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The Irregular and Irreverent Bulletin from Rapido Trains Inc.  •  Volume 9

Dear Rapido Customer, Greetings from China! Before I get into the details of my trip to our factory in China, I would like to let you in on our brand new product line. It is my pleasure to inform you that N scale passenger trains will never be the same again! Allow me to introduce... The Panorama Line: Super-Detailed N Scale Passenger Trains Ever since I started Rapido Trains Inc. I've had requests for N scale. I never thought we could bring the same level of detail to N scale as we had to HO. A few months ago I had a chat with my chief engineer and he thought we could do it... so we've done it. Our N scale line is called Panorama, after the CN train of the same name which ran during the "golden years" of CN passenger services, the 1960s. While North American passenger train services experienced an unprecedented decline during that decade, CN was growing its passenger business by leaps and bounds. It leased cars from the States and bought sleepers, dome cars and lounge cars from several railroads - including Milwaukee Road, Florida East Coast and Erie-Lackawanna - to bolster its customer-focused motto of "Traveliving." Just as CN invested in better passenger trains in the 1960s, we've invested in a better N scale passenger car for 2009. The Panorama Line passenger cars present an unprecedented level of detail for N scalers. First Test Samples of Our N Scale Passenger Cars (rivets and weld lines not yet added) The first two car styles are the Lightweight Coach and Duplex Sleeper. All Panorama Line passenger cars feature: Super-detailed underbody Body-mounted Micro-Trains® couplers Stunning trucks molded on all four sides Fixed steps or partial skirts, as appropriate All air, steam and electrical lines represented Insulated 36" metal wheelsets (no pizza cutters!) "Easy-Peasy" battery-powered interior lighting operated by magnetic wand (included) Flush windows with painted gaskets and shades Full interior detail including armrests and headrests Diaphragms with etched brass end gates (not shown) Painted metal roof grab irons applied at the factory Multiple car names and/or numbers per paint scheme Will operate smoothly on curves down to 11" radius We've turned N scale modelling upside down! New to N scale I am an HO scale modeller, so I have relied on the advice and input of some N scale friends to determine what should and should not be included on the model. If you are an avid N scale passenger operator, please get in touch and share your experiences. I can't guarantee I'll be able to follow every suggestion I receive, but I will certainly read them and take them into account as we finalize the tooling corrections for these cars. Taking a closer look. The first paint schemes for The Panorama Line N scale Lightweight Coach and Duplex Sleeper are: Amtrak (Phase 1) Baltimore & Ohio Canadian National (1954 Scheme) Canadian National (Wet Noodle) Chicago & North Western Erie-Lackawanna Great Northern Milwaukee Road (1950 scheme) New York Central Northern Pacific Pennsylvania Southern Pacific Union Pacific VIA Rail Canada Undecorated Car names/numbers will be announced on our web site within the next month. The MSRP will be $47.95 each. I'm not making the official announcement for at least a couple of weeks, so you can't reserve these cars yet. Check our web site to see when the car numbers and product numbers are put online. The cars can be reserved with your dealer at that time. VIA Power Dome Cars After Exterior Painting Rapido Factory Visit I've been at our factory in China for a week, and it has been a very good visit. Production of the "Totally Wired" Telephone Poles is underway, along with our second batch of baggage cars. We're making some changes at the factory, especially in the area of Quality Control. Over the next month, we're hiring a whole new QC team whose only responsibility is to make sure that nothing leaves the factory without being tested. We're also developing new packaging which will be more resistant to rough handling in transit. But the big news is the TurboTrain. Production is well underway and I supervised the first tests of production models. This train looks, runs and sounds like a million bucks. One innovation we've added is that the insides of the bodies are being painted black to prevent light leakage. The first TurboTrains will finally arrive in August. The rest will arrive throughout the fall. It's about time! The first trains to arrive will either be VIA or Late Amtrak. I took a movie of a 9-car VIA Turbo running around one of our test tracks. Click on the image below to watch. Most of you have never visited a model train