A few notes on Rapido Newsletter 180, issued 1/12/2024

[wagnersteve]

1/13/2024, starting 8:51 a.m., EST, with some interruptions

I won't summarize the whole thing but will note what I find personally most interesting in HO scale.

The first image shows the front part of a very sleek-looking passenger train, led by a unit lettered as East Midlands Railway 180109. It's obvious that it's in the UK, but to me its caption remains mysterious: "This image needs no explanation for those of you who know what it is."

A link to all the available "Rapido Masterclasses" with info on real locos and cars of which the firm has made or plans to make modelss.

Deadline for the newest run of A and PB locos extended to March 15.

Jan. 15 pre-order deadlines:  C30-7 locos; NP "Day-Nite" coaches.
Feb. 15 ditto: BART legacy fleet. Comet Commuter cars.  Just before the link to catalog and order blank for the latter, this teaser: "But wouldn't it be nice for there to be a locomotive or two to pull these?  Stay tuned . . ."   PRR, FGE, etc. R7 reefers (selling well) and PRR X23 boxcars.

 Shipping in January:  PC&F SP B-70-69 boxcars and NSC center beams.
 
 "Arriving soon":  M420 locos.  Photos of upcoming models.  Two P&W liveries look very good, as do red, white, blue & silver BC Rail, two-tone green British Columbaia Rwy, plus "Delaware-Lackawanna's Alco-inspired scheme".  (The white and gray with yellow and red colors plus black roof and underparts of the last were used by Alco on a set of its demo units.)

 Many photos showing model parts at a factory in Chjina include ones for "almost ready" Canadian piggyback flatcars, CN NSC-built 5304 boxcars ready for lettering, Canadian trailers about to get final lettering.

 The firm will be hiring a new product manager; required skils are listed, both serious and funny.  I'm nowhere near qualified for it or  able to take it if I were.

It invites all Canadian citizens and residents to sign a petition for the country's government to fund a new transcontinental passenger fleet for VIA, since the 1955 Budd-built cars won't last forever.  Others are urged to tell friends in Canada about this.

Rapido will be in the Mallary building at the West Springfield show.

A final photo is "a teaser image for something we're working on".  It shows a two-lane road paved with asphalt in rather arid-looking country with scrubby bushes, at most, on both sides, straight towards somewhat jagged far enough away that I can't tell       some have any trees.  No railroad track, buildings, people or vehicles are shown.  The caption is "The open roaod.  Photo by Jordan Smith."  Hmmm . . .






p

[ambluco]

The teaser photo is for Trona Baldwins.

[wagnersteve]

1/13/2024, starting 10:30 a.m., EST

Ambluco, thanks.

I've just now looked up the Trona online -- I've never been in the Mojave Desert -- and learned that its Baldwin's were big center cab units. I'm quite sure that the only one of those I've seen first hand, exccept perhaps at a museum -- was an ex-DSS&A unit at Marquete on Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the early 1960s, by which time it had arleady been repainted into the expanded Soo Line's white, red and black livery.

Wikipedia's article on Baldwin's DT-6-6-2000 doesn't mention the Soo Line.  It says Baldwin built that type from March 1948 to August 1950, mostly for the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, which got 27 of them.  Most of those got rebuilt, mostly by EMD.  The two Baldwin demo units went to the ATSF and to the EJ&E.  ATSF had a total of 6, Cotton Belt 1, DSS&A 4, Minneapolis Northfield & Southern 5.  The only one still around is MN&S 21, at the Illinois Railroad Museum in Union, IL, in operable condition.

The Wiki article mentions Lima loco type that looked quite similar.  I'll check that one next.

That turned out to be the Lima-Hamilton A-3177 or LT-2500, only 22 of which were built, all for the PRR, from May 1950 to Sept. 4, 1951, the last of which was completed the day after the builder merged with Baldwin to form Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton.  The PRR ordered 22 more but agreed to accept BLH  23 BLH FT624s instead; the MN&S got one of those.  The Wikipedia article has an inconsistency.  It says the last three PRR units were retired by 1967, but it also says the Penn Central retired ex-PRR in October 1969 and it wsas scrapped in 1970.

Most of these units were regarded as "transfer" units.  I'm not sure that applied to to those the Trona had.


