Kato N EMD F3/F7 Additional paint schemes

[ek2000]

Kato F3 and F7 Loksound units are at MBKlein in Northern Pacific, Burlington, Great Northern and SantaFe (Blue Bonnet) schemes. One of these days, I'm going to pick up one of these tired of waiting on IM to release their Loksound units.

[mu26aeh]

Funny that you mention the IM units, as I just inquired about them this week.  Here is a response I got via e-mail from IMRC

" All of the F-units have been ordered, we are waiting for the factory to design and ship us a new chassis that uses the new slip-in decoder design for us to test and review.  We are hoping to see the samples soon after the factory returns from Chinese New Year.  I believe the freight units are first and then the FP's.  If I were to speculate, I would think third or fourth quarter of this year. "

[Jbub]

Funny that you mention the IM units, as I just inquired about them this week.  Here is a response I got via e-mail from IMRC

" All of the F-units have been ordered, we are waiting for the factory to design and ship us a new chassis that uses the new slip-in decoder design for us to test and review.  We are hoping to see the samples soon after the factory returns from Chinese New Year.  I believe the freight units are first and then the FP's.  If I were to speculate, I would think third or fourth quarter of this year. "

And there were some thinking it was a shortage of decoders. NOPE, they don't have a chassis designed for the new decoder.

[GhengisKong]

Wow someone was saying March for delivery of IMRC's new F units, but now it is 3rd or 4th quarter! Hopefully this includes Wheels of Time's new WP custom run...

[w neal]

Not to P in anyone's cheerios, but be wary. I picked up the Kato Milwaukee FP7s with locksound. Although they are well installed, work perfectly, and sound great, the shells ride high due to the speakers being too thick/not enough milled off the locomotive's frames. 

Hopefully Kato has corrected this for the runs you mention above. I hope.

[nightmare0331]

later units have the speaker base shortened a bit by sanding the base down to address some of the fitment/high riding issues along with a couple of other tweaks.

There is no place to machine more material without going into the rear truck so it's not a question of removing frame material...that would be easy.

Enjoy!

Kelley.
www.dufordmodelworks.com

[CBQ Fan]

Wow someone was saying March for delivery of IMRC's new F units, but now it is 3rd or 4th quarter! Hopefully this includes Wheels of Time's new WP custom run...

I just checked Intermountain’s website and still showing March for numerous F3 & F7 units. FT’s in June. Where are you getting your dates?

[ek2000]

Those dates are not up to date. IM however is good at responding to inquiries on product availability (unlike Atlas). I think the guidance posted earlier in this thread seems logical and updated based on what I heard from IM last Nov. I posted a thread here on this but will paste it again below for reference.

"
We have sent the PO's and artwork for the N Scale F units and are waiting for the factory to confirm that the new chassis design is complete.  Once it is, they will send samples for us to test and then production will begin.  Our information from them in response to our inquiries has been that we should receive samples "soon" but unfortunately we have been hearing that for a few months now. They are next in line so IF we see those new chassis before the end of the year we should see them in the February container.

The N Scale Tier 4 GEVO's are now in the tooling phase.  We may have pre-production plastic before Chinese New Year but don't expect to see finished plastic until the second quarter of 2018."

[GhengisKong]

I just checked Intermountain’s website and still showing March for numerous F3 & F7 units. FT’s in June. Where are you getting your dates?

See post 2 of this thread.

[mu26aeh]

Those dates are not up to date. IM however is good at responding to inquiries on product availability (unlike Atlas). I think the guidance posted earlier in this thread seems logical and updated based on what I heard from IM last Nov. I posted a thread here on this but will paste it again below for reference.

Actually the page is updated monthly, usually by the middle of the month ( in this case Feb 12).  Of course, we're only privy to information they want to let known.  I imagine the F units will probably be pushed back 1-2 months in March given that they are just waiting on the chassis and final approval for that. 

[CBQ Fan]

Typical Intermountain. You get as many answers as people you talk to. They must actually mean March of 2018 on their website. I placed my order in June of 2014, it is absolutely shameful that an F unit order should be delayed this long. All for DCC with sound which is the absolute minority of engine customers.  Let the hate rain down. I don’t care. I will never pre order anything from Intermountain again. Absolutely ridiculous!  Broadway Limited Imports will get their F unit to market sooner!  I am willing to take bets.  What is the over under in months that BL will get to market before IM??

[ek2000]

Typical Intermountain. You get as many answers as people you talk to. They must actually mean March of 2018 on their website. I placed my order in June of 2014, it is absolutely shameful that an F unit order should be delayed this long. All for DCC with sound which is the absolute minority of engine customers.  Let the hate rain down. I don’t care. I will never pre order anything from Intermountain again. Absolutely ridiculous!  Broadway Limited Imports will get their F unit to market sooner!  I am willing to take bets.  What is the over under in months that BL will get to market before IM??

It's hard to argue with this point, however, I'd much rather take IM's F unit with the delays than BLI's F unit. Don't forget how long it took for BLI to get their M1 out (has the record I guess) and how the AC6000 fared in spite of being more than a year late. I'm not a BLI hater or an IM lover, but several of these companies seem to have one or the other issue. Atlas has promised several models this year, let's see how they materialize. Rapido usually sticks to dates and commitments, but they have a strict pre-order policy which many are not a fan of. Goes back to my earlier statement of each company having its own facet to this issue.

[CBQ Fan]

It's hard to argue with this point, however, I'd much rather take IM's F unit with the delays than BLI's F unit. Don't forget how long it took for BLI to get their M1 out (has the record I guess) and how the AC6000 fared in spite of being more than a year late. I'm not a BLI hater or an IM lover, but several of these companies seem to have one or the other issue. Atlas has promised several models this year, let's see how they materialize. Rapido usually sticks to dates and commitments, but they have a strict pre-order policy which many are not a fan of. Goes back to my earlier statement of each company having its own facet to this issue.

All fair points.  And at least IM offers non-sound. I have a fleet of BLI E units that I don’t run often cause I don’t care for the sound.  I like sound is O & G , but for some reason strongly dislike it in N.

[mecgp7]

I saw the announcement for the BLI units on the BLW site. As far as I am concerned, IMRC gets my money. I am so tired of manufacturers making repeat models of others and offering only the same roadnames. Kato and BLI must follow the same list of paint schemes. At least IMRC produces multiple roadnames and makes an effort to produce more. Sometimes orders don't justice a run, but at least they are seeking modelers' input.