Rapido News 190 - New E Units

[jonklein611]

In this 190th issue...

• Rapido and Me
• New Samples for the FT Locomotive
• New Product Announcements
  
• N Scale F40PHM-2 and BiLevels
• E8's
• 
  
• New Videos
• Upcoming Shows
• New Updates
• HO Scale 44-Tonner Locomotive - Shipping!
• HO Scale 53' Husky Stack Well Cars and 53' Containers - Shipping!
• HO Scale H1a/b Hudson Steam Engines - On the Water
• HO Scale HEP E-units - On the Water
• HO Scale BiLevels - Leaving Factory Soon
• HO Scale X23 Boxcar and FGE R7 Reefer - Leaving Factory Soon
• HO Scale Budd Gallery Car - Leaving Factory Soon
  
• An Upgrade On Our Backend
• 
  

  As you may know by now, we began a full overhaul and upgrade of our backend operations of our ordering system as of a little over two weeks ago. Of course, as we predicted, it did not go as smooth as our external consultants assured us. We have been through this before and we anticipated as much as we could. Many of you may relate, but wrangling technology never goes the way you think it should and so we are still tweaking a lot of the small manual issues and updates to the backend of the site here and there.
  
  
  If you see something off or ordering your models are not going as expected, feel free to reach out to us via the Contact Us page. There is an option for IT/website errors, as well as any of the other standard warranty or order issues. Please click on the link that best fits your issue. We want to make this as smooth as we possibly can.
  
  
  That being said, many of you have noted or asked if the site look will be updating to something more modern to match our new ordering system. Once we have this upgrade fully settled, we hope to eventually move to a major site upgrade as well. However, that is definitely a future project, as our small but mighty team can only handle one major technological wormhole a year. Thank you again to everyone who was so patient and understanding with us during this major shake up.

  
  

Image Section:

[NYSW3614]

OOOOooooooooooo Lackawanna E unit...... Hopefully DL&W will be in a future run of 44s.

Joshua

[lvrr325]

FWIW my salesman tells me that due to the Canadian railroad strike, they have to truck in their shipments from the port on the west coast to Toronto, adding a week to delivery times. They've been saying for two weeks now these 44-tonners are due any time.

The only nit I see on them is I can see how thick the window inserts are at certain angles.

[cpr4200]

The 44 tonners look great, very well proportioned. I've got a Hoboken Shore unit coming from TrainWorld. Unfortunately, the yellow looks like the green is bleeding through a little in the photo. Could always decal over it I guess, or mask and repaint.

Except for the screening (which they're aware of) the FT's look great, too. Love the close coupling between the A and B units.

[riogrande]

Purty 44 Tonner in Rio Grande - IIRC, those served on the east end on the Front Range of the system.

[12bridge]

The glass fit on the 44T is not great at all, especially the wide windows.  It really shows on the Milwaukee one.  

The FT leaves a lot to be desired, I will leave that at that.. 

[idgara]

The glass on the 44 tonners does look off, but not as bad as bachmanns. The yellow under, looks pretty good though, almost like the window seal.

[hudsonyard]

Yeah that gray on the LIRR 44t isn't even close to correct, orange isn't much better.

[ambluco]

I think the gray looks good, but not the orange.

[hudsonyard]

Aug 23, 2024 13:39:41 GMT -8 ambluco said:

I think the gray looks good, but not the orange.

It's too light, to be fair to rapido basically nobody has nailed that shade or any of the variants of LIRR gray. Bowser came close but only close. 

[12bridge]

Aug 23, 2024 14:12:36 GMT -8 hudsonyard said:

Aug 23, 2024 13:39:41 GMT -8 ambluco said:

I think the gray looks good, but not the orange.

It's too light, to be fair to rapido basically nobody has nailed that shade or any of the variants of LIRR gray. Bowser came close but only close. 

They grey is way too light, the orange is too "red", the vertical crossbar on the logo is the wrong color (should be blue), the (100% non existent on the model {I know a part going in my catalog!}) coupler buffer assembly should be black also, the hood lettering is too tall to my eye. 

Another case of it will be totally fine for the LIRR crowd, as there is only a handful of prototype LIRR modelers..


1955 Art Huneke photo

[cpr4200]

I'd love to have the 44 tonner draft gear. Maybe you could make a scale version as well as semi-scale?

[12bridge]

Aug 23, 2024 14:42:42 GMT -8 cpr4200 said:

I'd love to have the 44 tonner draft gear. Maybe you could make a scale version as well as semi-scale?

On it.  Already made the connection to go measure one.  I will also be making the "extra swing" version, as I need that for the one 44T that I plan to model.  I plan to do the later/modified battery boxes also. 

[hudsonyard]

Aug 23, 2024 14:34:48 GMT -8 12bridge said:

Aug 23, 2024 14:12:36 GMT -8 hudsonyard said:

Another case of it will be totally fine for the LIRR crowd, as there is only a handful of prototype LIRR modelers..

I think we know 75 percent of one spread across two people. 

[cpr4200]

The railings look heavy on a few of the 44 tonners. Hand painted samples, maybe?

[ambluco]

Those aren’t samples. GEs ship within days to dealers.

[rockfan]

Have to check out 652 in the bicentennial scheme when it comes out. Red yellow I can see getting one.

[cemr5396]

this is now the 3rd announcement of E units, I wonder if they fixed that utterly horrible headlight yet?

