Sd45-2'

[CVSNE]

I've done a better job at keeping quiet than Erik has (wow, that's gotta be a first!!! ;D ;D) but I know exactly what he's talking about and shared many of his frustrations. 

[Erik W]

I've done a better job at keeping quiet than Erik has (wow, that's gotta be a first!!! ;D ;D) but I know exactly what he's talking about and shared many of his frustrations. 

I've noticed that.  You must've chewed your lip off by now!  I'm impressed by your ability to keep your mouth shut with this.  I on the other hand . . .

Erik

[Robbman]

Message deleted

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I have long suspected that IMRC is a real sinking ship, mostly because of what Erik just alluded too. If they don't have the right people (and keep running the good ones off), it's not surprising their crap is just that, crap.

Oh well, we can only hope that someday Atlas buys them out.

[Ryan87]

it's not surprising their crap is just that, crap.

What I don't understand is it's not consistent, Intermountain ha made some awesome models. The latest run of F7's and the Trinity Hopper were as good as anyone else is doing.

But this thing is a step back to the 1980's ...

[Mark5]

Yes, there is the Intermountain good stuff and then there is the Intermountain not so good stuff.

I really like my IM F units and the ACF 4650 and 4750 covered hoppers.

It is simplistic to bitch about all their products.

[Robbman]

Message deleted

[tom mann]

Can anyone (Marty, Erik) articulate why some manufacturers can get good results and some can't when they are using the same factory?

[Matthew Roberts]

Is it whether or not they really care?

[Ryan87]

5161 has some fitment and/or assembly issues... every one I've seen has bowed ends.

True but all considered its still a good model (just not quite as well engineered as Atlas' ACF's)

[CVSNE]

Can anyone (Marty, Erik) articulate why some manufacturers can get good results and some can't when they are using the same factory?

Tom,

It's the same company, but not the same factory. SDK has a number of factories (10 or 11 as I recall) -- Intermountain, Red Caboose, and, of all things, USA Trains are produced by the same factory.  Of course, USA Trains is much more seasonally driven - meaning, as I'm sure Erik remembers, to a late fall "slowdown" in Intermountain products as many of the workers were shifted to USA Trains products in an effort to get containers loaded.  Since it's almost economically feasible to air ship finished N scale product (at least much more feasible than large scale) we would often be forced to fly much of our product back late in the year. To make up the difference the USA Trains assembly people would then be shifted to InterMountain - a concept I didn't understand since our assembly lines fully understood Intermountain's products and parts but to take people who had, the day before, been using screw guns to assemble cars and put them on N scale tunnel motors or covered hoppers seemed to make little sense to me.  But there was nothing we could really do to prevent it.


One issue Intermountain, and frankly Red Caboose, have is many of the models (I know, not the engines, I'm talking about the cars) were not designed for mass production - they were designed as kits which implies a certain amount of "fiddling" on the part of the modeler.  When those same parts are built into finished cars "assembly line" fashion a small deviation in tolerance either needs to be addressed manually by the assembly department, or molds need to be reworked.  As Sanda Kan has no control over Intermountain's molds, sometimes they are forced to work with less than perfect parts. 

Marty

[3rdrail]

Marty, some of us wish the kits were still available. But, I guess there are not enough of us...

[amato1969]

You get my vote for kits.  My LHS can still get some of the IM boxcars (from Walthers).  Like Marty says, they build up very nicely with some TLC.

[CVSNE]

Marty, some of us wish the kits were still available. But, I guess there are not enough of us...

As a modeler I agree but when I worked for Intermountain it was clearly obvious the kits weren't selling.  One of the problems was the kits would be released, then 3 or 4 months later the exact same paint scheme would be available assembled - meaning the kit sales for that item stopped dead.  It wasn't too long before the dealers - and customers - caught on to this and orders for kits dried up.

I'm sure Erik remembers (somewhat less fondly than me, since I told him to do it, it was up to him and a few others to actually do the work of packing things up ) how many kits we shipped overseas for assembly -- 10 or 20 thousand if I recall - and that's just N scale. . . .

I do know there are still undecorated kits available, although that introduces the need to paint and letter the things and N scale freight car decals aren't exactly readily available (And some of the ones that are, frankly, stink).

Marty

[Mark5]

N scale freight car decals aren't exactly readily available (And some of the ones that are, frankly, stink).

Very true.