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Post by SOMECALLMETIM on Apr 13, 2023 13:19:49 GMT -8
Intermountain has sent out an email with a link of the projects they are cancelling and a way ahead for future announcements. Hopefully they can get their production going again and have a quicker turn around from announcement to finished model. They have a ton of announced projects, but a slow trickle of actual production projects. intermountain-railway.com/hocancelled.htmlHere is the email body: Over the past few years, InterMountain Railway Company has maintained its commitment to produce the best in class locomotives, rolling stock and precision metal wheelsets. We continue our research and development efforts to bring more locomotive projects to the market; and are excited to announce that several will be shipping later in 2023. The first ones out will be the N scale F7 A/B and more HO scale Tier 4 GEVOs! Since 2018, InterMountain has produced and delivered over 50 individual rolling stock projects in both HO and N scale. In order to focus our future production planning, we have decided to clean up and organize our list of projects currently posted for Advanced Reservations. As part of this effort, we will cancel some of the lower interest projects. These cancelled projects are likely to be re-announced at some point in the future. When re-announced we will start over with all new reservations in order to gauge support and interest at that time. Advanced Reservations already submitted for these cancelled projects will be removed. For all newly announced products, we will clearly communicate the reservation deadline. Shortly after the closing of the Advanced Reservation period we will analyze the data and more forward on those most in demand for our customers. To make the best decisions possible it is important that all reservations be received by the Advanced Reservation Deadline. Status updates will be posted on our website. The list of cancellations can be found here. We expect this rededication to our list of upcoming projects ensures that our loyal customers will be updated with accurate and timely information. Everyone here at InterMountain Railway are humbled and pleased by the strong and continuing support of all of our fine resellers and customers. it is our belief that this move to greater transparency in our production schedule will benefit all of us in the future. |
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Post by riogrande on Apr 13, 2023 13:23:57 GMT -8
Intermountain ships one to two new models a month. I think it seems bad because of the list they have. They recently shipped the popular drop bottom gons which include the SP Beet gons and the D&RGW gons of which I order a bunch. There are a couple runs of 50' boxcars in transit and the SP bay window cabooses are in production presently. I think the UP CA-5/6 cabooses are on the way also.
Edit: I got an email from Intermountain as well. Anyway, this seems like modus operandi. When they ship something I want, I grab it. I have lost track of how many years ago they announced the SD40T-2's? Five, six, seven years? More. They are still listed as accepting reservations. ScaleTrains has quit with the SD40T-2's for now but may actually release more before IMRC finally does.
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Post by unittrain on Apr 13, 2023 14:19:38 GMT -8
They have a good number of cool 50' ps-1 boxcars coming. Going to get several.
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Post by unittrain on Apr 13, 2023 14:25:04 GMT -8
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Frank
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Post by Frank on Apr 13, 2023 14:28:38 GMT -8
I never disliked Intermountain products, but it is a shame that niche products like the GP10, GP16, and even U18B will likely never be attempted by another manufacturer so long as they are tied into permanent limbo by Intermountain.
The idea of trimming down their product line and streamlining a bit is a good thing. They need it. Once upon a time Intermountain was a company that would take chances on a risky item like those mentioned above with great results. Their U18B with some tooling refinements (starting with the cab issues..) could set a new standard for U boat models in HO. But there may not ever be an another run. GP10’s flew off the shelves. GP16’s would as well, if not for the 10+ year lead time. Just feels like endless missed opportunities on their part, on account of inability to have delivered on a timely schedule.
Rolling stock is trickling in better for sure. Bought quite a few of their autoracks which were great.
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Post by markfj on Apr 13, 2023 14:32:34 GMT -8
The only items on the list of cancellations that surprise me are the containers. However, it seems that other companies like Athearn are filling in any void in that market so maybe IMRC just want to focus its resources on locomotives and cars.
Thanks, Mark
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Post by hudsonyard on Apr 13, 2023 15:21:53 GMT -8
Few things in there I would've bought, so it goes.
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Post by simulatortrain on Apr 13, 2023 16:48:51 GMT -8
You never know, that entire run of 53' flats from a few months ago went straight from canceled to in production...
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Post by cera2254 on Apr 13, 2023 17:37:33 GMT -8
Have we ever gotten an answer to why there aren’t GP16s on the market yet? Broken tooling?
