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Post by wagnersteve on Jul 8, 2023 18:24:37 GMT -8
Saturday, July 8, starting about 10:09 p.m., EDT
I don't believe Rapido has yet published a Newsletter announcement about this, or emailed a flyer on it. I don't follow Facebook or other "social media", so I don't know whether it's been announced on one of those. But I accidentally found information on this earlier today when I went to the Rapido Trains website to check on something else.
I'll quote from a draft I've written of my "Modeling Matters" column for the September issue of the Bridge Line Historical Society Bulletin, the monthly publication of a group of Delaware & Hudson fans. It's an all-volunteer undertaking; the only one who gets paid is the printer. Material for the September issue is due to be sent to our Publisher and Editor July 28. The August issue -- not yet mailed, so far as I know -- is produced by one of our volunteers as a solo project to give the rest of us something of a break. This is intended to be part of a section on Other Northeastern / Canadian / Alco HO
Rapido making HO Alco FA-1s & FA-1s
This was on the Rapido Trains web site by the early afternoon of July 8, although apparently no newsletter or flyer announcing it had yet been emailed or posted.
As usual, these will be highly detailed assembled models with details appropriate for each railroad’s locomotives. Renderings of all paint schemes in the run, as were photos of A and B units in the Canadian Pacific’s as-built maroon, gray and yellow livery with “block” Roman lettering and in Union Pacific’s usual Armour Yellow, Harbor Mist Gray and red, with green on top of the A’s news and silvered trucks. Those looked very good to me.
MSRP’s for orders from the USA in US dollars are $339.95 for single A units and $699.95 for A-B sets with DCC and sound; $229.95 for single As and $429.95 for A-B sets without DCC and sound installed. Prices in Canadian dollars were not yet stated. No deadline for pre-orders or ETA of the models was given. Locos “with” and “without” will wear the same numbers, as follows:
• Canadian National (as built, green, yellow -- I call those "olive & mustard" and black with gold or imitation gold): 9400, 9402, 9403, 9406.
• Canadian Pacific (as built with road name in “block” lettering): 4008, 4010. 4012 & 4410. 4026 & 4415.
• Canadian Pacific (with script road name ): 4016, 4025, 4015 & 4406, 4019 & 4416.
• Erie (black & yellow): 726, 728, 725A & 725B, 725D & 725C.
• Lehigh & New England (black & white): 701, 710, 702 & 753. 717 & 751.
• New Haven (as built, orange & black or very dark green (including lettering), with silver stripes): 0405, 0429, 0402 & 0450, 0416 & 0457.
• New Haven (McGinnis repaint): 0409, 0412, 0407 & 0452. 0421 & 045.
• Pennsylvania (Dark Green Locomotive Enamel with single gold or imitation gold stripe and extended Roman road name on each, plus red & white keystones): 9602, 9605, 9603A & 9603B, 9607A & 9608B/
• Reading (black with bright green stripe with yellow Reading in Roman capitals between thinner yellow stripes): 301, 304, 302 & 302B. 305 & 304B..
Others will wear the liveries of Great Northern (as built Omaha Orange and Pullman Green with yellow lettering and striping) and Union Pacific.
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Post by locochris on Jul 8, 2023 22:26:00 GMT -8
I think these were announced a couple years ago. They were stuck in design phase for a long time. They just recently got the first samples, but the factory mix and matched parts from different prototypes.
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Post by hudsonyard on Jul 8, 2023 23:06:04 GMT -8
nearly 1200 or so for an A-B-B-A set of LNEs after after market ESU and speakers, considering their track record with locomotives........let someone else make that potential mistake first then we'll see.
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cn2240
Junior Member
Posts: 70
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Post by cn2240 on Jul 9, 2023 0:33:58 GMT -8
$340 USD for a DCC/Sound A-unit? Paying a Rivet Counter or Genesis price for a model from a not-so-reputable company? Yeah, I'm good.
Was never interested in this but I did consider potentially getting the C40-8M but given Rapido love scoring in their own net, I'll be sticking with my Prime Movers models, at least back then they did have the word "quality" in their dictionary.
