Intermountain/Centralia 2022 passenger cars wrong fonts!

[thomasjmdavis]

Maybe contact the manufacture first and talk with them before going public on a forum with what may or may not be a problem. (not saying this is not an error, but give them the opportunity to fix it)  Just me thinking out loud.

Joe

You are right Joe, and I gave you an upvote. Yes, the first thing to do is to contact the manufacturer. Certainly, we should assume error or incompetence rather than assuming fraudulent intent.  However, it is a 2 way street.

A quick message on a forum like this alerts other modelers who haven't ordered yet, and who have a right to know what they are going to get.  In these days, those who did not pre-order, may have only days, or hours, to purchase one from whatever inventory is ordered by dealers.  Many retailers (for instance, MBK) use the graphics provided by IMRC, rather than photos of the actual product, in their own web catalogs. 

I haven't done a thorough search. The 3 retailers I did check did not show these particular cars as in stock, but previous IMRC/Centralia cars are show in IMRC graphics, not as photos of the actual models.
It may be that IMRC has now recognized the problem and not shipped these to retailers, or it may be that they are shipping out the pre-orders first and shipments to retailers have not arrived.

[nickelplate759]

You are right Joe, and I gave you an upvote. Yes, the first thing to do is to contact the manufacturer. Certainly, we should assume error or incompetence rather than assuming fraudulent intent.  However, it is a 2 way street.

A quick message on a forum like this alerts other modelers who haven't ordered yet, and who have a right to know what they are going to get.  In these days, those who did not pre-order, may have only days, or hours, to purchase one from whatever inventory is ordered by dealers.  Many retailers (for instance, MBK) use the graphics provided by IMRC, rather than photos of the actual product, in their own web catalogs. 

I haven't done a thorough search. The 3 retailers I did check did not show these particular cars as in stock, but previous IMRC/Centralia cars are show in IMRC graphics, not as photos of the actual models.
It may be that IMRC has now recognized the problem and not shipped these to retailers, or it may be that they are shipping out the pre-orders first and shipments to retailers have not arrived.

I did eventually speak with Intermountain.  It took an e-mail (no response, still) and 2 phone calls. They can't fix the cars, but will accept returns.

[Sokramiketes]

That's a good point. I know that on the N&W cars that were in UP pool service (painted UP yellow), the "NORFOLK AND WESTERN" was done in N&W style font.

Yes, there's two correct versions of the Golden State font, one for the SP and one for the RI cars.  But, Nickleplate's Golden Creek car has a standard computer font substitution for artwork that wasn't converted to curves... and when the factory opened the drawing, it replaced an unknown font with that san-serif thing.  Interesting that someone noticed the letter board silver box was off, and adjusted it.  But didn't recenter it.

I can see all the steps that led to the error.  It's too bad, as making a full Golden State consist is now pretty easy!  Lowell Smith has even announced some close-enough coaches.  Between those, the old Rivarossi baggage dorm and observation, and the Centralia diner and prototype sleepers, we're really rolling. 

[nickelplate759]

Yes, there's two correct versions of the Golden State font, one for the SP and one for the RI cars.  But, Nickleplate's Golden Creek car has a standard computer font substitution for artwork that wasn't converted to curves... and when the factory opened the drawing, it replaced an unknown font with that san-serif thing.  Interesting that someone noticed the letter board silver box was off, and adjusted it.  But didn't recenter it.

I can see all the steps that led to the error.  It's too bad, as making a full Golden State consist is now pretty easy!  Lowell Smith has even announced some close-enough coaches.  Between those, the old Rivarossi baggage dorm and observation, and the Centralia diner and prototype sleepers, we're really rolling.

There were also 2 PRR pool cars in the Golden State scheme - they used the SP-style font.