Intermountain SD40-2 !!11!

[Greyryder]

Heretic! Where are those pitchforks, torches and the angry mob I keep hearing about?! The humanity! 

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to bludgeon him with can openers?

[jagged ben]

Just found a photo of the new IM SD40-2!!! 


Ohh Wait..


Remember when this was a thing.????

I remember being excited (as a teenager) about the Spectrum Re-release in the mid-1990s.. then seeing the magazine add.. What a piece of garbage..  And that was before I knew the difference been Flexcoil and HTC trucks.

~Ian

Execution aside, you have to give Bachmann a bit of credit for including details like the ground-plane antenna, air conditioner, and beacon.  Still can't get that kind of stuff out of Kato or Atlas on a consistent basis.

(I, BTW, have not and will not read this whole thread.)

[daniel_leavitt2000]

... until they didn't:

[carlso]

Very interesting discussion. Wow, what experts we have here. I do not have any clue so I will ask those who are "in the trade " and deal with manufacturers.

Do you suppose they actually monitor all of the rail forums to see what is being cussed and discussed about their products or announced releases?  Do the HO guys bash manufacturers as bad? If not, maybe that's why some mfgr's seem to lean more towards HO.

Carl

[wcfn100]

Do the HO guys bash manufacturers as bad?

Yes they do.  The only difference is when they complain, they get this:

Concerning Athearn Genesis GP7 and GP9 products: some dimensional
discrepancies on these products have been pointed out and we regret any
inconvenience to our customers. Some small measurement errors occurred
in the development process and were not realized until after the first
models were shipped. In order to address these issues we have measured
actual full scale units in detail and are in the process of making the
necessary tooling changes to ensure that, while our measurements show
the current model is already the most accurate reproduction available,
the revisions will make it even more so. These changes are limited to
moving the side doors and grilles up .040", and the cab side front and
rear windows down .020", but since these changes are important to our
customers they are most important to Athearn. Already announced road
names to be produced with the changes include the Santa Fe Zebra Stripe,
New York Central, Boston & Maine and NKP, as well as any future
announcements. We sincerely regret any inconvenience to our customers
and continually endeavor to produce the most realistic, accurate, and
affordable model railroad products in the industry.

Must be nice to not get told to sit in the corner and shut up.

Jason

[johnh35]

Yes they do.  The only difference is when they complain, they get this:

Must be nice to not get told to sit in the corner and shut up.

Jason

That much concern over what would be 2-4 inch errors (1:1 scale)?  If you sell enough volume, you can afford to remake molds but I cannot imagine that the number of people that really were that vehement about the error would amount to enough sales volume to make it economically viable. I guess I am a slacker but I would prefer the money be invested in new product.

[peteski]

That much concern over what would be 2-4 inch errors (1:1 scale)?  If you sell enough volume, you can afford to remake molds but I cannot imagine that the number of people that really were that vehement about the error would amount to enough sales volume to make it economically viable. I guess I am a slacker but I would prefer the money be invested in new product.

With this kind of attitude, N scale ready-to-run models will never be accurate. Why even bother complaining and pointing out errors. Whatever new model we get is always good enough.   

But on a more serious note, even though the N scale is the 2nd most popular scale, our collective voice on the forums is not enough to convince manufacturers to produce accurate models.  Besides, forum grumblings are not enough. People should contact the manufacturers directly.

[Ike the BN Freak]

With this kind of attitude, N scale ready-to-run models will never be accurate. Why even bother complaining and pointing out errors. Whatever new model we get is always good enough.   

But on a more serious note, even though the N scale is the 2nd most popular scale, our collective voice on the forums is not enough to convince manufacturers to produce accurate models.  Besides, forum grumblings are not enough. People should contact the manufacturers directly.

I'd say vote with your wallets, but doing so just pushes the manufacturers to say that N scale isn't serious enough for them to produce in N, and drop out of N.  Almost seems as a lose lose situation.  We can contact the manufacturers, but depending on who it is, it could just fall on deaf ears.

Or could be like Walther's and their infamous GP38-2 thingy, we complain about the lack of -2 features, and their fix for the water sight glass is to paint one on, instead of fixing the tooling.