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Post by schroed2 on Jul 9, 2023 0:45:20 GMT -8
I am keeping my fleet of P2K FA1/FB1...mostly undec since they did not produce the road names I am interested in...
Now, what is a good color for the SPS dark green ?
The Rapido choice for the FA2 was controversial, are the Bowser colors better ?
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Post by wagnersteve on Jul 9, 2023 4:41:52 GMT -8
July 9, starting at 8:40 a.m., EDT
I stand corrected as to Rapido Trains not having stated before that they would be making FA-1's and FA-2's.
I'd like to see what "mix and match" items locochris was referring to.
More later.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Jul 9, 2023 5:17:35 GMT -8
I am keeping my fleet of P2K FA1/FB1...mostly undec since they did not produce the road names I am interested in... Now, what is a good color for the SPS dark green ? The Rapido choice for the FA2 was controversial, are the Bowser colors better ? As I recommended to Rapido when they asked me when they were going to produce the FA2: match the colors of your already owned SP&S locos. Athearn and Bowser have already done a pile of stuff in broadstripe. The upcoming Bowser RS-3 in the earlier scheme SHOULD be using the same colors, just applied differently. Ed |
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Post by locochris on Jul 9, 2023 8:06:41 GMT -8
nearly 1200 or so for an A-B-B-A set of LNEs after after market ESU and speakers, considering their track record with locomotives........let someone else make that potential mistake first then we'll see. They already come with ESU LS5 decoders. I can understand replacing the speakers, but why would you replace the pre-installed LS5 with an after market LS5? |
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Post by locochris on Jul 9, 2023 8:17:05 GMT -8
July 9, starting at 8:40 a.m., EDT I stand corrected as to Rapido Trains not having stated before that they would be making FA-1's and FA-2's. I'd like to see what "mix and match" items locochris was referring to. More later. Here's the link to the image, I couldn't get the image to show up in the post: link
I think I saw it in a livestream but they also mentioned it in a Facebook post. This is what they said:
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Post by wagnersteve on Jul 9, 2023 8:22:21 GMT -8
July 9, starting close to noon, EDT
Since neither the Delaware & Hudson nor the Boston & Maine ever had Alco cab units for freight service, FA-1's are not at the top of my "wish list" of possible purchases. However, several other lines I like had them, and I bought several Alco FA units years ago. Most were FA-2's, Life-LIke Proto 2000 models decorated by Bev-Bel. CP 4048 in maroon, gray & yellow with "block" Roman road name and another, whose number I can't find at the moment, with the name in script instead, probably wear the numbers of real FA-2's. Another, wearing the CN's passenger unit is numbered 6766, which almost surely was an MLW-built FPA-4. More recently bought a Rapido Trains model of that type, one of the only two locos on my roster from that maker, the other being a GMD-1 light freight road switcher with 6-wheel trucks, also in a green livery. I saw many of those units working in the Prairie Provinces in the summer of 1964, though most were already wearing newer liveries.
My home layout is so small that running B units don't make sense. Any train with more than one diesel-electric gets units facing in opposite directions. I don't mind having to turn a single passenger unit on my turntable.
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Post by markfj on Jul 9, 2023 8:40:44 GMT -8
nearly 1200 or so for an A-B-B-A set of LNEs after after market ESU and speakers, considering their track record with locomotives........let someone else make that potential mistake first then we'll see. Yep, wait and see…wait and see. It’s like buying a new car; let someone else take the depreciation hit and then get them in a year or so off eBay or an online retailer looking to unload inventory. I got my RS-11 off a Toy Train Heaven Cloud 9 sale for under $100! Just forget about finding deals at a show. I saw a good amount of Rapido locomotives and rolling stock at the Oaks, PA Greenburg show yesterday. Most items from older releases were still priced way too high and I’m sure they’ll be packed up and heading home again with the seller. For example, I saw X72a boxcars at $50 when online retailers have them listed for $35 to $40. Similar high markups were on the Flexi Flos and the X31as. Also, all the Rapido locos were priced much too high compared to prices online. Thanks, Mark |
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Post by hudsonyard on Jul 9, 2023 9:58:27 GMT -8
nearly 1200 or so for an A-B-B-A set of LNEs after after market ESU and speakers, considering their track record with locomotives........let someone else make that potential mistake first then we'll see. They already come with ESU LS5 decoders. I can understand replacing the speakers, but why would you replace the pre-installed LS5 with an after market LS5?
