Intermountain N scale?

[PJPickard]

I reserved some Intermountain NYC F3's with N scale Supply back in December. Will they ever be made or should I just cancel them?

[thomasjmdavis]

I reserved some Intermountain NYC F3's with N scale Supply back in December. Will they ever be made or should I just cancel them?

I don't think any of us can answer  "will they ever be made?"  As previously mentioned, their current site shows they have F7s "queued for production", so it seems they haven't given up on F units altogether.

It strikes me that the way to go would be to keep the reservation for the time being- assuming you haven't put any money down with a hobby shop (which with IM's policy, you should not need to). If Kato or BLI or someone else comes out with a loco you consider equivalent, or you find the some used ones and purchase those, you can always cancel the pre-order at that time.

I would certainly never allow the fact that I had a reservation with Intermountain prevent me from buying an available alternative, unless the IM product was "in production" or being shipped.

[Missaberoad]

FVM still produce the unimate couplers, have not seen hide nor hair of any the freight cars.

@Lenny53 FVM acquired all the former Red Caboose tooling and was in the process of updating and re-releasing it.
They did release the Pullman Standard (3000, 4740 and 4750) and FMC 4700 covered hoppers as well as the Ortner Rapid Discharge cars.

The FVM website has a note that they are partnering with Des Plaines Hobbies to produce the Former Red Caboose and Deluxe Product lines.

https://shopfvm.com/

Introducing Scale America

ScaleTrains will be handling production of the original Fox Valley Line. We are keeping the former Red Caboose and Deluxe lines, and will be consolidating it with the Des Plaines Hobbies line of goods. This includes N & HO Parts, Centralia Car Shops, S Scale America and O Scale America. Watch for more info later this year about Scale America.

Fingers Crossed we will see some good stuff!

[Ike the BN Freak]

The new tooling trilevel racks are I believe will be the first new tooling Scale America cars

[lock4244]

@Lenny53 FVM acquired all the former Red Caboose tooling and was in the process of updating and re-releasing it.
They did release the Pullman Standard (3000, 4740 and 4750) and FMC 4700 covered hoppers as well as the Ortner Rapid Discharge cars.

The FVM website has a note that they are partnering with Des Plaines Hobbies to produce the Former Red Caboose and Deluxe Product lines.

https://shopfvm.com/

Fingers Crossed we will see some good stuff!

Matt did a nice job modernizing the former RC covered hoppers... bodymounted couplers and etched walkways as I recall.

[drgw0579]

>I don't think any of us can answer  "will they ever be made?"

From what I understand, the reason IMR did cancel a lot of the things that had been hanging out for a long time but didn't have the reservations needed, was so there could be a bit more confidence that items "would be made".   I had reserved a set of Reading F7s, but those were cancelled.   I was then told that "be prepared to see the other road name you wanted.  Soon..."

Bill Kepner

[thomasjmdavis]

>I don't think any of us can answer  "will they ever be made?"

From what I understand, the reason IMR did cancel a lot of the things that had been hanging out for a long time but didn't have the reservations needed, was so there could be a bit more confidence that items "would be made".   I had reserved a set of Reading F7s, but those were cancelled.   I was then told that "be prepared to see the other road name you wanted.  Soon..."

Bill Kepner

I don't disagree with you Bill- that is consistent with their latest mailing.
I was responding to a previous post about a particular road's F3's. We'll just have to see what makes the top secret number of required reservations, and what doesn't, and what part of their product line they decide to put up for reservations in the first place, and what they don't.
However, I would suggest to IMRC that the best way to handle this going forward is to put a public closing date on reservations, and if they are going to cancel due to insufficient reservations, do so at that time- AND then have a deadline for production- that is, state that models will be delivered 12 months after reservations close (or whatever).  Sure, there could be unforeseen circumstances that could delay delivery by a couple months. But time frame and delivery are important. And they need to restore confidence of their dealers- as much as we gripe about IMRC on Railwire, the worst complaints I've heard about IMRC come from hobby shop owners.

