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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 30, 2018 17:44:36 GMT -8
I am glad to see the RS11 (and RS18) being brought into the 21st Century. Up until this point, the nicest RS unit has been the P2K RS27. Yes, I am leaving out the Bowser RS3 as it has not been released yet. But with only 27 examples of the prototype built, it is easier to come up with railroads that did not have the RS27 than did. With more built, Rapido should have an easier time coming up with roadnames/schemes for these models. We've been inundated with requests for more RS-11 schemes, and the orders so far are excellent. I'd say the RS-11/RS-18/Tempo has been our most successful launch to date. Even the Tempo sales have already covered the project's costs, and I really wasn't expecting that to ever happen! I was hoping to hide the Tempo losses in the RS-18 sales! Based on the orders in the first week, I'm about 70% certain the Algoma Central cars will go ahead. I'll have a better read on that in a couple of months. So have no fear - more RS-11s will be made after this batch. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 30, 2018 17:36:51 GMT -8
Does anyone have any practical experience with these yet? How do they hold up, operation, etc? I am hoping to use them throughout my yard, but really want to hear from some other users first. I don't know if I count as I am hardly unbiased, but I have been installing them on the Kingston Sub. A bunch of photos are here: www.facebook.com/pg/KingstonSub/photos/?tab=album&album_id=447403715697476So far I have had one fail - that was the one that Jordan and I installed in the video. I'm not sure if it failed because we did a crummy job or if we knocked it around after installation. I'll be sending it to Randy for inspection. In a couple of other locations, I thought they weren't working because the polarity wasn't changing, but the only issue was I had the wire in the wrong hole. There are three holes on the cam just for that purpose. Here is a series of tips I wrote for the web site: rapidotrains.com/railcrew-installation-tips-tricks/I'd also be interested to hear other people's experiences. Sometimes the cam is a #&$#^ to put on, but overall what takes the biggest time is wiring up the machines, and that would be the same with any switch machine. Installation is actually pretty quick: less than 10 minutes per machine, a few minutes longer if I have to build out the benchwork to support it. Then wiring takes forever as I solder everything. But I find it relaxing. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 22, 2018 9:25:45 GMT -8
We're not so obvious as to make the pictures exactly what we're announcing, although there's usually a hint in each picture somewhere... unless Jason is in a really mischievous mood! Hey! Josh made those pictures. Don't blame me!
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Post by rapidotrains on Jun 5, 2018 17:15:31 GMT -8
I drool every time I see those B36-7 test shots... Thanks, hoping to have factory painted samples with all the lights working in time for St Louis! Only 6-7 weeks to go... -Rapido Gareth To add to Gareth's comments, in the meantime we're panicking about having samples in time for our big launch on the 25th. Only 39 new moulds to finish in the next two weeks.... Oh dear! -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Apr 28, 2018 18:19:40 GMT -8
All the artwork for the FP7's and F7B's shows units with 48" dynamic brake fans, but a lot of the CP numbers picked should have smaller 36" dynamic brake fans. There's nothing mentioned about this in the item descriptions (it mentions different grill styles, steam generator details, etc) - will the Rapido CP units accurately have both 36" and 48" DB fan sizes as per prototype numbers picked? Some of the VIA numbers should as well, as they were all ex-CP units. That's got me a little concerned, and it's more than a little detail to be missing for "100% accurate GMD-built FP7 locomotives" when over half of the CP units actually have 36" DB fans. But, perhaps my concerns are misplaced - the FP9's turned out to be very nice offerings after all, with multiple radiator fan sizes for the CN/VIA units. We are indeed doing yet another roof. There are so many roofs on this darn thing. So you should have no fear. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Apr 27, 2018 13:28:18 GMT -8
Hi all, We have a big order deadline next week: - HO scale FP7 - HO scale F7B/F9B - HO scale NP boxcar - N scale GMD-1 Here is a link to all the pages: rapidotrains.com/upcoming-order-deadlines/Thanks to everyone who has ordered already! -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Apr 16, 2018 12:54:46 GMT -8
Where oh where are the buses? No mention on the newsletter and delivery schedule just says March and "in stores soon" How soon is "soon"? The buses were shipped out over the last couple of weeks. Except for Edmonton - they will be shipping with the CP SW1200RS locomotives next month. I also completely forgot the N scale GMD-1. D'oh! -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Apr 15, 2018 20:30:23 GMT -8
