I will certainly purchase at least one of the Canadian sets.
I have already purchased a number of the Rapido passenger cars in the old 1950’s green and black.
I, myself, had only minor issues with any of the cars I purchased with one exception.
The batteries in one of the cars did not work. I contacted Rapido and I was immediately sent replacement batteries.
Another car had a problem with one of its trucks, I contacted Rapido and was immediately sent a new set of trucks for that passenger car.
The Rapido cars are very detailed and need to be carefully handled due to the amount of added detail parts. However, I have had a number of their cars for a few years now and they have not given me any problems and they all track properly.
In addition to the Canadian set I will most likely purchase a set of their new CNR FP9’s as well.
Yes, I will be paying a premium for the set of the Canadian, however, as alreay mentioned this set will be on of the most authentically detailed locomotive and passenger cars available. As I do model the CPR on my layout I will be obtaining one. I may even purchase a second set once I have received my initial set.
Rapido may be a small company but the overall quality of their product can not be denied. In addition their service is second to none should you run into a problem with any of their items. I will do my best to support them in their endevors.
I think Rapido’s quality control is better then most manufacturers. I’ve had two issues with two passenger cars, the paint was coming off a couple of my ONR passenger cars hand rails. I own probably close to 40 of their passenger cars, around 15 of their cabooses and two Turbo’s so I think two minor defects is good. Intermountain on the other hand has the worst of the worst quality control.
I bought a few Intermountain diesels a couple of years ago and quite like them.
Recently, I started to purchase a few sound equipped locomotives to add to my layout roster. As I compared who had what roadnames available it turned out that Intermountain had both CNR and CPR diesel sets from the 1950’s. Not only having the roadnames I wanted I bought them for less than the Athearn Genesis engines which I consider to be equal to Intermountain.
Of the Intermountain locomotives I have since obtained I have yet to purchase a defective engine.
As an American who grew up in New England and started modeling Canadian and N.E. roads, Rapido is a welcome addition to the group.
For years, if you didn’t model UP, ATSF or PRR, you were pretty much out of luck with prototypical stuff.
Actually, with Rapido doing mostly CN stuff, the passenger cars are pretty much out of the catalog P.S. stuff and similar if not exact cars were run my quite a few US roads.
The CP cabooses are a dead ringer for CSX cabooses, and those C-liners are a godsend to many of my close friends who model New England roads like the New Haven.
My present CP stainless train is a badge engineered Walthers “City” train.
There’s alot of people out there (and not just in Canada) who model Canadian roads. Here in the heart of Texas, there are at least 5 withinh 50 miles of me that I know of. And this is the land of the ATSF.
Rapido does a pretty decent job, and I guess what gets me is that ALL of their quality issues that I have found are issues that could be corrected with 3 minutes of work, or 10 seconds of more care by the Chinese assembler.
I know the logistics with Chinese factories, but as a proud American, I DO have to spout off because it does irk me at times…
If I were a detail hound and I had the money, the Rapido sets would be tempting.
But I’m not much into passenger trains, and if I wanted CP F-units I’d get the Intermountain FPs and add a few detail parts to make them look a little more prototypical.
Sheldon, I have lot’s as well. My two latest Intermountain loco’s were sent back because the grills were falling out of them and at least half of the grain cars I’ve purchased in the last year either had broken detail, coupler pockets broken off and trucks that weren’t attached. I was a big fan of Intermountain but over the last year their QC is really sucking.
Well I must admit that I do not generally buy their RTR freight cars, so I can’t comment much on them. And the cars you mentioned are outside my era so I would not be buying them in any event.
But all my RTR Intermountain locos have been just fine and I have built lots of their kits - great products!
I rarely agree with Sheldon, but this one I have to. Not sure why your complaining about Intermountain. I have several of their locos, and rolling stock and everything is perfect.
All the MRR manufacturers have quality control problems due to the cheap Chinese workers not paying attention. I purchased 14 of the new Walthers bi-level autoracks at $27 a pop, and every one of them I had to replace the wheelsets because they wouldn’t even roll, I was really irked about that.
I remember when I was a little boy, we had a choice when purchasing products, and I always knew that products with “Made in China” lables were cheap and crap. And “Made in the USA” meant high quality stuff.
I attended Jason’s speil about the Canadian on Sunday as I also have a set on order.
Notice: The F9B is being included in the set when it is shipped. (Apparently the shipping cost of sending out the B-unit separately would be astronomical.)
He was goaded into trying to explain the differences between Rapido’s FP9A and the Intermountain FP7/9A units. He wouldn’t bite.
Previous talk mentioned that the Intermountain unit was a FP7A and not a 9A. (Although a FP7A in CP maroon and grey is accurate for the Canadian.But not for CN.) CN only had FP9As.
Talk is also that a F9B in CN and VIA could be released in the future along with individual cars. Minimum wait: over a year after the release of the Canadian set.
Well that is good news that the F9B unit will be included in the set when they are delivered.
What has surprised me is that the CNR set is not the first to be released. However, I certainly would think that with the release of the CPR set then there would no doubt be a CNR set in the works as well.
I just read in an email from Rapido, ONLY the people who pay the 25% deposit with their preorder will recieve the train. They are talking about the Canadian. I dont know if it is cool to post this but read for yourselfs. I deleted all of the pictures except the loco. the statement about the deposit is below the photo.
The Canadian FP9 has never been done before in plastic. We are doing both the CP version (with the Canadian) and the CN version (available separately). We were ready to go into production with the CN version but I decided to hold off until after the cross-Canada tour as a lot of people requested to see it in person before a final order deadline.
We will be releasing both the CP FP9 and the Canadian passenger cars separately after the Canadian is delivered. We will not be releasing the CP F9B separately. That is a “thank you” for people who had faith in us and ordered the complete train. Note that it will be more expensive to assemble a 10-car train with two locomotives than it is to buy the complete train. That is another show of appreciation to the guys who ordered the whole set.
There is another F9B in development for a different Canadian railway. That’s all I can say about that. But we will be making powered chassis available separately for people who own the CP F9B and want to power it.
Regarding the deposits, a lot of people don’t realize that Rapido is a really tiny company. We only have three full-time employees in North America, and many of the other train manufacturers are many times our size in terms of sales every year. With only about 10,000 serious modellers in Canada, no Canadian train manufacturer is going to be a big company.
Without deposits on The Canadian, we simply don’t have the resources to bring it out. Also, because it is a very expensive train to make, we are only making it to order. Some people will, I am sure, be very vocally opposed to the idea of paying a deposit for something. All I can tell you guys is: nobody is forcing you to buy a Canadian.
