Are they here yet? Are they here yet? Are they here yet? Are they here yet? Are they here yet?......... Seriously, the IM website says September/October. Last time I looked at my calendar that's, well, now.
It's been very quite on the western front... in Colorado . I'm patiently waiting to see them before committing to buy one.
It's quiet here on the western-er front (Oregon), too. I have a pretty clear pipeline of information from my LHS, and they haven't heard anything new either, but I am thinking Sept/Oct. is not terribly likely.
It would be nice if they could keep their website up to date and also let us know the reason for the delay.
I thought the last word was for them to arrive this month but I have a feeling we should hope Santa brings an early Christmas present.
There was two threads before this with some info on this release. One was early summer, where someone from a hobby shop (I think) got a tour of the IM factory and got a close up of a prototype unit. It was reported that the produced looked and operated beautifully, which lead me to assume everything was on track for the Sept/Oct release date. Then last month, there was a thread asking if we should expect them or not. All the sudden speculation had it, no. However, no one was able to say it officially and all the shop websites and IM's own website still note the Sept/Oct. release date. :-/ Given the past history of this product, I think Sept/Oct. 2010 might even be too soon.
I heard someone say that someone had called IM and was told late October/ early November. I think that one's still possible, and am saving my money accordingly.
They were originally announced as a fall of 2008 release but here is what the Sept 13th updated page still says. Sept / Oct. http://www.imrcmodels.com/newsncomingsoon.html Mike
IFF... Intermountain does not have them in their factory at Longmont CO... as of last month (September)... then they will not be here before November. I believe that the IMRC staff is likely to test and look them over 'before' sending them out to distributors/hobby shops... which could take a few weeks. I sure do hope that IMRC staff is diligent about checking out the product BEFORE sending it out... I think they do. So... the first question should be... are they here in the USA already? If they are still in China... then don't expect them before December 2009 to January 2010. If they are not out of China by late January 2010... the Chinese new year falls in mid February 2010... which would delay them further into March 2010. I'm no expert on this... but it has happened this way before. If they don't get here by Spring 2010... then perhaps that estimate of October/November 2010 might not be that far off...
It wasn't Baldwin's first steamer... No probably not... but Baldwin had years of experience building other steamer models before tackling an articulated steam unit which faces backwards... LOL ... this is Intermountains first attempt at any type steamer. Besides... Baldwin didn't have to design their engines for DCC... NMRA compliance and very picky N scalers which will deride any company which doesn't put out a perfect product on the first attempt.
It may be Intermountain's first N scale steamer but it may not be the actual manufacturers first, who's to say it's not being made at the same factory that did the Athearn Challenger and Big Boy or the Walthers/LL 2-8-8-2, even if it's not, articulated steamers have been done in N scale to the same design since the Rowa Y6b in 1969 so it's not as if they are inventing something new, and I'm sure it wouldn't take two years to figure out how to put a DCC plug in a tender that big. Anyway, whatever the reasons, my earlier point still stands. They should apologise and give the reasons for the delays rather than just putting back the delivery date. Using my Baldwin/SP analogy I'm sure if the real AC12's weren't ready when promised SP's people would have been at Eddystone knocking at Baldwin's door.
