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Post by atsf_4 on Dec 3, 2022 17:27:02 GMT -8
I'll leave the pictures to others; I do not have a good place to post any.
I picked up my 8 Rapido ATSF Mechanical Reefers today, RR60/61 classes in the circle cross paint scheme, and the details are mostly fantastic.
Another customer in the store, one of the regulars who spends a lot of money there, also saw them and he was absolutely blown away by the level of detail on the cars!
Only negatives: the steps below the plug door are a little crooked on some, but not bad. On 1 of 8 cars one step was missing. Not a deal breaker for me. On a couple of the cars, the reefer orange? color was a little richer. It appeared they maybe did a factory paint repair prior to printing.
My personal opinion is that the reefer orange color used for Santa Fe should be more orange. However, I would not let that dissuade me from buying these cars, especially because in the southwestern sun they definitely faded in real life. I no longer model freight operations and yet I might get a couple more of these for my GFX or whatever the Green Fruit Express was called by 1960. GFX is the late steam era designation for the hottest reefer train on the ATSF--the hottest train on the railroad that wasn't a passenger train. There was typically one GFX per day if not more sections of it during peak season. These are not ice reefers, but they still would have been on the fast trains (to get fruit to NYC within one week, max).
Some cars were more free rolling than others out of the box, a modest improvement over other Rapido freight cars. The couplers function better than previous Kadee clone couplers they have used.
Helpful hints:
Some of the coupler pockets were screwed awfully tight. Loosening the screw just a little bit resulted in much freer coupler operation. Sometimes it helps to wiggle the coupler in the pocket too in order to get it moving freely.
Some trucks are screwed down a little tight. Because I have superelevation on the layout, I typically loosen the truck screw just a little bit for freer vertical motion.
These are exceptionally wonderful, highly-detailed cars. I wish I could get more but right now am over-committed to incoming diesels. I still might get one or two somewhere. It is so nice to finally have a correct for Santa Fe mechanical reefer (to go with Athearn's correct but rare 50' ice reefer of which there were only 100 in real life). Almost all other reefers out there are either PFE or MDT prototypes.
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Post by atsf_4 on Dec 3, 2022 17:37:14 GMT -8
The metal roofwalk has a little adjustment built into it for temperature changes. On one car the ends were pushed down a bit much, but I found that is actually helpful, as the press fit at the end of the car allows for a little bit of adjustment. I was able to pull up the end of the roofwalk just a bit and it stayed in place and fit even better while looking good. The roofwalks are awesome!
The see-through screen details are awesome, as is the operable roof hatch over the refrigerator compartment.
Rapido thoughtfully included separate ACI labels that can be applied for late 60's era modeling.
Underbody detail looks great on these (I cannot comment on prototypical accuracy of this car as photos are just not that common).
Out of 8 cars there was one tiny glue mark where a grab iron was attached to a roofwalk. The assembly QA/QC is remarkably good.
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Post by mvlandsw on Dec 3, 2022 17:39:16 GMT -8
They sound promising. Were any of the sound units available for the cars?
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Post by atsf_4 on Dec 3, 2022 18:30:56 GMT -8
I ordered all non-sound. I heard or read somewhere that there is a problem with the sound units and they will be provided separately at a later date.
I just ordered a 9th car, one of the singles, but still without sound.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Dec 3, 2022 18:31:54 GMT -8
These are exceptionally wonderful, highly-detailed cars. I wish I could get more but right now am over-committed to incoming diesels. I still might get one or two somewhere. It is so nice to finally have a correct for Santa Fe mechanical reefer (to go with Athearn's correct but rare 50' ice reefer of which there were only 100 in real life). Almost all other reefers out there are either PFE or MDT prototypes. Santa Fe modelers DO have a pretty nice ice reefer from Intermountain. They lasted up until about 1970, or so. I run mine back in 1959, so they're pulled by zebra stripes. Ed |
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Post by atsf_4 on Dec 3, 2022 20:48:51 GMT -8
Apologies...though that kit is a bit long in the tooth. The molded plasticky color never quite looked right to me. Yes, I had them once upon a time.
Also, as I said above, this is the first correct for Santa Fe mechanical reefer. The Intermountain 57' mechanical reefer is close to a Santa Fe class or two, but the trucks are in the wrong place for Santa Fe and it's quite noticeable.
Now we could use some later Santa Fe mechanical reefers, but we also need an actual correct Tropicana mechanical reefer, as there are none ever done.
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Post by simulatortrain on Dec 3, 2022 21:41:16 GMT -8
I think these are really nice cars and plan to grab one or two when they do the later versions. I'll have to print new trucks as they really screwed those up. The outer row of springs are located where the center row should be.
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Post by fr8kar on Dec 4, 2022 3:55:19 GMT -8
I think these are really nice cars and plan to grab one or two when they do the later versions. I'll have to print new trucks as they really screwed those up. The outer row of springs are located where the center row should be. Oof! Those trucks look awful. |
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Post by Colin 't Hart on Dec 4, 2022 6:06:03 GMT -8
I think these are really nice cars and plan to grab one or two when they do the later versions. I'll have to print new trucks as they really screwed those up. The outer row of springs are located where the center row should be. Oof! Those trucks look awful. So do the brakewheels. |
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Post by five83 on Dec 4, 2022 6:38:07 GMT -8
Still on the fence about these cars. My first impression is they looked slightly rushed and as others have mentioned, the color does look off.
