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Post by rapidotrains on Jul 25, 2019 6:09:17 GMT -8
Hi all,
Here's a behind-the-scenes tour of Rapido HQ that is not silly at all:
Thnaks for watching!
-Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jul 12, 2019 13:01:17 GMT -8
Thanks for the kind words, guys! I wish the microwave worked.... Now that would be impressive.
-Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jul 11, 2019 10:57:13 GMT -8
And it's hosted by our famed President and CEO, Jordan Smith.
(Seriously - he's starting to get recognized on Amtrak trains by random passengers.)
Thanks for watching!
-Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 25, 2019 14:21:47 GMT -8
Hello Rapido, I have just noticed this: "*NJ Transit Release is subject to NJ Transit licence agreement. Graphics and artwork may change depending on NJ Transit feedback." With regard to the Comet II upcoming models. Are there ongoing licensing issues with NJT? I know they protect their logos big time. NJT will be a big seller and we hope these models will be produced! -Martin It's no issue. We're in discussions with NJ Transit to get the licence and we're fairly confident that it will be in place before production. We are also getting an MBTA licence. We're not used to getting licences as most class 1 railroads don't want us to bug them. But it seems the commuter railroads prefer to have them. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 23, 2019 10:36:34 GMT -8
What is the deadline for flexiflo? November 18th. Plenty of time. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 22, 2019 18:26:15 GMT -8
Hi all,
We've got the following products with order deadlines on Monday June 24th:
- HO scale FA-2 and FPA-2 - link - HO scale FB-2 and FPB-2 - link - HO scale LRC coaches - link - HO scale New Haven stainless steel dining car - link
Please contact your dealer or order direct. If you are seeing this after Monday, have no fear. The numbers won't go to the factory until July 2nd so you can still get your order in.
We're also doing a huge Canadian product launch on the 24th. We start a Facebook Live broadcast at 2 p.m. EDT. It will be the biggest single N scale product announcement in Canadian model railroad history. That's not hyperbole. I'm being totally serious. We also have a new HO announcement, so the launch is still relevant for the forum!
All the info will be in the Facebook Live event and in our newsletter. You can sign up here: link
Thanks and regards,
Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 15, 2019 18:22:48 GMT -8
Is the Onondaga the same layout that was in MRP a while back? Built in the cellar of a mid-1800s farmhouse? That's the one.
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 14, 2019 14:04:35 GMT -8
So...
It looks like we may need to change some numbers.
I will ask Josh to have a look at this thread.
Thanks guys!
-Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 12, 2019 15:30:04 GMT -8
So...was that Charleston, IL...that you guys were standing at on the Nickel Plate? Cayuga, IN. Interchange with the C&EI. I'm glad you guys enjoyed the video. It was a lot of fun to make. Sometimes you just want to shoot a great layout or two. We weren't actually selling anything! -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 12, 2019 10:46:31 GMT -8
Hi all,
Janet, Dan and I recently visited Dave Abeles's beautiful Conrail layout. We've made a video of it, and it includes a cameo from the one and only Tony Koester.
If you don't like our silly videos, don't watch. This is one of our more ridiculous ones. There is one guy who hates all our videos but watches all of them on day one and then leaves negative comments. He even managed to trash us in the Mike McGrattan memorial video. You gotta wonder who keeps running over this guy's cat....
Anyway, here it is:
Thanks for watching,
Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 12, 2019 10:42:34 GMT -8
I think because the three pack includes a cab car with headlights etc whereas the single car is a trailer with just interior lighting. Although I’ve just realised the undec cab car is the same price as the trailers You shouldn't have said anything! The price should be $119.95 so we are going to fix that. One person got $20 off. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 5, 2019 19:21:32 GMT -8
I'll add a quick note in general, as I am not the FL9 project manager and Bill is on vacation until next week.
Making subtle changes in decoration from unit to unit adds time to production. Sometimes it is worthwhile because the production numbers are large or the difference is huge. So we are doing two variations of the Cornell Red LV RS-11s, for example.
But Amtrak FL9s... The numbers just weren't there in the first run and I doubt they will be in this run to represent the paint shop variations.
Generally speaking, if we totally customize every number to match the prototype variations exactly, the factory will lose money and Rapido will have cash flow problems because production is taking too long.
Specifically speaking, get me 200 or 300 guys to order each Amtrak FL9 and we'll do all the decoration variations needed... But I really don't think we'll reach those numbers. I predict 300-350 in total over the three numbers.