Hi all, We recently sent out our 100th newsletter. If you have some time to kill, you can read it here: conta.cc/2JJKe8r Thanks for reading, Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Apr 15, 2018 20:12:00 GMT -8
Rapido's 100th newsletter also contains an intriguing comment about an Also RS-11 shown in a photo of a New Haven lashup with two FA-2 B units. Maybe our friend Jason Shron is hinting about something for later on. Here's hoping. Alcos and MLW's forever! The whole thing is fun to read, as always. Glad you like it! I'm convinced only about three people read to the end... -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Apr 15, 2018 20:11:23 GMT -8
The Canadien price for the DC version is pretty steep, with the sound-equipped version only $10 (CDN) more. That must be a typo. Where did you see it? In Canada, DC models are $239.95 or $249.95. DCC models are $349.95 or $359.95. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Mar 6, 2018 8:47:33 GMT -8
I think some of you who have have replied about having no layout may have misunderstood the point that Jason was making which (to me) was that the people who give the most ridiculous reasons for not buying a particular model are usually the ones who don't buy anything. I'm sure that Rapido is aware that many people without layouts buy trains. That's right. The majority of model railroaders don't have a layout. But that doesn't mean they aren't modellers. I'm talking about guys whose hobby is *talking* about model railroading. They don't actually own any models. There was a guy who was always critical on a big forum about everything VIA Rail Canada did - their service was terrible, their timetable didn't make sense, their equipment needed updating, etc. etc. He was always on there criticizing VIA. But it became clear that, apart from one short hop, he hadn't actually taken a VIA train in over 30 years, and in fact most of his train travel was from the early 1970s and pre-dated VIA's existence. Finally a VIA employee lost his cool on the forum and said something like, "How can you justify criticizing VIA when you never even take the $%^#& train???" I can't say I blame him for losing his cool. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Mar 5, 2018 8:09:27 GMT -8
That always annoys me. Every manufacturer's product posts seem to generate people saying "why don't you make this?" If they thought that was where the sales were thats what they would have made first. Enjoy what is being produced. That's not to say that wishlisting isn't good, just at the right time. A lot of the messages we get are along the lines of this: "I model January 1966. Your model paint scheme is from December 1965, with the numbers spaced out an extra 1/64th of an inch. My wallet is safe. But if you ever do that January 1966 version with the tighter numbers, I'll buy ten." I suspect if we visited that guy's layout room we would not find a single model train. Unfortunately, it's often impossible to know from an email or an online post who is actually a model railroader and who is just a model railroad talker. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Mar 2, 2018 13:20:34 GMT -8
Gareth, Burlington Northern B-units. If you build it, they will come. Can't model BN intermodal without LMX's, GP50's, and of course, Rapido B30-7AB's. Those photos of your B36-7 are priceless. Tell Jason you want a raise. John He's already getting ten bucks a week. That's gotta be enough. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Feb 12, 2018 16:15:51 GMT -8
The result of moving the factory to a location with cheaper labor? No. The factory move hasn't happened yet. That's one of the drawbacks with being so open about the behind the scenes processes. It can lead to the wrong conclusion. These cars ended up being a lot harder than we thought. The biggest challenge was shrinkage in the parts when pulling from the moulds. That lead to the issues at the car ends. And the truck holders, which we found were necessary to prevent the cages from getting destroyed in shipping, ended up being too hard to pull out. People are damaging their cars getting them out of the anti-damage packaging! For the next run, we will be making some adjustments to the tooling to address both of those issues. We have not heard many complaints about the gates not being straight. I'm sorry that your model had that problem. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Feb 4, 2018 7:00:25 GMT -8
It is not. US Freight, modern-ish. West coast & East coast appeal... It will be interesting to see what their definition of "modern-ish" will be as on FB they said that the prototype "ran all over the USA, and served with many of the major US railroads of the era." I'm pretty sure that that "modern-ish" rules out my guess of it being a RS11. And we are seeing such "modern" locomotives as the Dash-8 series being donated to museums. So, I'm guessing that it may be something from the 1980's-1990's??? Gareth's just leading you guys on. It's actually this: -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Feb 1, 2018 18:39:27 GMT -8