With that said, I fully appreciate the hard work that was put in to getting these cars to market. They aren't a necessity for my layout, but they are definitely a neat prototype. I'll wait for a later run and see if some of the re-paints show up in SFRP reporting marks.
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Post by atsf_4 on Dec 4, 2022 19:27:57 GMT -8
www.rr-fallenflags.org/atsf/sfrp2244o26.jpgIf I look at the fresh paint patches on this image, the Rapido car appears to be rather light in color shade. I've looked at a bunch of Santa Fe reefer photos on the fallen flags website. Does anybody know if the shade of reefer orange got darker as the 1960's wore on? I'm having trouble finding 1950's color photos of these cars and I also know that different cameras and films may have distorted the colors as well?
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Post by Colin 't Hart on Dec 5, 2022 7:38:54 GMT -8
Can anyone who has one of these cars tell me if they've been painted or are moulded in coloured plastic?
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Post by atsf_4 on Dec 5, 2022 12:06:09 GMT -8
Colin--
I'm pretty sure they are painted, because as I have noted, the colors do vary slightly from car to car, and also over the etched brass screens on the side, where they appear slightly different from the body color.
As I said, I have one where for whatever reason it received a lot more paint spray and is more opaque and slightly more orange in color than the others.
I have another car where there was some issue and they clearly applied more paint up to one body seam on the side. It looks like a paint patch job (which Santa Fe did do on these).
Intermountain molded their ATSF ice reefers in a "reefer orange" color. These cars do look significantly better than the Intermountain Santa Fe ice reefer, but that is not really a compliment to Rapido.
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Post by mvlandsw on Dec 6, 2022 1:40:43 GMT -8
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Post by atsf_4 on Dec 6, 2022 7:54:55 GMT -8
Yes, it is indeed more pale in person than in those photo images. Did they change the color?
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Post by tony on Dec 6, 2022 8:18:37 GMT -8
We can use more 1950's - 60's mechanical reefer cars.
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Post by fr8kar on Dec 6, 2022 8:25:33 GMT -8
We can use more 1950's - 60's mechanical reefer cars. Hear, hear! I'd like to see the late 60s/early 70s Santa Fe built 50' mechanical reefers. They didn't last long in the 80s, but when you found one there was no doubt. Such a striking looking scheme. |
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Post by cemr5396 on Dec 6, 2022 8:52:51 GMT -8
I know a couple people mentioned the trucks earlier in the thread but I just got around to looking at the pictures on the Rapido webside and.... WOW. Those are UNBELIEVABLY bad. like, "how is that even possible?" bad.  |
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Post by cera2254 on Dec 6, 2022 9:11:14 GMT -8
Kinda looks like old MDC trucks lol.
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Post by unittrain on Dec 6, 2022 9:38:53 GMT -8
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Post by fr8kar on Dec 6, 2022 9:46:06 GMT -8
I thought they looked bad in the photos on Rapido's website but this photo proves they are much worse than I thought. |
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Post by riogrande on Dec 6, 2022 10:08:10 GMT -8
While I don't need these ATSF reefers, the trend is disturbing.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Dec 6, 2022 13:31:50 GMT -8
I think I've found their inspiration for those trucks:  Ed |
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Post by riogrande on Dec 6, 2022 14:29:59 GMT -8
Eek!
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Post by Colin 't Hart on Dec 7, 2022 4:06:41 GMT -8
I think I've found their inspiration for those trucks: Ed Here's another view of this "prototype":  The markings on this "model" are extremely amusing. |
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Post by craigz on Dec 8, 2022 6:25:40 GMT -8
That's....just awful. Simply awful. Is the actual truck/bolster mount anything close to normal? Rapido has a habit of conjuring up weird truck mounts. |
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Post by cera2254 on Dec 8, 2022 6:34:51 GMT -8
Do the wheels on these cars have a flat face like walthers cars? Hard to tell from the photo.
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Post by NS4122 on Dec 8, 2022 8:57:28 GMT -8
I'm just sitting here chuckling about the angst over the trucks. I remember a few years ago when Blaine Hadfield (Arrowhead Models) put the ridiculous looking 50T trucks on the 70T PRR H39 hopper. When pointed out that they were incorrect on this forum, the Blaine Hadfield "defense attorneys" pointed out that trucks really didn't matter, it was the highly detailed model that counted. So back then it was a free pass for totally wrong trucks and now it's crucifixion for Rapido's correct trucks that don't meet the "exacting" standards of the ARF.
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Post by cemr5396 on Dec 8, 2022 9:01:54 GMT -8
I'm just sitting here chuckling about the angst over the trucks. I remember a few years ago when Blaine Hadfield (Arrowhead Models) put the ridiculous looking 50T trucks on the 70T PRR H39 hopper. When pointed out that they were incorrect on this forum, the Blaine Hadfield "defense attorneys" pointed out that trucks really didn't matter, it was the highly detailed model that counted. So back then it was a free pass for totally wrong trucks and now it's crucifixion for Rapido's correct trucks that don't meet the "exacting" standards of the ARF. I can only speak for myself, but Arrowhead deserved just as much flak for that gaffe as Rapido does for this one. I'm not biased. |
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Post by idgara on Dec 8, 2022 11:53:56 GMT -8
So, is there a decent replacement truck, that would work?
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