(erielack) The real deal on Intermountain's F's

["MDelvec952_@_aol.com"]

The following is from a friend who is one of Intermountain's consultants on 
the F-units.  It seems Paul and I were both correct -- he saying the Phase I 
is out first, and me saying that the options on the first release are late 
production.  

I maintain that this phase nonsense should be dropped from modeling, since it 
never existed in real life and since different folks have different opinions 
on what consistutes a phase.  Classify variations by production dates -- 
that's usuable and obvious information that any modeler can interpret and 
understand at a glance.   Saying the units produced cover those built 3/50 to 
5/51 is easy to understand and contextual.  Put that on the box in 50-point 
type instead of a roman numeral phase number, which is nothing but ambiguous 
to anybody who didn't make the decision on what's a faze.  Would anybody buy 
a phase IV Cadillac or Camry, Honda or Hummer?  No -- ya wanna know when it 
was built.

Anyway, read on:

>  The IM F-unit has been out for a couple of weeks now.  The IM shell has 
> features that are correct for F7A phase 1 locomotives built from 3-50 to 
5-51.
>  These have rounded cab and side doors, square corner cab window, 
horizontal 
> grille, and recessed windshield with visible gasket. These are not correct 
> for the F7s that DL&W had but are correct for a large number of roads. SP, 
> NYC, and UP are the first three that are being painted and lettered. As I 
> understand the SP units are ready to ship this week.
>  
>  I talked to IM today and they're cutting the B-unit tooling 
> presently. They also have the Farr vertical grille ready to release and the 
> enclosed coupler pilot (passenger pilot) is underway.
>  
>  They have some meetings going on this week and they will likely select the 
> next version to do.

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