Well without further ado here is the first video from the Amherst Train Show this past weekend. Enjoy Thanks For watching! Very nice! And I am entirely unbiased in my opinion... -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jan 29, 2018 6:30:14 GMT -8
Gareth, Are these meds also anti-bus? Like Gas-X but called Bus-X? If so, load him up! No way. We are changing over the entire factory to only make these: They are so cool. These buses had to fit through a medieval archway so they built them archway-shaped. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jan 28, 2018 16:02:41 GMT -8
Jason, so to be clear, are you saying there are no issues with Shinedew? I don't think you are defending them, correct. In your case, you took the smart approach to organize your own team locally there and treat those as partners/employees which is commendable. If you look at what what Kadee as done to design, make product in USA at a decent price using American workers is also very commendable. Most anything is possible. No, I'm not defending Shinedew. Despite their repeated emails (to me and everyone else), we've never worked with them. Kadee and Micro-Trains are often brought up as the two "made in USA" success stories. The trouble is that you can't have a working HO scale model railroad using only Kadee equipment. You would have only a handful of freight cars and no power. Micro-Trains really are a success, but the number of pieces in a Micro-Trains N locomotive is fewer than the number of pieces in a Rapido HO passenger car interior. The biggest issue is the cost of labour. It takes many, many hours to install 300-400 parts in one model. There is no possible way to do this in North America. The hourly wages alone would be higher than the target MSRP. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jan 28, 2018 15:58:36 GMT -8
Undecorated models do sell. I have a cabinet full of them They sell, but in very, very small quantities. When we did our meat reefers in HO, we sold about 8000 IIRC. The undecs? Fewer than 200. Regularly when our production run is in the range of 4000 pieces, the undecorated models can be counted on one person's fingers and toes. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jan 28, 2018 15:55:33 GMT -8
I will be glad when Rapido runs out of Canada and Northeastern models to do and then decides to work on Milwaukee Road, Chicago & NorthWestern, M&St.L, Great Northern steam models. I still have lots of Canadian models to do...
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Post by rapidotrains on Jan 27, 2018 17:04:00 GMT -8
Seems to me that the Chinese Sweat shops that are making models are under great pressure to get product boxed and into a container. Having visited many model train factories in China I can assure you that not a single one is a sweat shop. This is one of our factories: Here is another: Neither of them is a sweat shop. Whenever we post a video from one of our factories, we face a lot of negative comments which can be boiled down to: "I think people in North America/Western Europe deserve jobs more than people in China." Few people would say that so bluntly but that is the essence of it. I'm sure that's not what you meant, Tony. We all want the prices to come down and we would love to make the trains here. Would you pay $1500 for an HO locomotive? That is what the retail price would be for us to make Rapido-quality locomotives in North America, and that's assuming somebody gives us a factory for free. Want us to make Rapido-quality HO locomotives here and bring down the prices? OK - we can do that. It will have all the details but it would be a flat, undecorated kit with no electronics, but it would be made here and it would be cheaper. And you still need to give us a factory for free, but it can be a smaller factory. The modern industry of super-detailed, ready to run model trains was built in China. The only way to bring the prices down and bring production back here is to go back to much simpler models. And the reality of our industry is that those models don't sell nearly as well. There are still a lot of Athearn blue box kits on hobby shop shelves around North America. They've been sitting there a long time... -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jan 22, 2018 15:33:30 GMT -8
Hahaha, the Tempo... we’d have to be crazy to make that! -Rapido Gareth Gareth I'm cancelling all your modern freight stuff and your UK stuff so we can afford to make a Tempo. You design the Tempo passenger cars and I'll get Dan to design that awesome Tempo RS-18 rebuild. I'll just work on the British buses. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jan 22, 2018 14:35:08 GMT -8
Very nice model..........well, for being steam. I was trying to convey that attitude in the video for a bit of a laugh. We got complaints! Two guys were upset that I "didn't seem interested." OK - from now on we're only making VIA models from 1980 so I can look interested. Models like this!
