Been in contact with intermountain and have been told the following: "The News section of the InterMountain web site has a notice about the early F7B units being replaced because of a production problem, but it does not mention that we are also replacing the NP F7A units because of a configuration problem. Please let me know the road numbers that you have for the A Units and I will see that the information gets to the people working on the replacement program" I know alot of people have been bashing Intermountain lately, but I for one am very happy with thier products. Thanks to Intermountain for trying to fix this problem. Thought I would pass this along to my fellow NP modelers. Steve
Steve, thanks for sharing. I have been told the same, but was away from my computer for a while so I could not post the info. Great Service by IM, they really stand behind their product! It would have been better to have correct NP F7A from the start, but mistakes happen. For me personally it is important how a company deals with mistakes, and IM does a very good job here! I will definitively continue to buy their products. Btw: The F7 is an amazing loco: Quite and very powerful. After a test-run with a very long train I did not cut the power to a ABBA set (stupid me) and whilst I was running another train it silently walked away, pushing the train backwards up the 2.25% helix! I never heard it moving until I relaized that the train I parked a few minutes earlier somehow had disappeared. I am totally impressed! Cheers Dirk
I've had the same correspondence with IMRC and have been very impressed with Jerry who I've been talking to. Very quick responses to my questions. They will send out new shells in a couple of months and have told me not to bother sending the old ones back. Since the units will be redone, I also asked if they could add winterization hatches to all units but have yet to get a thumbs up or down on that one (I just asked yesterday). Andrew
Hello Andrew, I am curious if an "early" F7 (the IM units seems to be "as delivered") had winterization hatches. I know that W. Kuebler in the "NP Color Pictorial Vol. 3" states that they were delivered with winterization hatches (page 111). But there are a lot of photos showing early F7 without the winterization hatch (i.e. Schrenk & Frey, "NP Diesel Era", page 115, page 121 (F5 cab unit), page 122 (F7 Cab unit)). I am actually pleased that IM offers the NP units without winterization hatches, as this appears to be more correct for at least 1949 - 1950. Do you have additional info to shed light on this? Cheers Dirk
Dirk, I might have to agree with you on this one. I don't have my copy of Diesl Era in front of me but will check when I get home. Are the pictures you refer to passenger or freight units? It is not a big deal for me as winterization hatches can always be added with little trouble, so if some were in fact delivered without them I say leave them off. Andrew
Andrew, the picture references are to freight units. There is much more photo evidence on passenger units (specifically F3 and F5) not having winterization hatches 1949 - 1950, but I am not sure if the NP practice varied between freight and passenger units. I would not mind adding the hatches myself, but it looks to me that it would be more consistent with the paint and lettering if IM leaves them off. Cheers Dirk