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Post by Mr. Trainiac on Apr 13, 2023 17:56:30 GMT -8
Have we ever gotten an answer to why there aren’t GP16s on the market yet? Broken tooling? from my understanding, it had to do with the production issues Intermountain had with their factory a few years ago. The only locomotives I have seen recently from Intermountain are the Tier 4 GEs. Hopefully this restructuring will allow them to focus on more locomotives. The GP16s need to come out, and there is a backlog on a lot of other models like SD40-2, SD38-2, and GP10. It looks like the SP Cab Forward steam locomotive is gone too. I don't see it on either the Cancelled Products or Current Reservations pages. Is that model gone forever now? I can see some road numbers on the model's individual page still say Advance Reservation, so hopefully it's just an error with the main reservation page. I remember when I first started in the hobby and before I really pinned down an era, this was a locomotive I always wanted. |
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Post by riogrande on Apr 14, 2023 4:36:01 GMT -8
Hopefully this restructuring will allow them to focus on more locomotives. The GP16s need to come out, and there is a backlog on a lot of other models like SD40-2, SD38-2, and GP10. It looks like the SP Cab Forward steam locomotive is gone too. I don't see it on either the Cancelled Products or Current Reservations pages. Is that model gone forever now? I can see some road numbers on the model's individual page still say Advance Reservation, so hopefully it's just an error with the main reservation page. I remember when I first started in the hobby and before I really pinned down an era, this was a locomotive I always wanted. You're right, it's missing from the current reservations page. The individual page www.intermountain-railway.com/ho/loco/holocac12.htm page may not have been updated along with the main page so only way to find out would be to contact IMRC. As an SP fan from my early teen years and always wanting to have a least one steam engine, I finally got around to buying one of the AC steam engines from Intermountain about 7 or so years ago; it's from the 3rd run which corrected the issues reported from the 1st two runs. |
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Post by richardthomasatal on Apr 14, 2023 7:55:32 GMT -8
I'll take intermountain seriously again when they routinely put locomotives and rolling stock out. Until then I won't even order from them because I don't expect to see the products. I've got locomotives on pre order through my local hobby shop since 2016 without taking delivery.
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Post by hudsonyard on Apr 14, 2023 8:50:40 GMT -8
intermountains releases tend to just arrive, i was blindsided by those 50' cars a couple months ago, i got a few but they vanished quickly.
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Post by riogrande on Apr 14, 2023 9:03:28 GMT -8
I'll take intermountain seriously again when they routinely put locomotives and rolling stock out. Until then I won't even order from them because I don't expect to see the products. I've got locomotives on pre order through my local hobby shop since 2016 without taking delivery. I don't think I've ever pre-ordered anything Intermountain - and you've articulated why. What I do is buy them when Intermountain models show up. That seems to work well for me. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2023 9:19:38 GMT -8
This is conjecture on my part: When factories were switched, did they lose any of that tooling?
I know for a fact that one other manufacturer does not know and cannot confirm that all the tooling for one of their existing locomotives was transferred to the new factory, and that issue combined with questionable remaining sales projected for that particular diesel will result in it possibly never being run again. In order to even run sample models, the tooling has to be located/identified and put into a production slot. Then at that time, if/when they discover something is factually missing, the missing item(s) must be replaced with new tooling. Even setting up to make sample models has a real cost. Sales potential has to be significant, or else just setting up to run test models is an utter waste of time and money. It is anticipated that if only a few items of tooling are missing, there are not enough remaining sales of that particular engine to offset the costs of replacement tooling.
Even though tooling was transferred between factories with the best of intentions, it seems obvious to me that things could go missing.
Could some tooling for the GP16 be in the same boat of "misplaced"? Obviously no manufacturer/importer would want to admit to this possibility, as it is embarrassing as a minimum.
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Post by riogrande on Apr 14, 2023 9:29:55 GMT -8
intermountains releases tend to just arrive, i was blindsided by those 50' cars a couple months ago, i got a few but they vanished quickly. You can avoid being blindsided by checking their website periodically. When they show a model in-transit, that means they will be showing up at dealers in a matter of weeks - as in on the water. You can check the "Shipping this Month" to see what is going to be available in a matter of days or may be already there. When I saw the beet gons on Ebay, I knew to be checking MBK (in this case) daily, and had no problem buying what I wanted when they showed up. Ebay prices were around $44 each but MBK were $36. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2023 9:31:58 GMT -8
I have had many good Intermountain products, including their wheelsets.
However, since "going modern" up to today's freight trains for the sake of my son, my need for some Intermountain products is reduced.
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Post by riogrande on Apr 14, 2023 9:33:53 GMT -8
ScaleTrains offers a lot of "modern" stuff, and to some degree ExactRail and Atlas. I still prefer 70's and 80's so Intermountain has a lot to offer as well as earlier era's.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2023 20:53:58 GMT -8
When I said going modern, I meant that I'm now personally looking for stuff that is a bit newer than '70's and '80's...like freight cars built well later than 2000.
We have one Intermountain Gevo on hand, but it is non-sound and too expensive to convert for what it is so might go. It honestly is just terrible in dcc, and as such I don't think we'd buy another. It runs much better in plain dc. It is fairly well-detailed but is just simply outdone by Genesis 2.0 and ST offerings.
If Intermountain started using more of the see-through screens...well that would be different...but as others have said, you never know when their products will arrive. I've not always been a ST fan, but their stuff arrives when they say it will, if not actually early to their announced schedule. It's very hard to pass up as are the Genesis 2.0 engines (we have 6 of those).
