Not sure if anyone else noticed this but I have been awaiting the arrival of the I-5 from BLI and been watching the schedule deliver dates. I noticed that today the site reports that Brass version will be delivered in August, was July, and the Hybrid will be delivered in September, was August. Just passing this one on as a heads up for others waiting like myself.
NHRF
New Haven Railfan wrote: Not sure if anyone else noticed this but I have been awaiting the arrival of the I-5 from BLI and been watching the schedule deliver dates. I noticed that today the site reports that Brass version will be delivered in August, was July, and the Hybrid will be delivered in September, was August. Just passing this one on as a heads up for others waiting like myself. NHRF
This is not unusual for any imports, but BLI has a habit of delaying for a few months before they label the model advertised as TBD.
They have many brass and Hybrid models announced for this year and if a few are delayed or declared TDB, I for one would not be surprised.
ANY BLI or PCM products with delivery dates are not going to make it on that date.
Historically with each and EVERY BLI/PCM Engines I bought (About 20+ total over 4 years or so) none of them arrived on time. They were 6, 12 and some cases 24 months past due.
Im waiting on the I-1 2-10-0 and that one has been announced a year ago, re-announced with the 8 axle tender some time ago, delivery date was Nov of 2008 and moved up to March 2008... SHEESH.
Half tempted just to buy a short tender this winter and drop a J1 QSI tender behind it. And either toss the short tender or use it on another engine.
Lesson:
BLI/PCM Products dont arrive when they are stated to. Indeed a slow boat from China or some such place.
The delay is not suprising to me either. However, a month or so ago someone circulated a letter from BLI stating that the first run of the New Haven I-5's were for the most part sold out. I would have thought that they would have put them in the queue to start building them at that time. I guess we can only wait and see when these things actually get built and shipped. I will keep a watch on the schedule report any other changes I notice.
And my favorite order has been pushed back to June 08.
Ive decided to cancel it and move on.
cacole wrote:When you're having to deal with a factory in China; shipment to the U.S. on a container ship; unloading of that ship in Long Beach, Los Angeles, or other Pacific coast port; and shipment of a container all the way across the U.S. by rail; delays are inevitable.
This whole brass import business is risky at best since the average price of a simple two cylinder steam model is twelve to fifteen hundred. How many of us are willing to pay that price when the hybrid or plastic model looks decent also. Many importers have come and gone over the past years and Challenger Imports was the latest to exit the market.
Import brass and they will buy it????? I don't think that applies today.
It is hard to understand why BLI/PCM got into this end of the business since they had so many orders for the plastic and die cast metal models.
My money is on the Die cast metal and great plastic models that are being offered.
Cheers
Cazephyr:
My guess is that they think there buisness model will carry them through. That is they will only build (order) product when they know they have enough pre-orders to make money. Also the order in which they build depends on the amount of profit to be made. Biggest money makers go to the head of the queue. Also when they don't make (order) any thing they don't have any manufacturing employee's sitting around collecting paychecks. This reduces overhead so they can weather out the peaks and valley's better. Not to mention the fact that if you get the pre-orders to also pay for a bunch of units that you can speculate on then you can see if they sell out, if not they can be discounted heavily and you can sill make something off them. There biggest risk is that some other importer will get, and deliver the same unit before they do and grab all there buisness. However, attempting a coup like that is very risky.