The new MR has a first look of the new Rapido (Canadian) passenger cars. They are going to have the C&NW paint scheme so I am interested.
What is the reputation of this companies quality etc.? At $60+ I would like to know.
Thanks,
BB
I would be careful because these cars are Canadian prototypes and there is a fairly decent chance C&NW never owned any. It seems like a fair price considering the amount of detail. I just wi***hey would produce some US prototypes with the same level of detail.
I;m not too sensitive about being truly prototypical. I just want to know about their quality in the past.
BB
This is their first offering in HO scale plastic. They’ve offered some cars in resin and some decals in the past, so this is a major step. One thing great about them is you will probably be able to see them in person at your LHS before buying.
Bob Boudreau
What concerns me is their GN and NP offerings–like Walthers, they have gone generic rather than offer specific Empire Builder or North Coast Limited cars–which I think most modelers would rather have.
You’re wishing for an option that didn’t exist, at least not from Rapido Trains, which is a one-man operation that specializes in Canadian passenger equipment.
These are not “generic” models - they’re accurate models of mid-fifties cars built at Canadian Car & Foundry for CP and CN, and later operated by VIA. My understanding is that the US roadnames being offered on these cars are roads with similar cars - in other words, a “bonus” offering. I don’t see what the big deal is about manufacturers doing this as long as the correct paint schemes for the cars are also being done.
I heard a RUMOR (we know how these things go) awhile back that Walther’s was going to do an Empire Builder run similar to the Super Chief run. If this is true, hopefully they don’t botch it up as bad as they did on the Super Chief run.
For probably the first time in recorded model railroading history, Canadian modelers are getting proper models of railway equipment in our country instead of having generic US railroad equipment with Canadian road names slapped on. It seems to be happening the other way this time!
Bob Boudreau
Not a rumor at all- Walthers actually showed test shots of the Empire Builder car bodies at the Cocoa Beach Prototype Rails meet in January. There are a few photos of them (in among the photos of some truly excellent modeling of other equipment) at http://www.pbase.com/dh30973/coco06&page=all
From checking these models out (admittedly difficult by photo) and comparing
them to prototype photos, the Rapido duplex sleepers are quite close in appearance
(window arrangement and such) to the GN’s River series 4-7-3-1 duplex sleepers.
Other GN modelers I have talked with seem to agree. Hope abounds [:D] for
these offerings-and for the Walthers Empire Builder. We’ll see.
It appears the GN sleepers are named ones that ran on the International that ran in the Pacific Northwest…
Rick
Model manufacturers big and small have to do something called compromise on just about everything they produce from model trains to model planes to keep the prices reasonable. They either make their model specific to a certain prototype and then release the model with as many different markings as can be reasonably justified or they make their model generic and still release it with as many more different markings as can be reasonably justified. If the individual modeler is unwilling to accept the inaccuracies it’s up to him/her to make the modifications needed to satisfy individual taste.
The ‘International’ was a 5 car daytime coach train(RPO/Bagg-Coach-Coach-Coach/Diner- Parlor-Observation). Streamline assigned sleepers ran on the EB, Western Star, and the Winnipeg Ltd. The Milw Historical Group is offering a special ‘deal’ on these sleepers. I did some research: The window pattern is correct, but the doors are on the opposite end - Guess I will pass on these, but the photos of the preproduction models do look good.
Jim Bernier
jrbernier, you are correct, got my trains mixed.
Rick
However, those of us who model the Grand Trunk Western’s “International”, will be able to use the Rapido Trains coach in CN paint…
Thanks for coverin’ my behind on that one!![:)]
Clarification–which some of you caught. I meant generic as generic GN/NP passenger pool and not the specifically lettered EB/NCL rolling stock. Again, I think if you polled most modelers, they’d rather have those cars than “generically” lettered rolling stock.
I kindly disagree with you there bnsf! If a model is really superbly detailed and painted I wont fret about the doors being on the wrong end. Or the duplex sleeper missing a couple of high and low windows. I have ordered from Rapido B&O sleeper and coach and one NYC sleeper, later I found out they arent very prototypical.
Okay I’ll be honest: that was a very tough one to swallow!
But then again, how long can you wait for true protoype cars to hit the market? So now I’ll just have to live with it, and you know what? So far, so good! [:)]
Of course the question is, would i knowingly order un-prototypical cars. Hmn… errr… well no maybe not…
No I do agree with you–sometimes something is better than nothing. But like you, I would probably not knowingly order something that was unprototypical unless I knew I could relatively easily make it so.