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Post by Colin 't Hart on Apr 14, 2023 23:52:09 GMT -8
I was surprised to not see the GP16s and the early ACF 2927 cu ft 3-bay covered hoppers on the cancelled list. Samples of the GP16s have been seen, but the ACF covered hoppers are complete vaporware. The oldest pre-order I have open is for some cars in a new run of the Milwaukee Road rib side boxcars... announced 6 years ago now; I got the email about it on April 18th, 2017.
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Post by five83 on Apr 15, 2023 7:06:27 GMT -8
Surprised to see the PFE ice reefers being cancelled. Those always appeared to be good sellers.
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Frank
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Post by Frank on Apr 15, 2023 8:23:58 GMT -8
I was surprised to not see the GP16s and the early ACF 2927 cu ft 3-bay covered hoppers on the cancelled list. Samples of the GP16s have been seen, but the ACF covered hoppers are complete vaporware. The oldest pre-order I have open is for some cars in a new run of the Milwaukee Road rib side boxcars... announced 6 years ago now; I got the email about it on April 18th, 2017. The closest the GP16 came were the preproduction samples, at a train show in 2018. Since then they have fallen in and out of “in production” and “queued for production” status at Intermountain. I still remember the original announcement back in 2013. I was still an active duty Marine at the time, only a Corporal at that, wondering how I was going to afford a dozen of them! |
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Post by riogrande on Apr 15, 2023 9:11:49 GMT -8
Surprised to see the PFE ice reefers being cancelled. Those always appeared to be good sellers. Indeed they have been. Surprising to me as well. The last batch went pretty fast. |
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Post by NS4122 on Apr 16, 2023 19:04:45 GMT -8
The only pre-order that I've cancelled was for an Intermountain ES44AC. They were announced years ago and they still aren't close. With ScaleTrains doing GEVOS as well, it didn't make sense to keep that reservation.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2023 7:10:45 GMT -8
My son and I are finding it worthwhile to standardize the roster around ST Gevos and Genesis 2.0 Dash 9's. The one Intermountain unit, though nice, is not as nice as they are, so is out for sale.
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Post by drolsen on Apr 19, 2023 3:52:50 GMT -8
I was surprised to not see the GP16s and the early ACF 2927 cu ft 3-bay covered hoppers on the cancelled list. Samples of the GP16s have been seen, but the ACF covered hoppers are complete vaporware. The oldest pre-order I have open is for some cars in a new run of the Milwaukee Road rib side boxcars... announced 6 years ago now; I got the email about it on April 18th, 2017. What was the last new model that Intermountain actually released? The PS 4785 covered hopper? I thought it would have been the ACF 2927, but I actually forgot that it hasn’t shown up yet. I used to buy quite a few of their models, but I now have more PCF R-70-20 reefers and PS 5277 and FMC 5283 boxcars that I really should. I can’t justify any more of those, so without any new models on the horizon, I can’t see myself buying much more from Intermountain. I credit them with setting a new standard for detail with their freight cars that I think led to high quality models like Tangent and others, but it’s unfortunate that they’ve become a bit stagnant in the past decade. Dave |
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Post by riogrande on Apr 19, 2023 4:05:44 GMT -8
It's true that most of the models produced by Intermountain have been reruns of existing types, but one thing I have noticed, they still seem to sell out. I've been playing catch up with some of their models but hopefully now would only get one or two here and there depending on what is released in the future.
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Post by markfj on Apr 19, 2023 5:15:33 GMT -8
When IMRC released the PS 4785 covered hopper, I thought it was the start of a revival in new product development at the company. The model was decent and on par with up-to-date releases from other companies. But then that was it.  Thanks, Mark |
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Post by drolsen on Apr 19, 2023 6:45:21 GMT -8
Intermountain has produced some great freight car models, and I’m glad they’re still making them, especially for newer modelers just getting into the hobby, or those that missed out on them when they were first released. I’m personally just tapped out. Using the example of the R-70-20 reefer, I love the model and ended up with about fifteen of them, but the cold storage warehouse I plan to model only got about one or two a day, mixed in with a couple cryogenic reefers, at the peak of its operations. I’m probably going to have the local deliver loads and pull them empties so I can justify using double the number the facility could handle (still trying to find more info about how it operated).
I had high hopes (like many others) when Gene Fusco joined the Intermountain team that they would produce plastic models based on all the products that made up his Railyard Models line. I think the PS 4785 was a result of that, but I’ve heard that Gene has since retired. Knowing him personally, I’ve very happy for him, but I also hope Intermountain has a few more new freight cars in the works.
Dave
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Post by riogrande on Apr 19, 2023 7:13:17 GMT -8
I really like Intermountain models as well. Partly from being an SP fan I've purchased a mix of the R-70-15 and R-70-20 PFE reefers good for the late 70's. They did show up on the D&RGW but only in small numbers. Intermountain makes a lot of freight cars good for 70's which I have partook and for those modeling earlier periods, some going back to the 1940's. The, not yet released, CF2927 covered hoppers are still on the list taking reservations. It would be nice to see some models based on some of the Railyard Models.
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