The Intermountain website has been updated to show that production of all SLSF O&W FP7 and F7B Locomotives and the SLSF PS5277 Cubic Foot Boxcar in both HO and N scale have been cancelled due to insufficient reservations. They do note that all current reservations have been retained on file in case any of these items are ever offered again. I hope this doesn't shorten anyone's Christmas list too much. On a related issue, there are still three offerings listed but they may go by the wayside also if insufficient quantities are not reserved. They are: N SCALE: TW2936-(01-04) Trainworx 86'6" High Cube Auto Parts Boxcar (4 Road #'s) HO SCALE: T452915 Tichy Panel Side Hopper (6 Road #'s) CCS1111 Centralia Car Shops ATSF Early Steel Caboose (4 Road #'s)
Ethan: Just out of curiousity did you pre-order one somewhere? The reason that I am asking is simple and of a general nature. After studying recent practices on the part of Intermountain in particular, they seem to be throwing a bunch of lines into the pond and seeing which ones get nibbles and how many and those are what they end up producing. Also, not only are modelers doing it, but I think wholesalers are more and more taking a reservation only attitude in these tough times.
In my dreams. I did not preorder one. Costs to much. I just wait for it to come to a place like modeltrainstuff.com. I hope Athearn doesn't do this to the SD45's.
Athearns not one to cancell. I'm banking on those 45's too. They will be to dark and the lettering will be to thick but they will be Frisco and there will be a bunch of them working the Avard Sub
Ethan and All: Unfortunately I feel we mave have come to the point where with some manufacturers (especially Intermountain) are putting out pre-order feelers to their retailers (including places like modeltrainstuff.com) and if there isn't enough interest, they just don't produce the model in that road name. This practice especially hurts less popular roads like Frisco, Katy, etc. Your comment about costing too much is somewhat flawed as a new trend is retailers sending out pre-order notices to consumers offering an extra 5-10% if someone reserves from them before a certain deadline. A case in point is that I just missed great opportunity to get the upcoming Walthers release of ballast hoppers for either 30% or 35% off MSRP by pre-ordering them by a certain date from a certain pusher. Some of us used to wait to get items like Atlas locomotives on Ebay. I believe those days may also be going by the wayside. It's all a matter of trends and the above comments are just my opinion from watching how product releases have been going in recent times. One more point. When a staunch manufaturer like Kadee runs monthly sales offering 20-25% off of virtually everything including couplers for consumers buying direct, then we know we are living in changing times!
