ah...., a bit less frequently.

[sd45elect2000]

I still to this day buy the Intermountain kits. I must have built 1000 of them, not only for me but for others as well. One friend wanted the first 12 numbers of the PFE reefers and hired me to build them for 5 bucks a car. In fact I just built a PFE reefer last night. I bought several lots of cars off the auction site and those first 40-50 cars became the core and the beginning of my collection I love the kits and I wish I could still get them for $12.95 instead of $24.00 for a RTR.

[wazzou]

I've paid as little as $3 for some kits at shows and still have several for kitbashing projects.

[thomasjmdavis]

I still to this day buy the Intermountain kits. I must have built 1000 of them, not only for me but for others as well. One friend wanted the first 12 numbers of the PFE reefers and hired me to build them for 5 bucks a car. In fact I just built a PFE reefer last night. I bought several lots of cars off the auction site and those first 40-50 cars became the core and the beginning of my collection I love the kits and I wish I could still get them for $12.95 instead of $24.00 for a RTR.

Well....given the state of things, probably 18.95 nowadays.

I am "in between" on IM kits.  I have built quite a number of them.  I found it sometimes enjoyable and sometimes frustrating.  I think they would have been better served if they had either made the smaller parts in brass, or developed very precise instructions on, for instance, what tool to use to place the plastic grab irons (I commonly cut them in half handling them with tweezers). Or HOW to cut the brakewheel out of the circular sprue.   I am sure there is a tool specifically for that, but none of my several pairs of sprue cutters work, and even the pair of tiny scissors for fly-tying won't get in there (where the heck did I lose those, anyway?). I never have figured it out.  A couple folks have mention using heated Xacto blades.  I tried that, but damaged the brakewheel (that is, the brakewheel melted as much as the sprue did).

So, on some kits I was just careful enough to manage.  But when I compare to Fine N scale kits, with their etched parts, the IM kits are difficult to put together.  In recent times, often as not, I use etched grabs, and sometimes ladders, to finish kits, but the cost of the etched parts offsets the savings on kits (nowadays, I have often found the kits selling for more than the RTR on eBay, but still pick up a reasonably priced kit now and then).

For me, the BIG UPSIDE to IM cars (kit or RTR) is that their freight cars are based on easily identifiable prototypes, and they have gone to the trouble to design the basic cars to accept a variety of ends, roofs and details- so that you get a 1937 AAR boxcar with the correct (for example) ladders for a Canadian road car.  Not to mention both SP and ATSF prototype reefers.  Most of my western road freight cars are IM.  Compared to the ubiquitous MTL "standard" boxcar- which is more or less a PS-1- the IM cars offer variety and accuracy.

But the downside is that I've only managed to buy 4 new IM cars from a dealer in the past 5 years- because they are not on shelves, even of the large internet dealers- at least not the cars that are appropriate for my mid-50s modeling interests.  Pick up stuff on eBay or other auctions/swaps/Trading Post/etc. as time and cash allow.  My last locomotives were "showroom samples" FP-7s which I got cheap as one shell was slightly damaged (and I only wanted to chassis for shells I already had- so perfect deal for me).  This has nothing to do with IM quality, entirely to do with lack of availability.

[Mark5]

I've got maybe a dozen of the kits - earmarked for various projects. Great starting points ...

[reinhardtjh]

This is an email from over a year ago when I bought some undecorated 1937 AAR 40' Boxcar kits:

60799. I found it. Price is $11.50, they have 5 left and arent going to produce any more ever lol

On Thu, Jan 9, 2020 at 10:03 AM Rob Gruber  wrote:

    I cant seem to find the part #. Whats the part number?

    On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 11:37 PM John H. Reinhardt  wrote:

        Something else I had been thinking about...

        On Intermountain's "In-Stock" list dated 11/25/2019 they list their N-Scale 1937 AAR 40' Boxcar undecorated kit.  Can you get any?  I'd go for as many as 20 if they were available.  If so, let me know what price they would be.

        <https://www.intermountain-railway.com/sales.html>

But if you look on the "InterMountain N Scale Advance Reservations" page you see them "Confirmed for Production".  So I don't know who is right.  Then again, there's a whole lot of stuff confirmed for production and has been for years with no production in sight.  Ah, well.

