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Post by cemr5396 on Jan 21, 2024 12:13:55 GMT -8
I was surprised when I went to my LHS yesterday, to find that these cars had suddenly arrived. So far I've bought 4 of them, which are the ones I preordered.
Considering the ridiculous number of these cars that are running around in real life (far more than the similar Trenton car that Atlas makes) I will probably be looking for more in the future if the price comes down on these cars with time.
After looking at the cars - for reference, two CNs, one NOKL, one BCOL - here are my thoughts:
Paint and lettering: quite well done, the paint colors look good and these cars are loaded with lettering all over, all of which looks like the correct size and font, based on what I have seen of these cars at work over the years. Considering how bad the lettering on some other Rapido cars has been this is a pleasant surprise.
Trucks/Couplers: Couplers are typical Rapido garbage. Throw them out and replace with Kadee #156. This is a bigger pain in the ass to do than it should be, the draft gear is held to the car with two tiny screws and comes off in one piece. I wasn't able to seperate the two halves from each other (they're probably glued) so I ended up just prying the lid up enough I could pull the coupler and bronze spring out and shove the Kadee in. Luckily Kadees (at least whisker versions) seem to be a drop in fit, which has not always been the case with Rapido. Upon re-installation of the box, the tiny screws stripped out the plastic posts they insert into basically instantly, I dipped the screws in CA and re-installed them to ensure they would stay in. I've never had a Kadee fail in-service, so I'm not worried about them. At least there is no coupler droop on these cars. The trucks were a pleasant surprise, unlike a lot of recent Rapido products they actually roll well and look pretty good. The wheelsets are just 'meh' appearance wise, they are not the worst I've ever seen but they are certainly not amazing either. The car rides at the right height and after I installed the Kadees, I found that the coupler height was perfect, which is also an extreme rarity with recent Rapido products.
General detailing: About on par with the Atlas car, which is pretty nice. They will fit in very well with each other. Most of the grab irons are wire but the ladders on the car ends are plastic. However they are nicely done and are vitrually the same size as the wire work.
Underframe and draft gear: Well done..... mostly. The air brake system is all there and fully plumbed, along with all the brake levers, rods, and their hanger supports. The draft gear is quite well detailed and includes the EOCC cylinder underneath as well as the sliding bracket mechanism for the train line. Surprisingly, they did not attach the train line to said bracket.... My main gripe is the brake rods are plastic and were all warpy. I eventually just CA'd them to the hanger supports so they looked like they were sitting naturally. Hopefully they stand up well over time, if not they will need to be replaced with wire.
Fit and Finish: ...... Not great. This is really the glaring issue on these cars. On the BCOL and NOKL cars the part that runs along the top of the car on top of the actual 'center beam' is only held on by a few small pins and is only glued in those locations. On the CN cars with the open truss in that location, it is not glued at all, rather it just kind of snaps in place. On all cars, this resulted in it not sitting flat and gaps showing. The end bulkheads are also not phyisically attached to the center beam at all, by glue or otherwise, and this also results in gaps. My solution was to hold everything tightly together and apply 'super thin' CA with a Microbrush to the joints. This inevitably leads to some glue marks, but after a flat clear coat the shiny spots should be gone. It's better than the alternative IMO.
Overall, for a car that costs roughly in the same ballpark as the latest runs of Atlas Master 73' Trentons (CAD->USD may play a factor here in my specific case), you get a car of a much needed prototype of roughly the same quality. I have run into some of the same issues on Atlas cars in the past. I'm just glad that Rapido managed to produce a car that for the most part, is well executed.
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Post by nsfantodd on Jan 21, 2024 13:19:04 GMT -8
Thank you for your report. I have three pre-ordered, TTX,MSDR and NOKL. I'm looking forward to checking them out and hopefully they'll follow up with another run.
I believe Norfolk Southern owns some of these and I would also like to get the new TTX logo version.
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Post by drolsen on Jan 22, 2024 4:28:21 GMT -8
Thanks for the initial report on these models. I need a bunch of centerbeams with several lumber yards on the line I model. The Atlas car is too new for my 1996 era, so I’m counting on these common TTX cars to fill out my roster.
Still waiting for them to show up at the various dealers I frequent (notably Lombard). Hoping everyone gets enough of them so they don’t sell out too quickly.
