Intermountain GP10s canceled

[Rivet Miscounter]

Well, this is probably one of those blessings in disguise.  It seems like these days a Paducah geep and the Santa Fe derivative could sort of leverage together by *someone* to be successful in N.   And that was probably never going to be Intermountain.  I will try to resist beating the dead IMRC reservation horse and overall m.o. these days, but man what a head-scratcher.

[wazzou]

I remember nearly twenty-five years ago, when Intermountain was a fledgling company and I’d bought tons of parts and had dealt with Frank personally.
He’d asked on a couple of occasions if I’d be interested in a significant investment in the Company, sort of on the ground floor, if you will.
I asked him for a prospectus or a scenario outlining my investment but it never went anywhere.
I’m glad I was skeptical, TBH.

[u18b]

I would have loved to have a Family Lines/SBD Sys/CSX   GP16.

But I have to sadly admit, I also have no faith in this company to produce anything.   Con Cor used to have the award for vaporware, but IM beat them out a long time ago.

IIRC, There were some pretty funny memes on the old Atlas board about the SD45-2 original run which took forever to get here.  At one point, we heard that they were "on the water" meaning they had been shipped.    But after months and months went by, it appeared that someone was lying.   I was so glad when they finally arrived and the Clinchfield SD45-2 is the only IM loco I own.

If they had ever done the CSX executive F units, then I *might* have bought those (if they did the F7A accurately as a late model F3), but they did NOT announce them in the beautiful Bright Future scheme.  Instead they announced the old ugly blue and gray scheme.   After a few years of not getting enough  orders, they canceled.


 

[Bill H]

Don't mean to disrespect anyone but I have to give IM at least some credit. More than half my running stock was built from many many IM kits that I bought off the Bay for $5-$15 bucks. They got me back into the hobby at the ground floor. They were great for doing projects while I was on the road constantly Got a whole bunch of IM F-7s which remain today as solid, dependable runners. Never, ever had the slightest issue with their customer service, they always responded quickly with replacement parts and all around good service.

As they say, I guess your mileage will vary...

[thomasjmdavis]

Bill H,
I think most of us LIKE the products, especially rolling stock, that IM has produced.  I have several of their F and FT locos that operate well, although I've read about issues with some other locos.  I have dozens of their freight cars.... Almost all of which were purchased over 15 years ago, when the cars were available, or over eBay, as used.  The reason I haven't bought many recently is because they canceled production on almost everything I wanted. For the last 10 years or more.  I managed to pick up a few ATSF 1937 mod. boxcars a few years ago (2019?)- apparently all the Santa Fe modelers ordered- because they did 8 different ATSF variations at 6 numbers each, but no other roadname made the cut for quantity, so all others were canceled.  Which (if that estimate of 300 per lettering scheme given above was correct), Santa Fe modelers put in over 2400 pre-orders- enough to justify running the body style, and no other road could muster 300.

If they don't make it, we can't buy it.  What makes us mad is, as long as IMRC has pre-orders open for all these dozens of models they haven't produced, no one else will produce them either, and therefore, at least those of us who are transition era modelers are out of luck.

[nkalanaga]

And, as far as I know, they have the only AAR Standard 40 foot boxcar available in N scale.  Everybody else I know of makes PS-1s.

Fortunately I have more 12-panel cars than I need, as the GN used those almost exclusively, and they show up on other, less well known, roads as well.  I have a dozen or more of those to be repainted, someday, as needed.

[basementcalling]

Why am I not surprised?

Never expected these would get into production, at least not from IM.

Love to buy their cars. Have lots of their 3 bay covered hoppers, and their 5188 runs were nice.  But their production list is like a wish list for Santa Clause from a kid back in the day who dog eared the entire Sears toy catalogue. It just ain't happening.

[JMaurer1]

If they don't make it, we can't buy it.  What makes us mad is, as long as IMRC has pre-orders open for all these dozens of models they haven't produced, no one else will produce them either, and therefore, at least those of us who are transition era modelers are out of luck.