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Post by rapidotrains on Jan 21, 2018 16:39:33 GMT -8
I'm guessing a B23-7 or B30-7 Good possibilities since their November newsletter teased drawings of the radiator section on a F59PH and some sort of GE Dash 7. The other hints of it only being built in the USA rule out the former and suggest the latter. What about a B36-7? BC Rail had second-hand B36-7s purchased from ATSF. When asked if this US-built locomotive ever migrated to Canada, Rapido dodged the question saying a response would give it away... B36-7? To coin a phrase used by people half my age... meh. Now THIS would be awesome... as a complete train in a box with a bow on it: But I think there are only five other guys who would agree with me. "50th Anniversary Tempo Box Set" - limited edition of SIX. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jan 19, 2018 10:14:32 GMT -8
Jason's cylindrical hoppers are at Klein's. They did not order a huge number of units per sku. I got a few CN cars. Will be interested to see how they work out. Bill To give credit where it is due, I had virtually nothing to do with this project. It was first proposed to me by Ken Goslett in 2014. Dan Darnell joined the team in 2015 and he made the case and started working on it. Gareth has worked on it too, and so has Josh. I didn't even write the instructions - Dan and Gareth did. I have a truckload on order for my own layout, but I didn't actually do much of the work! -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jan 14, 2018 19:21:57 GMT -8
Very interesting to read this thread. I'm glad that many of you do not think the transition era is dead, and we at Rapido agree with you 100%.
I have some inside information for you.
I rarely ever see photos of our RDC online. Certainly RDC images/reviews/etc. pale in number compared to those for the Dash 8. The RDC outsold the Dash 8 by 50%. No joke.
Sales of the SW1200RS - a locomotive introduced in the 1950s - are also much higher than the Dash 8. And this is despite the fact that the little guy has a higher MSRP, a shorter discount (thus higher street price) and a model almost exactly like it (P2K SW1200) has been on the market for over 20 years.
The transition era is still going strong, though we are seeing an increased interest in the 1970s/1980s as well. CN red cab 1200RS units outsold the green scheme. Just four years ago the green GMD-1 outsold the red cab. I guess it depends on the locomotive.
Here is something else I find interesting - among Rapido customers, the 1960s are not popular at all. The 1960s paint schemes - including CN noodle with the black cab - just don't sell compared to 1950s and 1970s/80s schemes.
This is very strange, as I would have suspected that guys in their 50s/60s now would fondly remember their 1960s childhoods and model that decade. But it seems they are either modelling the 1950s before their were born or the 1970s from when they were in their teens/20s.
-Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Jan 14, 2018 8:58:56 GMT -8
Hi all,
Reading this and other forums the focus is almost entirely on the 1970s and later, with an emphasis on much later.
It seems that no Rapido product has been photographed or talked about online (especially on Facebook) as much as our Dash 8, our first modern freight locomotive that didn't originate in the 1950s.
So... what do you think? Is modelling the transition era basically finished? Has modern and contemporary modelling taken over?
I welcome your thoughts.
-Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Dec 18, 2017 8:46:11 GMT -8
We made replacement shells for people about seven or eight years ago for people who had the "beige" ACR cars. I hope you got them at the time as they are long gone now. -Jason Heck, I’ve never even seen a silver Rapido Algoma Central passenger car. Sorry to hear that! We did indeed make replacement shells for customers and the baggage cars and FP9As were done in the correct silver. I suggest you sign up for our newsletter as that is the first place we advertise stuff like that. rapidotrains.com/signup-Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Dec 17, 2017 7:55:25 GMT -8
My Rapid passenger cars all track just fine on Code 83 and through Peco turnouts. The only issue I've ever had is that the paint on my Algoma Central cars was this weird tan instead of silver. We made replacement shells for people about seven or eight years ago for people who had the "beige" ACR cars. I hope you got them at the time as they are long gone now. -Jason
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Post by rapidotrains on Dec 17, 2017 7:50:27 GMT -8
Sorry, code 100. No other pieces of equipment or locomotives have any issues. Hi Timmie, The first run Rapido cars from 2006/2007 had a serious design flaw. The floor was essentially a flat piece of plastic with a bunch of holess in it to install all the underbody equipment. The result was it was very floppy and wouldn't stay coupled or on the track - we redesigned those cars in 2008 to have a C-channel floor and most of the problems went away. As well, in late 2007 we had a problem where the 41-BNO-11 truck mould wore out, causing running issues on some cars. We had to remake that mould and send people replacement trucks if their cars were affected. There have been various issues over the years with Rapido products (anyone remember the Central Illinois baggage cars?), but bear in mind we've produced something like 250,000 passenger cars and the vast majority of them have no problems. We hope you won't write off Rapido based on one secondhand purchase of our first-ever models from over a decade ago. It is even possible that your cars have been modified or had parts replaced by the previous owner. I suggest you call the office and speak with Dan Garcia. He was in charge of customer service and warranty repair back when those first cars came out. The office number is 1-855-LRC-6917. He can advise on how to get your cars running properly. Best regards, Jason
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