[VonRyan]

Do it like the old days with congress, write them. But if you really want results, physically mail them the letter and include research references and perhaps even professional references so that your statements may be taken more seriously.

I honestly think that if enough people wrote to the big manufactures about the issue(s) at hand, and perhaps even explained the "vote with your wallet" thing, then just maybe we won't loose manufactures and we might start getting a little more attention.


-Cody F.

[unittrain]

Yes they do.  The only difference is when they complain, they get this:

Must be nice to not get told to sit in the corner and shut up.

Jason

I agree manufacturers need to listen to the N scale community it being the second most popular scale!! But what is an acceptable minimum error tolerance for our scale? The .04" error in HO is a .021" error in N I'm pretty crazy over tolerances in my scratch building but find that If I can hold .015 to .02" that the model is acceptable of course these are hand built brass truss bridges ect not molds made in a CNC! I feel that Athearn and Exactrail are just wanting to focus on overly detailed models Athearn supplies the locomotives Exactrail the cars Heres an example

In my opinion a lot of the details on these hoppers is overkill and will never be noticed in a passing HO train hell I don't usually notice them on a prototype train unless I'm really looking I mean come on realistic corner gussets!! I feel these guys have lost their minds!! I feel what BLMA, Atlas and Trainworx does as the perfect model a lot of detail but not over board!!! I feel what HO scalers are getting is 2 things overly fragile models with super high prices so in return they get a super realistic coal car on a really unrealistic coal train since to model the prototype train accurately you need 40 to 80 cars!!! at $40 a pop I hope they are rich They also need 3 or 4 Athearn Genesis locomotives to pull the train I just had to blow off steam here but seriously I think these manufactures want 1 scale only HO so they can invest all there $ into museum pieces as opposed to operating models.

[Scottl]

What are the chances that this model will be the SD40-2W with an new cab?  Maybe someone contemplated this point, but the 17 pages of comments seem to focus on the perceived deficiencies with the SD40T/45-2 models.

[SD452XR]

I am happy with my tunnel motors. If intermountain does the Milw Road SD40-2 with the short fuel tank I'll be in for some as well. Will these units be perfect, no they wont. Atlas and Kato don't make perfect ones either. If I want perfect locomotives, I just go to work and run the real ones.

Steve

[lv4142003]

After reading all 17 pages on this topic I realized that I don't own any IM locomotives or cars. I have at least 5 friends with large HO home railroads and asked them how many they had and how they ran. No body had any. One friend who is in N has a single set of FT's in O&W and he likes them, says they run well, they're the only ones he has. But the HO'ers have several hundred locomotives between them (don't we all!) and not one has an IM locomotive. The LHS doesn't carry them and no one has asked him to order any. Atlas - Athearn - Kato - P2K - some BLI seem to be the bulk of motive power needs here in the South Jersey area. I know I've never read anything good about them. There haven't been any glowing reports about them that I'm aware of and after reading this thread, I'm not inclined to go out and get one (in any scale) and find out whether they are any good. I hope they do something to improve their product and their image.

[Kisatchie]

After reading all 17 pages on this topic I realized that I don't own any IM locomotives or cars...

I have several hundred N scale Intermountain cars, all assembled (or waiting to be assembled) from kits. They really are nice cars. I don't have any locos, since I don't have a layout yet. When I finally build one, I'll be in the market for some IM F7s and F3s.


Hmm... rah rah rah,
Intermountain kits...!

[wes_sutton]

After reading all 17 pages on this topic I realized that I don't own any IM locomotives or cars. I have at least 5 friends with large HO home railroads and asked them how many they had and how they ran. No body had any. One friend who is in N has a single set of FT's in O&W and he likes them, says they run well, they're the only ones he has. But the HO'ers have several hundred locomotives between them (don't we all!) and not one has an IM locomotive. The LHS doesn't carry them and no one has asked him to order any. Atlas - Athearn - Kato - P2K - some BLI seem to be the bulk of motive power needs here in the South Jersey area. I know I've never read anything good about them. There haven't been any glowing reports about them that I'm aware of and after reading this thread, I'm not inclined to go out and get one (in any scale) and find out whether they are any good. I hope they do something to improve their product and their image.

I'm sure they appreciate your concern.