[cpr4200]

Aug 26, 2024 12:27:21 GMT -8 cemr5396 said:

this is now the 3rd announcement of E units, I wonder if they fixed that utterly horrible headlight yet?

I'm still sore about the stupid portholes on the first run. Maybe 12bridge can make replacements. Then we'd just have to worry about matching the paint. Weathering isn't an option on mine, it's the early CP version, which looked like they were waxed between every run.

[ambluco]

Can you post a photo with this logo having blue in it? Looking at all the 44 tonner photos I have, no blue. Also, places like MTH, didn't have blue either. I know the RS-1 scheme with the rectangle had blue in it.

This page says no blue in herald: www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/lirrlogos.htm

The accompanying photos clearly shows no blue.

What you are seeing in the posted photo is shadowing of everything on the side that's white.

Aug 23, 2024 14:34:48 GMT -8 12bridge said:

Aug 23, 2024 14:12:36 GMT -8 hudsonyard said:

It's too light, to be fair to rapido basically nobody has nailed that shade or any of the variants of LIRR gray. Bowser came close but only close. 

They grey is way too light, the orange is too "red", the vertical crossbar on the logo is the wrong color (should be blue), the (100% non existent on the model {I know a part going in my catalog!}) coupler buffer assembly should be black also, the hood lettering is too tall to my eye. 

Another case of it will be totally fine for the LIRR crowd, as there is only a handful of prototype LIRR modelers..


1955 Art Huneke photo

[12bridge]

The lettering is white, and the vertical bar is defiantly a different color - Blue. Its the same blue as used in the stock Tichy logo. The photos in both John Scalas Diesels of the Sunrise Trail (page 29) and Arthur Eardmans LIRR power book have photos which clearly show it is blue - the photo (P26) in Arthurs book being a touch clearer.

I have a higher resolutions can of Arts photo that I posted above (I wont post it as I do not own that slide), and it again, is very clearly light blue.

[ambluco]

I have the power book and there is only one bad photo on the GE page. I guess we just disagree.

Update: pulled the Scala book out and it’s white.

[12bridge]

Aug 26, 2024 15:53:07 GMT -8 ambluco said:

I have the power book and there is only one bad photo on the GE page. I guess we just disagree.

Update: pulled the Scala book out and it’s white.

We can agree to disagree, but that vertical bar is clearly blue in contrast to the lettering, which IS white.  



( Fred Wilczewski Collection)

[ambluco]

I think the photo in the link I provided is clearer. White on there. The scanned photo looks like chromatic aberration.

Much better photo on right here: www.trainsarefun.com/modeling/GE%2044%20Ton%20Diesel%20Switcher%20Tsunami%202-sound.pdf

[lvrr325]

I guess if even you guys can't agree it's hard for Rapido to get it right.

I see a difference in color and it's hard to believe it would be only in that one spot in the photo

[hudsonyard]

I don't see how it would be chromatic aberration when the rest of the white numbers on 400 show up as...white. It's blue. Rapido screwed up, it literally does not matter, LIRR is not a railroad with much of prototype modeling community. It is very three rail oriented, which is a cultural discussion for another time. These things will be run with the factory sound cranked 110 percent with those trainworld exclusive 70t that say QUEENS and BROOKLYN on them on code 100 snap track on green painted plywood. Trust me on this one. 


I would not use Steve Lynches site as an authority on anything, Steve does not know thing one about the LIRR despite running a LIRR archival site, again the LIRR modeling and history community is.....interesting. There's a reason me and 12bridge are on the outside looking in despite growing up on the island.

[ambluco]

Aug 26, 2024 18:33:49 GMT -8 hudsonyard said:

I would not use Steve Lynches site as an authority on anything, Steve does not know thing one about the LIRR despite running a LIRR archival site, again the LIRR modeling and history community is.....interesting. There's a reason me and 12bridge are on the outside looking in despite growing up on the island.

I was referring to the photo in the PDF, which is much clearer than others used so far. The first photo posted on this thread of the 44 tonner has obvious blue issues. Note the battery boxes are skewed blue. In other photos, they are gray like the rest of the body.

Here is the pic from the PDF, which is not a Steve Lynch article. Looks white.

[JohnJ]

The E8 portholes seem a common source of complaint on the Rapido models. For a Penn Central unit, that could be a moot point, as many of their E8s lacked portholes, with those panels being replaced due to corrosion. But, many DID have portholes to some degree; you have to check prototype photos to see how any individual unit was treated. Taking the 4292, I found a late photo of it showing it kept three portholes on the left side. I’m not sure what it had on the right side. 4262 seems to have had all its portholes filled, common treatment for ex-PRR units. It will interesting to see how Rapido handles that. My guess is they’ll simply have no portholes on either of the PC units.

[lvrr325]

Ambluco, that picture looks like a colorized black & white photo. Maybe it's just the quality of the scan or the original source

[cpr4200]

Aug 27, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -8 JohnJ said:

The E8 portholes seem a common source of complaint on the Rapido models. For a Penn Central unit, that could be a moot point, as many of their E8s lacked portholes, with those panels being replaced due to corrosion. But, many DID have portholes to some degree; you have to check prototype photos to see how any individual unit was treated. Taking the 4292, I found a late photo of it showing it kept three portholes on the left side. I’m not sure what it had on the right side. 4262 seems to have had all its portholes filled, common treatment for ex-PRR units. It will interesting to see how Rapido handles that. My guess is they’ll simply have no portholes on either of the PC units.

IIRC, subsequent runs of the E's had corrected portholes, the ones with the hinges.