The Railking Imperial M-1a's (2011 vol.2 catalog) are now showing Dec. 2012. Virginia, there is a Santa Claus (especially if this gets to my local shop before Christmas)!
I realize there might be pressure, both from customers, train shops and MTH management to finally ship many of these backlogged steam engines. But I'd rather wait an extra month or two for MTH to be added sure that they do not have a quality issue repeat similar to the recently released Imperial PRR steam turbine.
Not trying to sound ungrateful Santa because I've been very good this year, but I'd rather be a "very happy" customer and have a model train that works well out of the box, than be unhappy and soon required to send it back to Santa's workshop for repair.