Dave
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Post by drolsen on Feb 1, 2024 19:45:54 GMT -8
The Rapido centerbeams finally arrived at Lombard Hobbies today and went up on the website tonight. I called them this afternoon to inquire, and they said they had just arrived on a truck and would probably hit the website tomorrow, but I checked and saw them listed this evening. Great price at $48 each, which makes the number that I wanted (only slightly) less painful to the wallet. I’m nervous to see them, hoping any assembly issues with the ones I receive will be easy to fix. These are really critical cars for my modeling plans, with three lumber customers in close proximity around Frederick, Maryland and a couple more in south Baltimore (although I probably won’t model those).
Dave
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Post by buffalobill on Feb 2, 2024 4:13:17 GMT -8
I went for a six pack of the British Columbia's from Lombard. Was going to get a CN but I think six will be enough. They already are out of the TTX ones. I saw one this weekend and was reasonably impressed. I am going to sump my Walthers open centerbeams.
Bill
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Post by riogrande on Feb 2, 2024 5:57:41 GMT -8
When did these first hit the rails?
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Post by cemr5396 on Feb 2, 2024 6:18:13 GMT -8
When did these first hit the rails? late 80s for the CN ones, early 90s and later for everything else. |
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Post by cp6027 on Feb 2, 2024 8:55:00 GMT -8
CN Brown - CN 623260-623299 built 6/87
CP Red - CP 318000-318283 built 5/88
BC Rail Green - BCOL 730400-730499 built 3/93
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Post by riogrande on Feb 2, 2024 9:56:45 GMT -8
When did these first hit the rails? late 80s for the CN ones, early 90s and later for everything else. That makes sense. I think mostly before 86/87 it was the 63' Thralls. So the Rapido's are a bit to new for me. |
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Post by drolsen on Feb 2, 2024 10:53:51 GMT -8
I went for a six pack of the British Columbia's from Lombard. Was going to get a CN but I think six will be enough. They already are out of the TTX ones. I saw one this weekend and was reasonably impressed. I am going to sump my Walthers open centerbeams. Bill Yikes, I’m glad I caught the TTX cars last night. I ordered that 6-pack plus a CN and two BCOL, all roadnames that I’ve photographed in the area I model. The prototype for the two Walthers models are still needed for my 1996 era, but I would certainly love to see better models of them. They both work for a number of roadnames, so I think either would be a decent candidate for a higher quality model, but I think their numbers have been dwarfed by all the later NSC, Trinity, Gunderson, and Trenton Works cars. When did these first hit the rails? late 80s for the CN ones, early 90s and later for everything else. Jim, I know they’re too new for you, but in case anyone needs the info, here are the NSC prototypes represented by the Rapido TTX, CN, and BCOL models: TTZX 861000-861324, class NSH75, built 4-94 to 5-94 CN 623260-623299, built 5-87 to 6-87 BCOL 730400-730499, built 2-93 to 3-93 I believe the model is also good for this BCOL series, but I need to look at the specific details (grab irons, etc.) for this order: BCOL 730200-730399, built in 1992 I haven’t had a chance to look up the other raodnames from this release. Dave |
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Post by cemr5396 on Feb 2, 2024 15:15:19 GMT -8
Jim, I know they’re too new for you, but in case anyone needs the info, here are the NSC prototypes represented by the Rapido TTX, CN, and BCOL models: TTZX 861000-861324, class NSH75, built 4-94 to 5-94 CN 623260-623299, built 5-87 to 6-87 BCOL 730400-730499, built 2-93 to 3-93 I believe the model is also good for this BCOL series, but I need to look at the specific details (grab irons, etc.) for this order: BCOL 730200-730399, built in 1992 I haven’t had a chance to look up the other raodnames from this release. Dave Generally speaking the NSC centerbeams have not changed much since day one, the only major change I can think of is the top of the centerbeam changing from an open truss to more of an I beam type thing. Small things like pulling points have moved a couple times but that's about it. Don't remember the number series offhand but BC Rail had at least one batch of centerbeams that were built by Trenton to NSC's design, the only way to tell them apart is the builder logo. Those the ones you were thinking of? |
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Post by drolsen on Feb 2, 2024 18:28:06 GMT -8
