# Intermountain woes :(



## cboisits (Nov 22, 2015)

I bought my FIRST EVER Intermountain N scale locomotive. It is a Norfolk Southern SD40-2 and it looks great!...and it runs great! So I decided to buy a 2nd one. A Union Pacific. Boy it looks great. I put her on the rails with enticement and slowly let her go. To my dismay it sounds like a broken Life-Like engine that I have in my junk drawer. Should I expect this from N scale Intermountain. Anybody else have experiences like this with their N scale locos?


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## rrjim1 (Mar 12, 2015)

You can expect this from any N-scale manufacture. I have had several Kato made locos that sound like coffee grinders. I have heard Intermountain has excellent customer service. I would contact them to send it in for repair.


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## cboisits (Nov 22, 2015)

I hate when this happens because now I have to pay for shipping. Granted, it's not going to be a lot of money but it's the principle of the matter. It's not fair. Please,...I beg for a reply that doesn't contain "life isn't fair". Intermountain sent me a product that has 2 MAJOR problems. They should pay for shipping. Why does everything have to be made in China?!


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

cboisits said:


> I hate when this happens because now I have to pay for shipping. Granted, it's not going to be a lot of money but it's the principle of the matter. It's not fair. Please,...I beg for a reply that doesn't contain "life isn't fair". Intermountain sent me a product that has 2 MAJOR problems. They should pay for shipping. Why does everything have to be made in China?!


Not life isn't fair, but "defective happens". Don't sell the whole line short because you got their 1 in 1000 dog.

And to be fair to them, how do you know they WON'T pay for shipping. Oftentimes the stated policy is a deterrent against people just sending stuff back that doesn't really need repairs, just some tweaking. A polite request often gets the shipping charge covered.

As far as why stuff is made in China, well, the short answer is because hobbyists don't want to pay the prices that would be required to make a profit if we made them here. Stuff made in China isn't junk by definition; but quality control is often the first casualty when companies are trying to drive costs as low as possible. There is a risk assessment that has to be made, comparing the cost of QC to the cost of repairs and loss of Goodwill if quality suffers.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

cboisits said:


> Why does everything have to be made in China?!


Because Americans don't want to pay a lot of money for stuff.....and that's ALL stuff, not just model trains.....

They voted with their wallets, and the winner was the one who takes the least amount of money out of those wallets.....


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## cboisits (Nov 22, 2015)

"Defective Happens". Well put. The place I bought it from, which has great prices (www.midwestmodelrr.com) and good customer service referred me to Intermountain because they didn't have any more UP SD40-2 locos without sound. So I filled out their order form and shipped it out to them yesterday. On the form it gives you the option for Refund, Repair, or Exchange. I didn't expect to see an option to "exchange". That would be cool. Thanks for all your help.


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## ThomasJ. (Mar 5, 2017)

My local train store also sells consignment locos and one time I was in there and saw 4IM sd40 locos in the Rio Grande scheme and loved the way they looked. I was ready to buy all four but when I asked to try them out the salesperson says "don't waste your time, they're junk" I asked to try them anyway and was stunned that none of them worked anything like you would expect. Constantly stopping and one didn't work at all. Ever since then I've been hesitant to buy anything IM. But on another note , I do have a few of their F units and they run with no problem at all.


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## rrjim1 (Mar 12, 2015)

ThomasJ. said:


> My local train store also sells consignment locos and one time I was in there and saw 4IM sd40 locos in the Rio Grande scheme and loved the way they looked. I was ready to buy all four but when I asked to try them out the salesperson says "don't waste your time, they're junk" I asked to try them anyway and was stunned that none of them worked anything like you would expect. Constantly stopping and one didn't work at all. Ever since then I've been hesitant to buy anything IM. But on another note , I do have a few of their F units and they run with no problem at all.


You would have thought the hobby shop owner would have repair the locos. Usually all that's wrong is dirty wheels and frame to truck wipers. A little cleaning and adjustment and there great running locos. I own several IM locos and 2 of the new SD40-2s with sound and couldn't be happier!


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## ThomasJ. (Mar 5, 2017)

rrjim1 said:


> You would have thought the hobby shop owner would have repair the locos.
> 
> Well as I mentioned, those locos were consignment and not for the owner to repair. Glad you're happy with yours.


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

Old_Hobo said:


> Because Americans don't want to pay a lot of money for stuff.....and that's ALL stuff, not just model trains.....
> 
> They voted with their wallets, and the winner was the one who takes the least amount of money out of those wallets.....


Very true. There’s a discussion in Union Station at the moment about Lionel and bringing production back to the US but who’s willing to pay fo that.? 
That’s why people using an airbrush buy the cheap Chinese Harbour Freight ones when you have your own excellent home grown products like Badger and Paasche in your back yard.
Sorry to go off topic.


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