 

[edwardsutorik]

Leaving out one oddball, the Diesel Spotter's Guide shows:

DT-6-6-20: ATSF 2600-2606, MN&S 20-24, Trona 50-51, SSW 200, DSA 300-303 (SOO 396-399)

RT-624: MN&S 25, PRR 8113, 8724-8731, 8952-8965

It notes the two above models are visually indistinguishable (but then, these are Baldwins).

So. Ya got ATSF and PRR. And some others.


It'll sell, for sure.


Here's a picture of the version I'll be buying:






Not that the others wouldn't be cool, though. I am looking at a picture of the SOO one in white with red ends and giant lettering--also very nice, in a less restrained way:





Ed

[hudsonyard]

at least one of the MNS centercabs made it into SOO white and red as well.


If someone made an MNS DT-6-6-20 that along with the 38's and 1500s athearn are doing, the sirens for modeling the MNS would be going off very loudly.

[jonklein611]

Thanks for covering for me, I wasn't able to get anything posted in time.

I'll add some photos:

We're definitely replacing those plastic long handrails on the roof with metal. Not sure what we were thinking there...

Also, if you want to become a project manager for Rapido, they are hiring.

[drsvelte]

Here's a photo of a Custom Brass PRR Lima-Hamilton LT-2500 unit.  I sold it on eBay a number of years ago and it generated a fair amount of interest (I kinda regret selling it now  ).

If the Rapido Baldwin shell could be tweaked into the PRR Lima I suspect there would be alot of interest from the PRR H&T Society.  Me too!

[packer]

I'm looking over the C30-7 video, probably going to have to change the speaker on mine whenever they get here. Other than that it looks like they might be good.

I wonder if those new SP boxcars will be good, I might wait for a review

[cpr4200]

The R7 looks good. The ladders look very fine. OTOH the door locking bar doesn't.

[nsc39d8]

Jan 13, 2024 14:23:11 GMT -8 packer said:

I'm looking over the C30-7 video, probably going to have to change the speaker on mine whenever they get here. Other than that it looks like they might be good.

I am not sure yet on the C30-7. While I like all the truck versions they are doing including the correct NW triple clasp something still looks "off" about the trucks. Most pictures I have seen the cast hole is completely thru the side frame.

I am holding out till I can se the actual model like I am for the GP38.

[lhr]

Jan 13, 2024 12:07:41 GMT -8 jonklein611 said:

Thanks for covering for me, I wasn't able to get anything posted in time.

I'll add some photos:
   

We're definitely replacing those plastic long handrails on the roof with metal. Not sure what we were thinking there...

Also, if you want to become a project manager for Rapido, they are hiring.

Concerning those Santa Fe PA rebuilds, I have some photo's, not mine but ones I plucked off the net, of those units both in service and stored, one overhead, and there are NO handrails located on the roof along those radiator shutters. The only thing I can make out that is there is possibly a small linkage rod, and I mean small, connecting the shutters together so they can be opened and closed by an actuating rod connected to it. Even the ground level shots show no handrail. Must be some real good weed they have up there in Canada that they are smoken to think that the actuating rod and linkage is that large.


Greg B

[GP40P-2]

The M420s look pretty good. Did Rapido actually do a great model? I do not remember seeing any complaints on here from the first run, and these images look like actual models.

[ambluco]

Yes, the M420 is great. I have many.

Also, here: ATSF 51

Seems to show something if you zoom in. Maybe a very specific time period?

[lhr]

Jan 20, 2024 14:05:05 GMT -8 ambluco said:

Yes, the M420 is great. I have many.

Also, here: ATSF 51

Seems to show something if you zoom in. Maybe a very specific time period?

If anything, it's the rod connecting all the louvre fins. They were externally actuated by a smaller rod connected to the actuator lever both for and aft of the louvre fins. The rods were not as large as Rapido depicts them to be. The actuator was mounted under the roof with a shaft sticking thru, that had the lever attached to it, then the rod connected to the louvre rod on the fins. Only way to really see the actuating mechanism is with an overhead shot, which I have of one of them in Barstow under a bridge in storage before being sent in for scrap.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Greg B

[craigz]

Jan 13, 2024 12:07:41 GMT -8 jonklein611 said:

Thanks for covering for me, I wasn't able to get anything posted in time.

I'll add some photos:

The PAs were repowered at EMD if my memory serves. EMD's 36" fan grills had a 'twist' to the grills and were not perpendicular to the perimeter of the fan and hub as seen here on the Rapido. Small potatoes, I guess but...