Does anyone know what generates the steam, is it just a smoke unit like what you would find in an engine? I would like to get my hands on one for a project.
Brent: … It uses a fluid to make “smoke”. I am not sure exactly how it works, but it does have a motor inside I can hear when it is turned on.
I use mine in passenger trains when I am pulling them with freight locomotives that do not have steam generators .
The smoke generator is pretty much the same as in steam engines, but on a scale from “really bad” to “kind of acceptable” it is on the better side. It helps that it seems to have a fan (you can hear some slight whirring noise).
Mine is buried somewhere in storage. When I bought it, I was still a bit naive and thought that companies like Rapido would only build/sell prototypical models (to their credit, they never stated that; it was merely my assumption; I made the same mistake with some BLI steam locomotives). Modeling the Santa Fe, I had to find out that the prototype steam generator cars actually looked quite different; they were based on some short 6-axle tenders (although Rapido got the paint scheme right). Fortunately, I later got hold of a reasonably priced brass model.
JW
Thanks JW and Garry, that is as I suspected.
Rapido has just announced a new version of that car, which doesn’t emit “steam”, but has a sound feature based on the real ones, which were very noisy.
Wayne
To be fair the Rapido Steam generator cars are based on Canadian prototypes. Mine looks pretty close to the Via rail prototype. They were mostly built out of old boxcars not tenders.
I bought the new version. Because. Rapido makes good looking stuff. It’s Canadian.
Typically well designed and well made Rapido product. Priced accordingly.
Two volume settings plus “off”. Magnetic wand for on/off. Magnetically retained hatch to access the manual volume switch.
No steam effects.
Noisy.
Fun.