Generally speaking the NSC centerbeams have not changed much since day one, the only major change I can think of is the top of the centerbeam changing from an open truss to more of an I beam type thing. Small things like pulling points have moved a couple times but that's about it. Don't remember the number series offhand but BC Rail had at least one batch of centerbeams that were built by Trenton to NSC's design, the only way to tell them apart is the builder logo. Those the ones you were thinking of? That’s the series immediately after the one Rapido is doing in this first release: BCOL 730500-730599 built in 1994 by Trenton Works, Order 9167 Rapido tooled three different top variations and a few other detail changes (you can see the variants in the 3D CAD renderings they shared as part of or shortly after the initial announcement. I’ve noticed some grab iron variations, notable the length of the horizontal grab on the side sill right over the corner stirrup steps. I haven’t had a chance to look at all the photos of the roadnames in this release to see which of the three versions they each match. Hopefully they’ll produce other roadnames and number series soon, rather than waiting years for a second run like most of their models. Dave |
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Post by drolsen on Feb 11, 2024 12:21:21 GMT -8
I waited a long time for Rapido to release these NSC 73' centerbeam flatcar models. I was pretty apprehensive about this one, because I really need these cars for my 1996 era layout plans, which include at least 3 lumber customers (depending on how much I end up squeezing into the track plan). The Walthers models were welcome at the time, but they are looking really dated now, and the Atlas model is too new for my era. The ExactRail 60' centerbeam is a great model, but 73' cars were more common in my era. I'm relieved to say that I'm really impressed with the Rapido models. They tooled several different versions to represent changes over the production of these cars from the late '80s into the '90s, with variations that include different grab irons and most notably, the top of the center partition. I've taken five of my nine cars out of the boxes and visually inspected the rest, and I haven't found a single loose part, crooked or warped components, or anything else that jumps out to me. The detail and lettering all looks crisp, and the overall appearance just looks great. The Rapido NSC CN and BCOL centerbeam flats, showing the variations in the top of the center partition. The CN truss-style top is really impressive.  Rapido's model of CN 623298, a 73' centerbeam flat from CN series 623260-623299, built 5-87 to 6-87 by National Steel Car.  Rapido's model of BCOL 730403, a 73' centerbeam flat from BCOL series 730400-730499 built by 2-93 to 3-93 by National Steel Car.   A comparison of the BCOL and CN models. Note the different length horizontal grab irons on the side sill above the corner stirrup step. Note also the difference in the jacking pads. The older CN car has the tiedown winch located to the left of the pad, while the BCOL car has the winch integrated into the pad.  The wheelsets are probably the biggest visual drawback of these cars. They'll have to be replaced. I may opt for Tangent trucks if I can make them work. I've heard that the Rapido bolsters are not friendly to other brands but need to test that. The one very minor complaint I have is that the plastic brake rods - the diagonal rods that hand down when views from the side as they extend to the trucks - are kind of floppy and a little curvy. I'm going to try replacing them with wire on a couple cars to see if it's worth the trouble. The metal frame will make it a little more fun to drill holes into the center sill where I would want to secure the rods to the car body. I'll post an update when I get to that mini project. The packaging for these models is pretty impressive too. Rapido was clearly taking no chances after the issues with their broken bulkhead flatcars. I've never seen a plastic clamshell package like this. It has a total of fourteen locking pegs, including six down the middle of the car that secure in between vertical posts of the center partition. It was actually a little unnerving to pop them all loose the first time. This model isn't going anywhere inside the package, which is undoubtedly why mine all arrived in perfect shape.   Be aware that this small parts bag is inside the box. The CN bag on the left contains two small tackboards, while the TTX bag on the right also has two AEI tags mounted on a plate.  Rapido's model of TTZX 861276, a 73' centerbeam flat from TTZX series 861000-861324, class NSH75, built 4-94 to 5-94 by National Steel Car.     I'm really happy with these models that I need badly for my layout plans. I bought six TTX, two BCOL, and one CN car, and I may end up picking up another BCOL and CN. With each customer needing a couple centerbeam loads, I want to have double the number I need so I can have the local pick up empties and drop loaded cars. Dave |
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Post by riogrande on Feb 11, 2024 13:26:53 GMT -8
I agree, the wheelsets in the photo's are the detractors. The model itself looks quite nice.
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Post by cera2254 on Feb 11, 2024 13:29:31 GMT -8
That top truss on the CN car is awesome!
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Post by edwardsutorik on Feb 11, 2024 13:39:57 GMT -8
Dave,
Thanks for posting the pix!
I should have a BNSF and a TTX one at the shop, waiting for me. Probably should have gotten more.
