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Post by biggazza on Nov 14, 2019 3:22:47 GMT -8
Just want to applaud Rapido's taking care of customers with replacement parts. I have an RDC unit and there is a note in the box regarding the bogies hitting the body mounted side steps on curves and if this is a problem they were producing steps with a bend in them to overcome this issue. I sent them a note via their webpage some time ago and when available they would post out. Note really a major issue so I bent the steps out which worked but they look a bit ordinary just bent out. But a packet arrived today with 4 new steps with a formed offset to clear the bogies which will work a treat. It cost Rapido over $6 to post to Australia so good on them for looking after me on such a minor matter. Cheers, Gary.
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Post by mlwlover on Nov 14, 2019 13:28:49 GMT -8
dont ask for parts more than twice though, they ignore you then.
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Post by biggazza on Nov 14, 2019 14:49:25 GMT -8
Probably didn't make it clear in my original post but the items did not cost me anything as Rapido acknowledged that it was a design oversight. So it should be no surprise that if one keeps asking for more free stuff (from any manufacturer), one may get ignored.
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Post by mlwlover on Nov 14, 2019 15:44:34 GMT -8
i was and am willing to pay for replacement parts.
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Post by Judge Doom on Nov 14, 2019 16:41:49 GMT -8
Unfortunately, a lot of manufacturers either don't stock spare parts to order (i.e. they only make a bunch for warranty repairs and not for general sale to customers), or use extra inventory as parts units to pick off parts for warranty repairs, so they don't have a bunch sitting around to sell say, x5 sets of green SD60M fans whenever someone asks to buy a bunch.
And even then, if it's been long enough between runs, they can even run out of parts or parts units for their own warranty repairs. Usually (at least with the model companies I'm familiar with) any runs of parts are done when a run of the models they're intended for are done (i.e. Athearn Flexicoil sideframes and other SW1500 parts come into stock when they do a run of SW1500s), so when they run out, they're out until the next run of those models is done. Certain companies are great for spare parts (Athearn and Atlas, well, when they have them in stock as per above) and others are a real pain to get anything from (Walthers come to mine, notably when member Jim/AustralianTerrier tried to get a replacement part from Walthers for one of his new E7A's a while back. And, they don't have anything for old Life-Like P2K models aside from replacement axle gear assemblies).
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Post by Chad on Nov 14, 2019 17:10:36 GMT -8
dont ask for parts more than twice though, they ignore you then.
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Post by Christian on Nov 15, 2019 1:19:42 GMT -8
Certain companies are great for spare parts (Athearn and Atlas, well, when they have them in stock as per above) Tangent also does this. A gold mine for freight car model builders. Like others, the further out from the import the less likely a part will be available. As long as I'm giving a Tangent shout-out - trucks, code 88 wheelsets, and 0.008 wire grabs seem to always be in stock.
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Post by steveturner on Nov 16, 2019 13:39:12 GMT -8
Parts from any company are hit and miss. Most of the popular parts get gobbled up. Extra parts are often only available after another run of loco is made. My dealings are parts available are moving parts as in mechanical mostly and a few items like hand railings. Rapido the parts run out quickly once gone that's it...unless of course they have a second run of something. MFGs just don't make parts they run exrtas for sale at time of manufacturing a loco.So its a crap shoot for parts. My experience
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Post by marknycfan on Nov 16, 2019 18:00:27 GMT -8
My New Haven FL-9 had issues, they repaired it and sent two passenger car lighting kits to cover the shipping cost from Florida to Canada
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Post by sd40dash2 on Nov 16, 2019 18:21:19 GMT -8
Two of my 20 cabooses were missing their uncoupling lever & bracket parts. They sent replacements, no questions asked. This was 10 years ago now, when the cabooses first came out.
Note that this is best done at the time of initial production. If you buy something in the second hand market years after an item is produced, they may not have all of the parts after the passage of so much time.
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Post by lvrr325 on Nov 16, 2019 18:48:53 GMT -8
Rapido and Bowser are probably the best at this stuff.
A few years ago I had a Bowser flat car kit I got somewhere that was only lettered on one side. By then they had nothing in stock to replace it with, it was before the most recent round of them, so he sent me a whole other kit to make good on it.
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Post by Judge Doom on Nov 16, 2019 18:56:52 GMT -8
THAT'S WHO HAS THEM ALL!!!! Those CP ones have been fetching mad money on eBay. It's been a little while now since Rapido did a re-run.
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Post by cemr5396 on Nov 16, 2019 19:14:44 GMT -8
THAT'S WHO HAS THEM ALL!!!! Those CP ones have been fetching mad money on eBay. It's been a little while now since Rapido did a re-run. And they probably aren't coming back. I asked Jason about them when I met him at an event a couple of years ago, and he implied the tooling was no good anymore and would need to be re-done for them to make a comeback.
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Post by sd40dash2 on Nov 16, 2019 19:20:45 GMT -8
THAT'S WHO HAS THEM ALL!!!! Those CP ones have been fetching mad money on eBay. It's been a little while now since Rapido did a re-run. Here they are! I know they're fetching mad money but I ordered every single road number because I wanted them all. I spent a lot of time supplying research materials to Rapido to help get these right, plus the aftermarket storm doors that were developed and added later. The last Rapido run (which included the white Engineering vans) was in 2013 and the parts ran out in 2017. I believe new tooling is required to re-run them today.
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