factory in China. The process is really very interesting, from injection to painting to decoration to assembly and packaging. The neatest part, though, is the decoration. After being painted, stripes and lettering are added to model trains through a process called pad printing, also referred to as Tampo (after the company that developed the process). A silicone pad picks up ink from an etched metal plate, called a cliché, and transfers it onto the model. Click on the image below to see pad printing in progress on a VIA Power Dome Car. While at the factory, I also spent time working on future projects. In the photo below, one of our engineers is finishing up the designs for a future release. Designing a New Passenger Car "Oh, So Steamy!" Steam Generator Car Update Great Northern Steam Generator Car Painting Diagram The first batch of paint schemes has been announced for our forthcoming Steam Generator Car. The paint schemes are: AMTRAK (PHASE 1) CANADIAN NATIONAL (1954 SCHEME) CANADIAN NATIONAL (WET NOODLE) CHESAPEAKE & OHIO GREAT NORTHERN MILWAUKEE ROAD (UP SCHEME) MISSOURI PACIFIC (JENKS BLUE) NEW YORK CENTRAL NORTHERN PACIFIC PENNSYLVANIA SANTA FE UNION PACIFIC VIA RAIL CANADA - 1976-1996 VIA (CN PAINT) - 1976-1985 UNDECORATED Remember to place your order with your dealer by August 1st to guarantee delivery. More information, including car numbers and product numbers, is available by clicking here. Baggage Car Delivery Schedule Unload that Baggage! The remaining cars in the first group of paint schemes are now on a boat from China, and are due to arrive around June 25th. This means they will be in stores in early July. These paint schemes are: CANADIAN NATIONAL (1954 SCHEME) ERIE ERIE-LACKAWANNA GREAT NORTHERN NORTHERN PACIFIC NEW YORK CENTRAL (TWO TONE GRAY) On the same shipment are the "Easy-Peasy" SHORTY Lighting Sets, the 41-N-11 Trucks, and the following Dayniter Leg-Rest Coaches: VIA RAIL CANADA ONTARIO NORTHLAND (MODERN SCHEME) You can still order our third run baggage cars from your dealer until July 1st: ALGOMA CENTRAL BURLINGTON (HAVELOCK BAGGAGE, GREEN) CANADIAN NATIONAL (GREEN) CANADIAN PACIFIC CENTRAL OF GEORGIA CHESAPEAKE & OHIO DELAWARE & HUDSON DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA & WESTERN GREAT NORTHERN (BIG SKY BLUE) MILWAUKEE ROAD (UP COLORS) MISSOURI PACIFIC (EAGLE) NEW YORK CENTRAL (GRAY) ONTARIO NORTHLAND (GREEN) You can read more about our Baggage Cars, including car numbers and product numbers, by clicking here. Illinois Central Colors. One of these things is not like the other... Illinois Central and VIA Rail Color-Correction Decals Our IC customers have been waiting patiently for these for months. They will finally be at our warehouse in just over a week. These decals can be used to correct the colors on our IC Lightweight Coach and Duplex Sleeper which were far too dark. The price is $3.00 a set, plus a flat rate of $2.00 postage no matter how many you buy. We actually had these delivered a few weeks ago but they were STILL THE WRONG COLOR. While here in China I went to the printer and showed him the correct colors. Redoing the entire run is costing an arm and a leg, but it's worth it to get the correct colors on those IC cars! To order your IC decals, all you have to do is email us and tell us how many you want. We'll send you an electronic invoice which you can pay using your Visa or MasterCard. You can also send a check or money order, in US or Canadian funds. Make sure to include the $2.00 postage. We are also getting in our VIA stripe decals. The baggage car stripes are still too dark - I'm not 100% happy with them. I personally model VIA, so I am very picky about the colors. The decals and stripes on all future cars will be slightly lighter, but darker than our first release. A set of VIA stripe decals does two cars, and also includes extra car numbers to renumber your fleet, as well as CN baggage car numbers from the 1974 renumbering. The price is $5.00 per set, plus $2.00 flat rate postage. Email us if you would like to order them. LRC at Rouge Hill, 1998 LRC Project Update Our mold designs for the LRC are finished, but I am delaying production of the molds. So far the advance orders are not enough to cover our costs. The LRC is almost entirely a Canadian model (the Amtrak train only ran for a couple of years), so if you Canucks want to see this produced I suggest you place a reservation with your dealer ASAP. As soon as we have enough orders to cover our costs, we'll start the tooling. I'll worry about making a profit later. That's it for now. I'm writing this from Hong Kong airport, and my plane is leaving soon. Thanks for your continued interest in Rapido! All best wishes, Jason Jason Shron President Rapido Trains Inc.