As far as the Exactrail cars go, I photographed a dozen or so of them back in 2010, parked in short-term storage at a siding at Lyle WA. Mostly BN, but with a few freshly painted BNSF (I think). I'm guessing they were headed to "the farm". But it seems likely they were still in service up until then.
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Post by cemr5396 on Feb 11, 2024 21:47:00 GMT -8
I'm relieved to say that I'm really impressed with the Rapido models. They tooled several different versions to represent changes over the production of these cars from the late '80s into the '90s, with variations that include different grab irons and most notably, the top of the center partition. I've taken five of my nine cars out of the boxes and visually inspected the rest, and I haven't found a single loose part, crooked or warped components, or anything else that jumps out to me. The detail and lettering all looks crisp, and the overall appearance just looks great. Glad to hear your cars had better QA than mine did. Either that or the shipping company was playing football with the box my models were in. (Hail to the Chiefs, btw  ) I did notice when I was working on adding conspicuity striping to my cars after making the initial post that the CN ones are mis lettered. The COTS panel is located in the wrong spot and this throws off the lettering around it, which made adding the con striping in a manner that matched the photos I had rather challenging without covering up lettering that shouldn't be covered. Won't be a problem for you with the era you model, just thought I would point it out. |
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Post by buffalobill on Feb 12, 2024 4:21:18 GMT -8
I have to agree with Dave, these cars are very nice. I ended up with 8 cars, 6 BCOL, and 2 TTX which I ordered on a Lombard restock. My cars arrived in excellent shape. Only issues are the crappy Rapido clone couplers, and the wheels, both of which I have not addressed yet. These and the 3 SP/SSW B-70's which came at the same time, are to my mind the best of the Rapido cars I have. With Rapido you kind of cringe when ordering, not knowing what you will get. I was burned on 10 3800 CF CN covered hoppers, first run, which were terrible. Right now with these cars Rapido has gotten to the Genesis and Rivit Counter level. Not quite to the Tangent or Moloco Level but getting close. At the price point Jason's crap clone couplers are unacceptable. Really nice cars though, well executed and assembled and finished.
Bill
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Post by bncascadegreen on Feb 12, 2024 21:59:35 GMT -8
Mine finally arrived and are here with no problems. Nice model. I got a BNSF and TTX. Now to make loads. Over all nice cars.
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Post by csxt8400 on Feb 13, 2024 12:26:13 GMT -8
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Post by cemr5396 on Feb 13, 2024 13:11:17 GMT -8
I like them, but once again, we are stuck with an oversized "C" channel car that makes the lettering look a bit too anemic. Which is a shame, as Rapido actually did a very nice job on the art for these cars, although the numbers are scaled a little smaller than the reporting mark which isn't right. Maybe the next company to do a centerbeam can use thin sheet for the side profile to get us where we need to be. That will likely always be a problem with centerbeam models unless someone uses a material other than plastic to manufacture one. Which, I wouldn't mind someone trying. At least a centerbeam made mostly of metal or something (brass perhaps?) would actually weigh something when empty. At least the C channels are not as awful on the Rapido car as they are on the Atlas and Walthers centerbeams. The Walthers car in particular, the flanges have to be a least a scale inch or two thick. It becomes especially noticable on cars decorated up in the TTX scheme, they have to shrink the logo so much to make it fit between the flanges it looks tiny and ridiculous. The logo on the TTX car Dave posted earlier looks not bad actually, much better than Atlas or Walthers' attempts. Speaking of the Walthers centerbeams though, it would be really nice if somebody made a high quality version of those 73' Thrall/Gunderson cars. Both versions, the Opera Window and the truss frame. The Walthers cars suck, I only have a couple of them out of necessity. |
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Post by csxt8400 on Feb 13, 2024 14:04:18 GMT -8
Yep, it is better but it still hurts to look at for me. Brass would be perfect IMO, but then again dealing with multiple piece assembly creates its own set of problems.
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Post by Partial_List on Feb 13, 2024 19:58:06 GMT -8
I think Exactrail used some brass on their centerbeam but I’m not sure which parts.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Feb 13, 2024 20:08:42 GMT -8
I think Exactrail used some brass on their centerbeam but I’m not sure which parts. The center web. Ed |
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Post by mlwlover on Feb 19, 2024 7:44:50 GMT -8
I got my two cn cars and I have to say that I am not very impressed. The ends of the side sill bow up. These cars are no better than the atlas. I replaced the brake rods with wire and am trying to find a way to fix the bowed side sills.
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