[Nato]

       I  too built many IM kits in their day, the box cars were easy, the reefers not so. I have one friend a good model builder who was intimidated by the reefer kits and built only one. The last cars I ordered from IM were Super Domes which took awhile after announcement to actually ship to me. I can understand Hogtrainz frustration with intermountain, some where at some on retailer I have had reservations for some sound equipped F Units that I know I will not see. I receive their E Mail Club/ Newsletter and see cars I'm tempted to order, but do not because I know about the delays and cancelations, even if they claim they are in stock. I have nothing personal against IM I just know that is how they are. Nate Goodman (Nato).   

[Sokramiketes]

If the old (defunct) factory had easy credit, and the new factories want payment up front - that would be a major disruption. For some companies operating on a small margin (nobody is getting rich making model trains). In fact, that could be fatal - that might explain some of the disappearances and re-alignments in the past decade.
Mark

You nailed it.  KK was masterful at helping ease the finances, while gathering American companies to sell projects.  Not only did he help bankroll them through tooling and production, but he also had a say in what was produced under that model.  KK out, manufacturing company he runs shut down, and that business model dries up.  The other Chinese manufacturers aren't setting up the same types of partnerships, so if you don't have cash flow, you don't have product.  Atlas has cash flow and maneuvered just fine. 

[OldEastRR]

Well, now that China has grown into the industrialization leads to skilled labor to higher wages to inflation spiral upward cycle, I guess we'll have to wait for cheap N scale stuff again until manufacturers move everything to Africa because of cheap labor there .... then the cycle develops there. 

[dem34]

Probably way too late to be useful, but the best way to separate the small parts from the sprues is to get a fresh Xacto blade and carefully run it across the injection pins. Absolutely minimal pressure is required to avoid breakage but 3-4 passes with the blade will separate the part.

[thomasjmdavis]

Probably way too late to be useful, but the best way to separate the small parts from the sprues is to get a fresh Xacto blade and carefully run it across the injection pins. Absolutely minimal pressure is required to avoid breakage but 3-4 passes with the blade will separate the part.

Yep.  That was the best advice available 25 years ago, too.  That works some/much of the time.  But frankly, while I am pretty good with delicate stuff (no problems with the 100 other brand kits I've built), I fail often enough with IM kit parts that it is an issue for me.  It may just be my luck. 

[drgw0579]

Part of the problem is that the industrial areas of China have developed an incredible infrastructure for manufacturing.  You need special screws?  No problem, that supplier is down the street.  Circuit boards, next door.  Quality Motors? Packaging? I wonder how much of a typical model railroad product is composed of sourced components.   There was a joke that there was only one machine in all of China that make Nscale metal wheels, the truth is probably not far from that.   You need 100 skilled workers?   No problem, have your agents recruit next year's class and put them up in your dorms on the factory site.

It would be nice that other (under) developed areas of the world could grow a competitive economy, but it's hard in a purely capitalistic environment.  At least to do that in a fast amount of time.  You'd need someone who thought they could make a profit on selling screws when there wasn't any product yet to put them in.  And how would you develop skilled workers?

One of the reasons companies in the US produce what they can is that they design their products so that they have a minimal amount of dependencies on outside producers.  Look at Microtrains, probably most of their product is made in-house.   But that requires them to leverage prior products and plan future changes very carefully.   

Bill Kepner

[peteski]

. . .
 Look at Microtrains, probably most of their product is made in-house.   But that requires them to leverage prior products and plan future changes very carefully.   

Bill Kepner

And they seem to be pretty darn good at it!  Not sure what their secret-sauce is, but they seem to be "making it" in USA.

As I understand their new metal wheels are made by an outside American-based company (but assembled into wheelsets in-house).  Of course, their loco mechanisms were outsourced (to China), but MTL doesn't produce many locomotives.

[OldEastRR]

Probably way too late to be useful, but the best way to separate the small parts from the sprues is to get a fresh Xacto blade and carefully run it across the injection pins. Absolutely minimal pressure is required to avoid breakage but 3-4 passes with the blade will separate the part.

What I do is use a dremel cutting blade to make a gap in the sprue circling the wheel. What happens when you try to insert a blade between the wheel and the sprue to cut it loose, the wheel will succumb to deformation way before the thick sprue. The gap takes the deformation instead of any of the plastic. If you cut two gaps in the sprue opposite each other it works even better. You can use this trick for other delicate parts like the ladders and grabirons.

[ncbqguy]

I’ve used a soldering pencil to melt the heavy sprue off on the outside at the small runner to the part.   Trimming the small runner off without the heavy sprue doesn’t put any pressure on the part.
Charlie Vlk