When the Moose Caboose was closing, the owner told me that all my future orders had been transfered to Loco Joe's in West Virginia, west of Harper's Ferry. When the Atlas loco I had ordered came in, Joe called me and confirmed I still wanted it. Whether that will remain true for the I-5's I ordered or the Bowser RS-3's is a question I haven't addressed yet with Joe. He is on the web, so give him a call.
I bought several I-12's in B&O, and even more of the undecorated kits for the ATLANTIC CENTRAL. Hope to get them built soon.
Sheldon
I agree, they do make really fine models. I own two of the I-12s and they did a great job on them. Ironically, I've been waiting so long that I was able to obtain the same style I ordered in brass. Oh well, can you really have too many caboose's (cabeese)?
BigDaddy They do make nice stuff, I bought the I-12
They do make nice stuff, I bought the I-12
I have looked at the SMD bay window cabooses at the Timonium show and they are beautiful. If I were an eastern modeler I would have bought multiples of them pretty little gems, but I'm western so the only easter stuff I buy are typical freight cars which roamed country wide.
I did indulge in a couple of the Canstock cars (one original and one Chessie) and one of the pain Jane PD covered hoppers. Those were common enough on the D&RGW bridge route thru the Rockies.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Hi,
I made a thread about this very subject back in early 2015!
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/245408.aspx
I ordered several when they were first announced in 2014. I paid in full in order to enjoy a small discount.
In March of 2015 I inquired about the delay and this is part of the response from Bill Carl
Hi Ed,
We will air freight from our factory the I-5s, I-1s, I-2s, and I-3s first. We will QC the I-5s and get all I-5 orders shipped first. We will get the N-34s shipped behind the I-5s, get the N-34s QC'd and get all N-34 orders shipped second. Then we will already have the I-1/2/3s in hand from the I-5 shipment, QC them, and then get them shipped ASAP.
A clear case of rivet counter fever. They do make nice stuff, I bought the I-12 at the last show and almost bought 2; to resell one on ebay. The MSLP of a Bachmann bay window caboose is only $0.95 less. Yes, I know, nobody pays retail.
I've seen the out of stock I-12's sell for over $100 on Ebay.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I did in fact order directly from them at one of the scale shows at Timonium. I do not recall seeing this last email. Possibly it was filtered out as spam. This is fine, I have no issues with the explanation. Just wanted to make sure they hadn't been delivered. As always you guys are the best. Always lots of information and always ready to help.
Thanks Again
jim
Recent E-Mail I received from Spring Mills:
"
Dear Spring Mills Depot customers,
We would like to bring you up to speed on where Spring Mills Depot is and what you can expect in the future. As everyone is well aware by now, we announced the I-5 Caboose over four years ago. We have been honest with you through the entire four years in that the reason the cabooses were not here was our fault and our fault alone. We allowed the scope to creep to include the I-1, I-2 and I-3 cabooses in this process. When we realized we could do these cabooses, we also realized that we would probably not be able to do them as a separate stand-alone project or it would be extremely risky to do so. This added time to the project as well as scope creep. When is enough, really enough? In December after adding gutters to the appropriate cabooses, we stopped gold plating and trying to find details to add to the project and we wrapped up the R&D process.
We have good news and bad news. First the good news. In December we finally stopped allowing our quest for perfection to continue to delay this project. We completed our R&D and finally submitted the package to our factor early this year. (picture fireworks here and people cheering).
Bill and I were hoping or should I say expecting to have CAD drawings that we could reveal at the April GSMTS show but we were disappointed. Our factory emailed us late last week and informed us that their anticipated CAD drawing delivery date was June. This is the bad news in that the cabooses are delayed another couple of months.
Bill and I decided to not inform the world that we had submitted our R&D because it could be viewed as an excuse or another delay tactic. We wanted to wait until we had CAD drawings to announce the much anticipated delivery was now within reach. We have been very up front and honest with all of our customers. The scope creep was our fault and the delay was our fault. We are striving to get back on track and get these projects out as soon as possible and to that effort we wanted to wait until we had CAD drawings to show everyone. Unfortunately we are now in the waiting game. Our factory is very eager to get our project produced, it just takes time. We believe the best case scenario is most likely 6 months from now but we fear stating that will only cause some to set a reminder and Bill and I will be barraged by a slew of emails in 6 months if the cabooses are not in your hands. Please do not do this. If we have to answer emails, we cannot QC cars, package them up and ship them. We will try to do a better job informing every one of what to expect. Please remember that Bill and I inspect every car. We remove it from the package and do our best to make sure there are no parts that came loose in the shipping process. We have done a very good job of this with the first four cars that we have produced and expect to have the same level of care put into these cabooses. I’m sure no one will be happy, after waiting four years, opening up their caboose and finding loose parts. Our failure rate has been extremely low but we refuse to just send cars out without making sure they meet our standards of quality.
We want to say thank you to everyone who has stuck in there with us. We have received many supportive comments and we appreciate this. We have offered a refund to anyone that would like one and only a few have actually asked for that. We appreciate your confidence in us and we, along with you, wait eagerly for these cabooses to come in.
