Model Railroading > Intermountain McCloud SD38-2 #39 ?

Should I ask? Anyone have information? Thanks in advance.

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I'm guessing its a dead project, and I suspect I and others who had deposits on these are SOL.

As of mid-January Intermountain reported on this board they had no updates on the SD38-2/SD40-2/SD40T-2 projects, which have been "Confirmed for Production" on their website for several years now, ever since they went to the new product information system.  I know they got hit hard by the factory shut down a couple years ago, and the pace of their model production finally seems to be starting to pick up again, but these locomotives are still parts of a long and by all appearances getting longer list of future products.  I'd love to be proved wrong but I really don't see these models happening any time soon, and parts of me wonder how much of a market Intermountain will have left for especially the SD40-2/SD40T-2 models if they ever do become a reality given the number of other manufacturers that have produced these models in the years since Intermountain announced theirs.  The only real thing that gives me some hope is that Intermountain has a lot of road names in their planned runs that have not been done by anyone else.     

More troubling is the MR units are not part of the announced Intermountain road names on the SD38-2, these were to be done under special arrangements Daylght Trains made with Intermountain.  Daylight as a business existed only on Facebook and through an email address and phone number, but the business seemed to start falling apart in 2017.  There was a long lapse between updates on their Facebook page between 2016 and 2017, then more than a year between a post in 2017 and a final post in 2018, and I note just now the Facebook page for the business has vanished completely sometime in the last couple weeks after not having any new activity since 2018. 

Bottom line, the manufacturer doesn't appear to be getting any closer to actually producing or delivering the model upon which this project was based than they were at the time it was announced, and the business behind the project appears to be completely defunct now after a long period of inactivity.  Things aren't looking good, at least from what I can see.    

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

I will echo what Jeff said on this & can add that Daylight Trains (Chris Abend) was the one that got the project going & South Plains Trains (& Maine Modelworks I guess) who I ordered from thought it would be good to sell. Supposedly they sent the preorder money to Daylight Trains who then Ghosted them. I do have a phone # from Daylight Trains now dead Facebook page. Do a Google search for Chris Abend/Daylight Trains & it shows he might be in Mesa AZ & his phone #s come up but he won't answer. I do know people who sent him money & can't get it back.
I did get my money back from Kelby at South Plains Trains as he did stand behind it.  

Tim
Hanesworth



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/21 06:40 by sp8234.

This is a prime example of this pre-order business being a crock! Reminds me of the Atlas U28CG. As bad as I'd love to have one, I'm sure glad I didn't waste any money on a dead horse.

Txtrainman60 Wrote:
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> This is a prime example of this pre-order business
> being a crock! Reminds me of the Atlas U28CG. As
> bad as I'd love to have one, I'm sure glad I
> didn't waste any money on a dead horse.

Never once have I had to put money down on a pre-order, nor have I ever even been asked to. 

You sure complain allot. I have never had to put a down payment on a preorder. Also, those Atlas U28CG's will happen. Atlas is very slow to get things out the door. By the way, on the ATSF ones, they are sold out on the preorders. :)

Bruce

https://shop.atlasrr.com/c-1556-h209.aspx



Txtrainman60 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is a prime example of this pre-order business
> being a crock! Reminds me of the Atlas U28CG. As
> bad as I'd love to have one, I'm sure glad I
> didn't waste any money on a dead horse.

Yeah well it would sure as hell appear to me that when it comes to modeling ANYTHING these days there's A LOT to complain about so get off it !!!

If I'm in a hobby that I am complaining about a lot of things I am changing hobby's! 
I do not like DCC but I do play with it as I like the programming side but don't care for consisting/MUing & just trying to get my train to move.
All sound is marginal but Loksound seems to be the best (EMD Dynamic Brakes rock) of the noise.
We have to have JMRI or Loksound programer to do anything with it.
Im going back to Sprintcar racing.
Have a great day all!

Tim (I hate DCC but have a smile about this)
Hanesworth
 

Because this was supposed to be a special run organized by a third party, it did require a partial down payment on the initial order.  Understandable in this case given the circumstances.  What I don't know is exactly the arrangements Chris had with Intermountain, my impression was Intermountain was going to do the work on the models and Chris was handling the sales and distribution part.  It would be interesting to know how much if any of the preorder money got to Intermountain.  But I've long since accepted that it's a moot point now. 

I understand from conversations I had with Chris back when he was still answering his phone and messages that Intermountain was roughly on track to bring that SD38-2 to market in at least the neighborhood of the date range on the original flyer posted to this thread.  Unfortunately, what Chris told me in subsequent conversations was that the Intermountain SD38-2/SD40-2/SD40T-2 projects were all based on the same drive train, and all three models got initially delayed when other manufacturers announced SD40T-2s with unobstructed see-through air intake grills.  Intermountain figured they had to modify their model to match that feature so that it could compete in the marketplace, but accomplishing this would require a complete redesign on the back end of the drive train.  And then came the factory shutdown.  I'm hopefull in that Intermountain still has these three models on their Advanced Reservations page, and that an increasing number of their products that have been stuck in limbo for years now are finally being moved along, but I'm not optomistic that these will be produced anytime soon especially given that the company has been non-commital or non-responsive to any inquiries about the status of these models.  The best I think we can hope for is if Intermountain elects to make models of the MR 39 available in any future runs of the SD38-2, if that becomes a possibility and assuming the already announced models are ever actually produced.  As for Daylight Trains, I'm also aware that Chris had some really serious issues come up in his personal life which is what almost certainly led to the abrupt end of his business.   

And I'm not sure it's really a fair comparrison between this and the Atlas U28CG, in looking at the Atlas production schedule it appears they only announced them a little more than a year ago whereas the MR 39 was announced at least four years ago.  I see a "TBA" on the anticipated shipping date for the U28CG, and while the war bonnets and all the Sound/DCC models are sold out it appears they still have at least two numbers of the Freight Scheme in DC available for pre-order.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV 

Dear ScaleTrains.......I see you have a SD40-2, Well let me tell you, there are plenty of McCloud River fans that would love to see a SD38-2 which is just a tad longer than your SDL39. Sincerely, Railfans and Modelers.

PS. We still want GP40s.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/21 15:31 by TomG.

Patience on request #1... 🤫

TomG Wrote:
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> Dear ScaleTrains.......I see you have a SD40-2,
> Well let me tell you, there are plenty of McCloud
> River fans that would love to see a SD38-2 which
> is just a tad longer than your SDL39. Sincerely,
> Railfans and Modelers.
>
> PS. We still want GP40s.

TomG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dear ScaleTrains.......I see you have a SD40-2,
> Well let me tell you, there are plenty of McCloud
> River fans that would love to see a SD38-2 which
> is just a tad longer than your SDL39. Sincerely,
> Railfans and Modelers.
>
> PS. We still want GP40s.

Another vote for GP40's.  And GP30's!