At my age, I probably won't pre-order anything unless I am fairly convinced it will be delivered in my lifetime.  And with Rapido going the IMRC route on their announced ATSF reefers (tossing out their pre-order and delivery dates, with the announcement that they will do them someday after some unknown number of pre-orders is reached), that could be my last pre-order ever.

[mu26aeh]

IMRC announces too many roads in too many numbers at one time, plain and simple.   That's why reservation numbers can't be met.  They just throw @#$% against the wall and see what sticks.  Instead of 20 roads with 6-12 #'s each run every 4-5years, how about 5-6 roads, 3 #s every 18 months or so.  Seems to work well for others ie Athearn and their 33k LPG cars. 

Which reminds me, I need to email my LHS and make changes to my Trinity 3281 reservations from 6 or 7 years ago; that are, you guessed it, still taking reservations 

[JMaurer1]

What Thomas and mu both said in spades!

If you are going to do pre-orders, have a hard closing date for the pre-orders. Instead of doing 20 roads with 10 different numbers, do 5 roads in 3. And finally "At my age, I probably won't pre-order anything unless I am fairly convinced it will be delivered in my lifetime". It was well over 5+ years before IM cancelled the Chateau Martin milk reefers (I didn't even know that they did ANY of the cars other than Trovestar saying that there were 2-3 roads finally done...if I would have seen those done, I would have bought some and repainted them myself). I can only imagine the emotions my partner would experience getting a package of trains in the mail after I'm gone because the pre-order was finally produced...

[TrainCat2]

What would also be helpful is an indicator (% maybe) the the number of reservations for the super secret magic number that have been made for an item. I realize that could be a double edged sword, but it would be a sign of transparency that the buying public needs to see at this time. Just my $0.02.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I hate seeing this vicious circle play out. I WANT IM to be successful.

I WANT them to build models.

But they seem to be stuck in this whole zero risk mindset that's preventing their growth and success.

They have a real perception issue with modelers that dates back to their initial tunnel motors. Their diesels have been hit or miss, and as a result, I'd have a hard time committing to buying $1000 worth of them sight unseen. I KNOW I'm not alone in this.

But because I'm not going to take that risk, they're not going to make a thing, and as a result, I'm not going to have the opportunity to pay them for a thing.

I guess they're making payroll with their HO stuff, but like, it sucks to see the dynamic in N.

[TrainCat2]

Their diesels have been hit or miss, and as a result, I'd have a hard time committing to buying $1000 worth of them sight unseen. I KNOW I'm not alone in this.

+1

If I had the confidence in the desiel performance and that it would be made, I would go, TODAY, and reseve all #'s of the FT and F-3 in B&O.

[Tristan Ashcroft]

I guess they're making payroll with their HO stuff, but like, it sucks to see the dynamic in N.

Being on the Railwire as an HO guy is an interesting window into another world.  One of the things I see from time to time is a sense of some mystical HO world where Intermountain is a functional company meeting their commitments to their customers and delivering products that one can trust sight unseen on preorder.  Folks, I can tell you: it ain't that. 

To sum up: as an HO guy, I have no idea how Intermountain pays the bills, either.  I too hope for the best for them.

[nickelplate759]

+1

If I had the confidence in the desiel performance and that it would be made, I would go, TODAY, and reseve all #'s of the FT and F-3 in B&O.

More generally, I stopped pre-ordering from Intermountain due to lack of confidence that the product quality (performance of an engine, mechanicals of cars, paint and lettering) will be acceptable and commensurate with the price.

I've never had an Intermountain engine, but have acquired cars that don't roll well, are poorly painted, are painted in weird colors (like every Golden State car they have done) or have strange lettering.      I've also acquired many cars that are beautifully done.   So now I only buy Intermountain products I can see a physical example or production photo of.

[High Hood]

Almost ten years now since they announced the latest run of FT's. I think they were announced in 2014, though possibly earlier.