I don't want to pay the $$$ for pre-installed speakers just to rip them out, it may cost roughly the same but i'd rather start with a fresh install, especially because they will probably need a powerpack and potentially a re-wiring
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Post by lvrr325 on Jul 9, 2023 10:23:58 GMT -8
nearly 1200 or so for an A-B-B-A set of LNEs after after market ESU and speakers, considering their track record with locomotives........let someone else make that potential mistake first then we'll see. Yep, wait and see…wait and see. It’s like buying a new car; let someone else take the depreciation hit and then get them in a year or so off eBay or an online retailer looking to unload inventory. I got my RS-11 off a Toy Train Heaven Cloud 9 sale for under $100! Just forget about finding deals at a show. I saw a good amount of Rapido locomotives and rolling stock at the Oaks, PA Greenburg show yesterday. Most items from older releases were still priced way too high and I’m sure they’ll be packed up and heading home again with the seller. For example, I saw X72a boxcars at $50 when online retailers have them listed for $35 to $40. Similar high markups were on the Flexi Flos and the X31as. Also, all the Rapido locos were priced much too high compared to prices online. Thanks, Mark $40 plus $10 shipping plus sales tax (which can be a wash at a show particularly if a vendor takes cards) and you're back at $50. If you're seeing $49.95 list Rapido cars for $35 that's as cheap as they're going to get. Let's see. Four singles at $340 is $1360; they charge you $40 more to buy two A-B sets? Should that be $649.99? At $230 without sound four would be $920 or $860 for two A-B sets. In any case this makes old Proto sets much more attractive for the price difference. |
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Post by cemr5396 on Jul 9, 2023 20:45:14 GMT -8
$340 USD for a DCC/Sound A-unit? Paying a Rivet Counter or Genesis price for a model from a not-so-reputable company? Yeah, I'm good. Was never interested in this but I did consider potentially getting the C40-8M but given Rapido love scoring in their own net, I'll be sticking with my Prime Movers models, at least back then they did have the word "quality" in their dictionary. I put a bunch of work into my early run C40-8Ms to raise them to a detail level that I liked, I'm not getting rid of them and paying however much extra for a model that is essentially exactly the same except with etched metal steps and a bunch of underbody cables you can't really see anyway. And maybe some extra lights. There is still a lot of details that will need adding/changing on the new ones. Especially on the BC Rail units - which still are coming with incorrect CN style antenna placement, but much more importantly, wrong radiators on the 'late' appearance versions. While antennas are not hard to fix, redoing the radiator is pretty major surgery, AND you need to have a donor part. Considering this is being touted as the 'be all, end all, 'fixing everything we didn't do the first time'' version of the C40-8M (a statement which is blatantly wrong, in the model's current state) they should be correct from the factory. It's not like there aren't tons of photos out there of BC Rail units which show the antenna placement and radiators. As far as I'm concerned the 'upgrades' they made are not nearly worth the 'upgrade' in price. |
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Post by elfan on Jul 16, 2024 10:41:51 GMT -8
Saw a video from Rapido last week that these have shipped. Anyone received theirs yet? Any NON biased opinions on quality?
Tom
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Post by wagnersteve on Jul 16, 2024 14:08:08 GMT -8
7/16/24, about 6:07 p.m., EDT
Tom, thanks for your latest post, which I hope someone knowledgeable will respond to in the spirit with which you've posted it.
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Post by cpr4200 on Jul 16, 2024 14:22:30 GMT -8
Non-biased? Here? Bwahaha!
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Post by edwardsutorik on Jul 16, 2024 16:25:53 GMT -8
Perhaps no non-biased people bought any.
Ed
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Post by prr 4467 on Jul 16, 2024 19:22:39 GMT -8
I actually would love an orange and green New Haven FA, and I almost went there but am committed to going all steam power now.
