First of all, thank some members of the Burlington Route HS’s Yahoo! group for this information;
You can still buy IM kits-DECORATED!!
The catch is your LHS or wherever else you get your car kits has to be a Intermountain dealer. You also can’t get the decorated kits from Walthers anymore, for the most part. This for me at least is very good news, because IM has recently released or announced a ton of cars for my two favorite roads, the CB&Q and the NP. Now I know I’ll be able to get these all as kits soon, and that also means I won’t have to spend $30 a car, which on my budget would very quickly break me.
Intermountain still does all molding and painting at their Longmont, CO location, then they send the stuff to China to be built. I don’t care to buy my MRR cars from China, neither do I care to pay $30 for something I would rather build myself, with the kit costing half as much. Most people however probably don’t live close to an Intermountain dealer, though, which makes me wonder why IM doesn’t just list these on their website along with the assembled stuff, and sell it through Walthers. But this is still better than being told you can only get IM kits undecorated…
Interesting news, Chris. Everything that Marty McGurk’s been telling the diehard freight car guys at the STMFC Yahoo Group (steam-era freight cars) is that IM will only be selling new kits as undecorated, bagged kits. This includes the brand-new ATSF SK-4 stock cars they’re about to release. IM still shows some stock on certain kits on their website, but I think they’re older stock.
Having to paint a kit is no big deal for me, considering all the resin and Tichy freight cars I’ve got lying around (not to mention all the project car kitbashes I’ve got in line), so buying a kit, ANY kit, from IM is a good thing. I’ll probably pick up ONE of the RTR stock cars when they come out, but IM will get repeat orders from me for several of the bags!
Ray I also heard that IM is coming out with a glorious thing for you, me and everyone else who models the Q in its glory days-we’re finally going to get a CB&Q stock car in HO, it looks like. IM has the car listed on their site and that’s about it, so I e-mailed them asking for more info. They haven’t replied yet.
This what I heard as well. I was also very concerned about a year ago hearing that they would not be doing kits since I love their undec cylindricals. I emailed IM and they responded that the only kits will be undec and all painted equip will be assembled.
It is well worth the extra cost for the IM Cyclindrical covered hoppers to come assembled. They have to be one of the most time consuming kits out there. I would gladly pay $10-$15 a car to have someone in China assemble them for me. Life is too short…