Setting up printing positions takes a long time. It can take an hour or more to set up a new logo position, and that is one hour that the machine and operator are not making stuff. (It takes even longer when the positions are on weird angles.) If we have too many subtle variations, production time can double or triple for the whole project.
That being said, we'll look at the final numbers at the end of October and we will add whatever variations the budget will allow depending on those sales numbers.
-Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 5, 2019 14:19:43 GMT -8
Pssst... Um, not for nothin', but there appears to be an error somewhere. The new Newsletter quotes the "Comet" car prices as: HO 3-car set: $329.95 However, when you go to the Rapido website, the prices are: HO 3-car set: $319.95 Is this the "Higher... In... Canada." price? Dang it! We lowered the price and I forgot to update the newsletter. $319.95 is correct. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 3, 2019 16:04:36 GMT -8
Dear all, The latest Rapido News is out, with all of the new announcements! Here it is: conta.cc/2KqcorSThanks for reading, Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 2, 2019 17:18:39 GMT -8
A couple of quick comments/clarifications: ONE of the announcements is indeed the URSA 40' Double-sheathed wood boxcar that we previewed at the NERPM this weekend. The car will have K- or AB brakes (as appropriate), correct USRA Andrews trucks and Carmer Cut levers. Full information will be on our web site Monday with the others. Regarding product cycles - from the day that we give a go-ahead to a project to the day that you see it available on the shelves tends to be at least two years, often much more. In that last couple of years we have changed the timing of our public product announcements. We now do not announce a project until at least the design work is done, and often not until we have physical samples. This shortens the lead time that you see from announcement to delivery. As to our not delivering anything, this will likely come as a great surprise to our warehouse crew who have been very busy shipping boxes out over the last couple of months, not to mention the dealers who have to pay for those shipments! :>) Bill Rapido Trains It's almost like this guy knows what he's talking about.... We're on the wrong track, Bill. We should be producing one new model every two years and announce it the day it's released, dang it! If we switch to that schedule, I'm told John Sheridan can help you with your resume. But he may end up just doodling cats all over it. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on May 31, 2019 10:35:24 GMT -8
Hi all, We're hosting a Facebook Live event on Monday from our US Dealer Open House. It's at 12:15 p.m. EDT. We're announcing a ton of new stuff. Note the American spelling in "ton." It's all US prototypes. We don't just make "foreign" stuff at Rapido, eh? www.facebook.com/rapidotrains/We're also sending out a newsletter. Newsletter subscribers will get the news first. Thanks and regards, Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on May 16, 2019 10:04:43 GMT -8
Me either. Wasn't he the lead on the B36-7 project? I have not heard about Gareth leaving either! So I pose my question to Jason that I did to Gareth: Will the. sill for the Southern and Norfolk Southern B36-7's get corrected with the proper lift lugs in the sill and not the pilot face? No one has this right on a Southern GE Locomotive so far. The trouble with that is it would require new sides and ends just for this very tiny detail. That's why ours doesn't have it and it's why most other manufacturers probably don't have it. As much as we aim for 100% accuracy, we also need to aim for profitability... -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on May 16, 2019 9:25:25 GMT -8
Interesting video. I'm feeling a little woozy after watching it, and my wife is wondering why I just handed her my credit cards... Its ok. After watching the video I still cannot figure out why I suddenly & inexplicably sent Jordan all my money. Dang it. I was hoping to intercept that, but Jordan opens the mail.
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Post by rapidotrains on May 15, 2019 17:44:48 GMT -8
You should have blamed it on that Jason Shawn guy that you fired That is really funny. Jordan pointed out some names he's gotten on the phone and in email. Jason Sharon Jordan Shron Josh Anderson George Mohammed Janet Goldman We're not sure where Mr. Mohammed came from but we're very multicultural here at Rapido! -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on May 15, 2019 10:32:17 GMT -8
So um... I have to ask... how did you come to the conclusion that the WM units have no dynamic brakes? We screwed up. There is now an annotation on the video correcting it. We've been inundated with emails about it! We just want to keep WM modelers on their toes! This was Gareth's project before he left Rapido and Bill has taken over. He hasn't yet reviewed all of the research material and we both assumed that the hand-painted sample the factory sent us was correct. It is an easy fix - we'll use the correct roof slide in production. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on May 14, 2019 18:41:25 GMT -8
Interesting video. I'm feeling a little woozy after watching it, and my wife is wondering why I just handed her my credit cards... Nooooo! You have to get them back!!!!!