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cn2240
Junior Member
Posts: 70
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Post by cn2240 on Jul 16, 2024 20:26:33 GMT -8
It's not the FA-1/FB-1 but I picked up a pair of CN GP9rms from my LHS a month ago and surprisingly, there was nothing wrong with either of them. Quality-wise they looked and performed as I would expect for a premium model and for the first time in years, I'm actually happy with a Rapido model.
So maybe the FA-1 and FB-1 might also be quality models as well.
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Post by 690 on Jul 16, 2024 21:25:16 GMT -8
I’ve got a pair of M420Rs from the latest run and am quite happy with them; there were no parts missing, no paint issues and they ran just fine right out of the box. The only slight issue I noted was that on the rear of the unit, some of the piping detail rubs against the outside brake beams of the AAR-B trucks and creates a slight clicking noise when this occurs. However it only occurs when the truck is turning sharply, and I suspect it’s more of an oversight than anything else. The normal M420 with the ZWT trucks doesn’t have any outside brake beams and therefore doesn’t rub against this detail.
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Post by voyager989 on Jul 17, 2024 14:37:46 GMT -8
Saw a video from Rapido last week that these have shipped. Anyone received theirs yet? Any NON biased opinions on quality? Tom I'll be happy to tell you once they fix the fact that there's a DC B unit in my DCC/Sound Erie B unit box. |
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Post by lvrr325 on Jul 17, 2024 22:39:05 GMT -8
That's a heavy duty goof. Years ago I got the reverse of that with a Bowser C430, sound in a silent box.
Nobody's asked for any through me, and things are so slow online right now I wouldn't dare try to gamble on one.
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Post by cpr4200 on Jul 18, 2024 6:20:54 GMT -8
Other than putting it on the track or what's printed on the box, is there a way to tell if an engine is dcc/sound or straight dc?
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Post by prr 4467 on Jul 18, 2024 8:19:19 GMT -8
If you pull the body shell off you can certainly tell.
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Post by elfan on Jul 18, 2024 8:22:29 GMT -8
Saw a video from Rapido last week that these have shipped. Anyone received theirs yet? Any NON biased opinions on quality? Tom I'll be happy to tell you once they fix the fact that there's a DC B unit in my DCC/Sound Erie B unit box. Wow…that’s a major faux pas, albeit easily fixed, hopefully at no cost to you,including the shipping. Imagine if you didn’t catch that! There’s a lot of people just put them on the shelf awaiting the day sometime in the future to actually run them. I can admit to being guilty of that with some. I still have some Athearn locos I have never run, but always take them out of the box for a visual inspection. Anyone else have this issue? Curious if it’s a one off mistake in packaging or common in the Erie production. I guess I’ll find out soon enough as I just sent in payment for my Erie A-B units. Aside from the minor…said in jest…error, How do they look,perform? Tom |
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Post by voyager989 on Jul 18, 2024 9:28:33 GMT -8
I'll be happy to tell you once they fix the fact that there's a DC B unit in my DCC/Sound Erie B unit box. Wow…that’s a major faux pas, albeit easily fixed, hopefully at no cost to you,including the shipping. Imagine if you didn’t catch that! There’s a lot of people just put them on the shelf awaiting the day sometime in the future to actually run them. I can admit to being guilty of that with some. I still have some Athearn locos I have never run, but always take them out of the box for a visual inspection. Anyone else have this issue? Curious if it’s a one off mistake in packaging or common in the Erie production. I guess I’ll find out soon enough as I just sent in payment for my Erie A-B units. Aside from the minor…said in jest…error, How do they look,perform? Tom They look good - but I'm not enough of a rivet counter to know if I'm missing anything. No broken parts in the box, shell removal was easy enough, though getting the couplers back on is less fun. (Screws bite into the coupler box so it's not quite so easy to line up the hole in the body.) Waiting for the fourth unit to try running them in at the club. My pre-commissioning run through the LokProgrammer caught the error, and then taking the shell off showed that was not a LS5 on the 21 pin socket. Rapido had me send them an email to generate a return label, so I assume it'll go off for either replacement or installation of a decoder. Came with speakers installed (same modern Rapido dual-cube, so I'm going to plan on a Scale Sound replacement when he makes one, and I assume the line of capacitors on the underside of the motherboard is their 'MoPower' - not sure if that's normal for the DCC Ready versions or not. The USD/CAD exchange rate decided me to get theirs rather than going ahead with my original P2K plan to create a 4 unit set with the effort of re-numbering and costs of speakers/decoders/gears. If it helps anyone, my issue was with 725-B. |