The I-5 will be delivered next, then the I-1, I-2 and I-3’s, followed by the DODX flat cars and then the N&W cabooses. When we announced the N&W caboose, we fully expected to have the I-5, I-1, I-2 and I-3’s by December of 2017 and the DODX’s by April 2018. However, with our attention to every detail, our devotion and dedication to make sure we found every nuance we could find and then determine if that nuance was vast enough to include, we allowed the time to complete the R&D to continue to be extended. Again, when is good enough, good enough? Because of this we could not meet our announced time line. Therefore, the DODX and the N&W have been pushed back on their respective delivery dates and will be produced as soon as possible after the I-5 project.
Just in case you are asking “why is the DODX and the N&W caboose so ready to go where as the I-5 took four years” let me explain a little. The DODX and the N&W are much easier projects. The DODX has less variance, we had blue prints and we had source experts helping us. The N&W is the same. We have blueprints of just about everything on this car and the R&D was so much easier. The I-5 project was so different from the I-12 project. When the B&O sent a memo out on the I-12’s, every car got the change whether it was an upgrade in equipment or a paint scheme change. On the I-5’s that was not the case and this is what has added so much time to the project. How many cabooses have to have this detail change, paint scheme change to make it worthy to be considered? Then back to the pictures and viewing them over and over again to find out this information. We do not want you to think we are making excuses, we accept that we should not have announced this car when we did. We have committed for the future that we are holding off on announcing a car until we have submitted our completed R&D to our factory and have some timeline that we are much more certain will happen. We want to apologize to all; the patrons that have purchased the I-5, I-1, I-2 and I-3’s as well as the DODX and N&W customers. We are getting back on track and will do much better in the future with meeting out production dates.
We will post or email updates as we have them. Please keep and eye on our website in June/July. We will post CAD images as soon as we are able.
Thank you again for your confidence and support.
Ken & Bill"
For your information
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
jeep35 Thanks for the reply, I was a little concerned that they may have been delivered and mine somehow got lost. I'm a little annoyed about not responding to my Email ( hey I have a real job also, they started this business and were actively seeking customers for their products, so how about some customer service, look I was in my 50s when I ordered them, now I'm in my 60s, who knows how much time I got left). Four years is a bit too long to wait for something like this. It seems if they couldn't complete the project, at least contact your customers and let them know. They appear to have moved on to other projects. I'll email them again and perhaps I won't be so gracious this time. Jim
Thanks for the reply, I was a little concerned that they may have been delivered and mine somehow got lost. I'm a little annoyed about not responding to my Email ( hey I have a real job also, they started this business and were actively seeking customers for their products, so how about some customer service, look I was in my 50s when I ordered them, now I'm in my 60s, who knows how much time I got left). Four years is a bit too long to wait for something like this. It seems if they couldn't complete the project, at least contact your customers and let them know. They appear to have moved on to other projects. I'll email them again and perhaps I won't be so gracious this time.
Jim
Jim, having done business with them, I have to ask this question. You ordered directly from them correct? Did you take advantage of the full payment in advance discount, or are you just "on the list"?
When the hoppers were behind schedule, they cheerfully offered a refund, I happily waited.
But yes sometimes it 2-4 days to hear from them. I'm your age, but I guess I still have not bought into all this "instant" comumication thing......
They are actually the only company I have ever preordered anything from.
http://atlasrescueforum.proboards.com/thread/6754/spring-mills-depot?page=1
All I really learned there is that MB Klein may move. So why is this I-5 caboose project so hard?
Jim, you are not the first person to express those concerns and feelings. I agree with you and am not sure why communication seems to be a bit slow with them.
My only personal experience with them is buying a couple of SMD models at the Timonium show in person. I've never tried to order from them on-line but it sounds like it's a "mixed" experience.
There was a recent discussion at Atlas Rescue Forum originally started by a guy who was having difficulty getting a response from Spring Mill Depot (SMD). What followed was some feedback from someone who went by darth9x9 but magically changed his member name/details to ronb, which was wierd. Some details about future runs were provided is you read through the discussion.
I have purchased both I-12 bay window cabooses and wagon top covered hoppers, yes they both took a while and it is my understanding the I-5 has been a problem.
Yes, they have day jobs but have always been responsive within a few days.
So the Moose Caboose closed up? Not surprised really.
Wow, that's a long time. I do not recall seeing that caboose at this past show or any of the shows I have been to in the past 2 years.
This page says they are still taking reservations
http://www.springmillsdepot.com/customcars.htm
And their "8th project" says: We expect delivery of the cars in 2019 (the B&O I-5/1/2/3 caboose project has really gummed up the project pipelines).
My one experience with them was they took 3 days to answer an email, so I expect they have real jobs doing something else.
I was just wondering if anyone who pre-ordered an I-5 caboose, did you ever receive them. I know they had a bunch of issues because there were so many variations in the I-5. I ordered two from them at the Timonium train show. I checked the receip the other day and it was dated February 2014. I e-mailed them the other day but got no response. Was not able to attend the latest Scale Show earlier this month so I couldn't talk to them directly. I know someone else who ordered them through Moose Caboose hObie's, now Moose is out of business! Anyone heard anything or even received them.