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Post by rapidotrains on May 14, 2019 18:23:24 GMT -8
Hi all, We've finally got a new video up. This one is about the FA-2 and FB-2. Bill runs the samples on Chris Adams's layout. One guy left an awesome comment - he's glad Rapido fired Jason Shawn. We agreed with him. Thanks for watching, Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on May 5, 2019 18:27:19 GMT -8
For years I've been pushing for Walthers to make the Tempo as their legendary name train. And now I'm afraid they're never going to get around to it! Now how about the Toronto-Barrie commuter train, circa 1980-1981? The engines are already being made by some crappy foreign company. We just need the cars!!! (Don Jaworski photo.)
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Post by rapidotrains on May 1, 2019 7:08:12 GMT -8
There’s a bigger need for auto racks IMO. Steve There is the biggest need for NSC autoracks. I say that because I need them on my layout.... The trouble with making autoracks from a manufacturing perspective is you have to charge passenger car prices for them. While that is OK for four or five passenger cars, it's not feasible if you are trying to fill a yard with autoracks. Were we to make a run of NSC autoracks we would probably have to charge close to $100 for them otherwise we would not even break even. That's too much for an autorack. Especially if you want to add vehicles afterwards, it becomes a $200 freight car! -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Apr 30, 2019 13:06:11 GMT -8
Our well cars are leaving the factory in a few weeks and will indeed be here in late June, all going well. Photo below. Workers are cleaning up the diecast bodies. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Apr 14, 2019 14:10:52 GMT -8
I think you're right. I'm looking at our photos and the streaks make it very confusing. I will let Dan and Josh know. We'll change it to a 6-panel car. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Apr 13, 2019 17:49:15 GMT -8
Hi all, The latest Rapido News is online. It includes: - New HO scale LRC coaches and new freight car runs - Factory update including Royal Hudson steam engine - More N scale teasers - More behind-the-scenes stuff Please click here to read it: conta.cc/2KyM5BtThanks for reading! -Jason P.S. Subscribers got this news yesterday morning. It's free to sign up: www.rapidotrains.com/signup
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Post by rapidotrains on Apr 2, 2019 18:50:03 GMT -8
Presumably you could set your website up to do a round-robin to rotate the 'default' number for each viewer of the page. i.e viewer 1 gets SKU0001 as the default option, if they want a specific number they use the dropdown. Viewer 2 get SKU0002 as the default, but again can choose a specific one if they want. Actually direct orders represent only about 10% of our sales. The other 90% of our orders come from dealers and distributors. So your suggestion, which is a good one, would only solve 10% of the problem... Our dealers are very important to us. If we have limited stock of something, the orders are filled in the order they are received, even if it means we have to turn away a full-paying direct customer in favour of a wholesale customer. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Apr 1, 2019 19:10:59 GMT -8
I assume this is to minimize SKUs and balance quantities to avoid the situation where the first car number listed gets the majority of the orders while the last car number gets very few. This is exactly why we've had to do it this way. The vast majority of people don't care which car number they get - including hobby shops doing the ordering - and always default to ordering the first SKU. Say you sell 600 cars, you'll end up selling 300 of car 1, 200 of car 2, 80 of car 3, and 20 of the rest combined. This is a logistical nightmare for production, and the factory will often refuse to do setup for a very small number. You can't explain to them that the setup time is exactly the same whether it's 6x100 or that skewed breakdown. They don't see it that way. So this way the factory gets an even balance of the numbers. related to this, one complaint about the Rapido website is that they have these nice big detailed images of each scheme but display them really small on the product pages with no way to just click and access the larger image (like on many other manufacturer websites). I have sent your note to Mike. Hopefully he can fix that. Regarding the artworks, they are not final yet. If any of you have specific information that can help the team with production please send an email to the Rapido email - trains AT rapidotrains.com - and put "Flexi Flo Assistance" in the subject line. We'll make sure it gets to the right person. Right now the emphasis is on tweaking the tooling rather than finalizing the artworks, which don't need to be finished before the end of the summer. Thanks, Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Mar 27, 2019 9:30:20 GMT -8
I think somewhere down the road we will see HO Scale Rapido MLW RS-23 and MLW S-13. Bill. I. Need. Many. S-13s. Photo courtesy Kaluza-Mueller Collection.
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