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Post by elfan on Jul 18, 2024 9:51:08 GMT -8
Wow…that’s a major faux pas, albeit easily fixed, hopefully at no cost to you,including the shipping. Imagine if you didn’t catch that! There’s a lot of people just put them on the shelf awaiting the day sometime in the future to actually run them. I can admit to being guilty of that with some. I still have some Athearn locos I have never run, but always take them out of the box for a visual inspection. Anyone else have this issue? Curious if it’s a one off mistake in packaging or common in the Erie production. I guess I’ll find out soon enough as I just sent in payment for my Erie A-B units. Aside from the minor…said in jest…error, How do they look,perform? Tom They look good - but I'm not enough of a rivet counter to know if I'm missing anything. No broken parts in the box, shell removal was easy enough, though getting the couplers back on is less fun. (Screws bite into the coupler box so it's not quite so easy to line up the hole in the body.) Waiting for the fourth unit to try running them in at the club. My pre-commissioning run through the LokProgrammer caught the error, and then taking the shell off showed that was not a LS5 on the 21 pin socket. Rapido had me send them an email to generate a return label, so I assume it'll go off for either replacement or installation of a decoder. Came with speakers installed (same modern Rapido dual-cube, so I'm going to plan on a Scale Sound replacement when he makes one, and I assume the line of capacitors on the underside of the motherboard is their 'MoPower' - not sure if that's normal for the DCC Ready versions or not. The USD/CAD exchange rate decided me to get theirs rather than going ahead with my original P2K plan to create a 4 unit set with the effort of re-numbering and costs of speakers/decoders/gears. If it helps anyone, my issue was with 725-B. From the way I’m understating what you wrote about the B unit, the electronics were there but instead of the Loksound 5 sound decoder there was just the DC plug? Are the electronics there but just the wrong decoder on the board? Would them just sending you the 21 pin decoder to plug into the motherboard solve the problem or does the entire unit need to be exchanged? Tom |
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Post by voyager989 on Jul 18, 2024 10:12:47 GMT -8
They look good - but I'm not enough of a rivet counter to know if I'm missing anything. No broken parts in the box, shell removal was easy enough, though getting the couplers back on is less fun. (Screws bite into the coupler box so it's not quite so easy to line up the hole in the body.) Waiting for the fourth unit to try running them in at the club. My pre-commissioning run through the LokProgrammer caught the error, and then taking the shell off showed that was not a LS5 on the 21 pin socket. Rapido had me send them an email to generate a return label, so I assume it'll go off for either replacement or installation of a decoder. Came with speakers installed (same modern Rapido dual-cube, so I'm going to plan on a Scale Sound replacement when he makes one, and I assume the line of capacitors on the underside of the motherboard is their 'MoPower' - not sure if that's normal for the DCC Ready versions or not. The USD/CAD exchange rate decided me to get theirs rather than going ahead with my original P2K plan to create a 4 unit set with the effort of re-numbering and costs of speakers/decoders/gears. If it helps anyone, my issue was with 725-B. From the way I’m understating what you wrote about the B unit, the electronics were there but instead of the Loksound 5 sound decoder there was just the DC plug? Are the electronics there but just the wrong decoder on the board? Would them just sending you the 21 pin decoder to plug into the motherboard solve the problem or does the entire unit need to be exchanged? Tom I haven't opened up my other B unit, it may just be the DC plug - but Rapido wants me to send it back for repair/exchange. I don't know if they have all the electronics in the DCC-ready units by default. |
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Post by lvrr325 on Jul 19, 2024 22:55:47 GMT -8
Other than putting it on the track or what's printed on the box, is there a way to tell if an engine is dcc/sound or straight dc? Weigh it. Sound engines weigh a bit more. |
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