This is the point (again). IM (or for that matter, any MFR) would come out and announce that they were making something and it steered the other MFRs away from duplicating it or making something similar...then it doesn't get made, ever. And IM would keep saying that they were making something for YEARS and YEARS before cancelling it. That's the frustrating part. I have also built more than a few IM rolling stock kits...AAR boxes, reefers, tanks (although I do wish their tanks had wire handrails instead of plastic...I don't know if I ever built one without breaking the handrails at least once). Most of what they produced was, at worst, VERY NICE, but sometimes just not done very well (can you say frame rot?). Then, for the longest time, they just really didn't produce anything other than promises. They could have been great, they almost were. No Micro Trains or Atlas, but, at one time (key words: at one time), they were above Athearn, ConCor, Bachmann, Bowser, Fox Valley, but they apparently burned out... a shooting star.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

As someone who's spent a lot of time "up in" their SD40-2s. I'm saying you probably dodged a bullet.

They're fine, but there are just so many subtle build quality things that I've had to deal with that it's probably better for any GP10 fans to DIY or wait for a better option.

[bigdawgks]

I wasn't active in the hobby at the time but I believe Intermountain was one of the many manufacturers affected by the 2018 factory closure in China. I suspect this killed off a lot of their production capacity and it's a shame because as others have mentioned their products are good and fill a lot of gaps in the market. I really hope they and the other companies affected can eventually bounce back but I feel like some since then many have been too quiet. While the hobby appears to still be strong this makes me worry about the longevity and variety of products available in N.

[Philip H]

I wasn't active in the hobby at the time but I believe Intermountain was one of the many manufacturers affected by the 2018 factory closure in China..

This is true, as is the pernicious knock on effects of COVID.

Doesn't change the fact that IM's business model and reputation of not delivering isn't helping them.  Frankly scaling back the asks and then delivering timely would go a long way to reversing this.

[mu26aeh]

This is true, as is the pernicious knock on effects of COVID.

Doesn't change the fact that IM's business model and reputation of not delivering isn't helping them.  Frankly scaling back the asks and then delivering timely would go a long way to reversing this.

This has been my "complaint", if you want to call it that.  Why announce 15 road names and 6-12 numbers with a run ?  Then wonder why they don't get enough pre-orders for a specific sku ?  5-6 road names, 3 numbers each would suffice, and then run them more often than every 10 years

[kiwi_al]

In the past I have been a fan of Intermountain, they actually produced the items I wanted with good quality. The FT's, f3's and F7's had me firmly hooked then we had a misstep (I'm being polite) with the tunnel motor saga, Intermountain never regained their reputation after this event (outside the US anyway).
The SD45-2's ran nicely but had decoration issues like - smooth walkways, glued together windows and shell pieces and the paint was very thick.
When the SD40-2's came along, I passed. I haven't purchased a single Intermountain product in a decade.
They really need to stop relying on preorders , the modelling world is mainly done with them. They need to do limited runs and get it out the door. Once they start doing this peoples  perceptions will change. But I fear that the person running Intermountain is a scared 5 year old. (I don't think you guys are ready for some kiwi vernacular) This is solely my opinion and has no real merit.   

[davefoxx]

IM announced the HO scale GP16 years ago.  The GP16 was the result of a rebuild program for the Seaboard Coast Line’s GP7s and GP9s, which became Seaboard System and CSXT Geeps after those mergers and were eventually sold to many short lines.  In other words, there’s dozens of paint schemes that could probably be done.  But, IM announced the GP16, cornered the market by continuing the charade of going to production, and turned these models into vaporware.  So, yes, IM does it in HO scale, too.

DFF

[Angus Shops]

It’s really too bad they have all these issues - when they’re on their game, they make some excellent products. Like many, I have many of their boxcars,  mostly from days gone by, but I also grabbed some 40 foot CP boxcars off the shelf at the LHS fairly recently. Nice cars, but the ride height was ridiculous, even for me that doesn’t get offended by ride height as much as others. Easily fixed…

I have 3 F7B’s and 3 FP7’s that I really like - silky smooth and quiet.