I just received my long (and I mean LONG) awaited RTR LRC coaches from Rapido Trains yesterday, and I thought I’d share my thoughts on them with everyone, so perhaps some of you you are still waiting for yours will know what to expect, and those of you who may have some interest in the cars will have a better idea of how they are.
For those of you who don’t know, the LRC coach was built by Bombardier for VIA Rail in the early 1980s, and is still running today. VIA has 72 LRC coaches and 26 Club cars (modified coaches for first class service) still in service, which will all be getting rebuilt over the next 2-3 years for a 20+ year service life extension. Amtrak also tested the coaches in the early '80s, with them painted in Amtrak colours, but didn’t buy the sets. More info on the real thing can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRC_(train)
Every coach model comes with a detailed information booklet, giving extensive background info on the LRC, and lots of info about the model itself, including a comprehensive parts diagram and instructions for the lighting, operation, etc.
Now, about the model! The Rapido LRC coach is modelled after the VIA Rail design, and is decorated in the original 1980s livery. It also has the brown interior seats as seen pre-1992, although the seat arrangement is modelled in the post-1992 configuration, due to the many variations on the seating arrangement before that time.
Here’s an overview of the left side of the car:
And a few more detail shots to get you interested:
They look like they’re really nice. I’m not into LRC but appreciate the more modern equipment. My question to you is do the car sides transmit any light from the interior ? I had a few of these Canadian Rapido cars, which I got rid of, for this reason. The plasitic was not dense enough to prevent the LED lighting from showing thru the car sides.
This could have been fixed with somw work but I was not impressed with the idea that I had to matte out a 60.00US car.
I know some previous Rapido cars have had problems with light “leaking”, but that is not the case here.
No light shows through the car sides, and there are no gaps in the assembly for it to leak through (many of the old cars leaked light through the seam where the roof attaches to the car sides). Light only comes out through the windows on the sides and on the end doors. I believe Rapido has also made improvements to their other cars to prevent the light leaking problem, and this is definitely not a problem with the LRCs. The lighting really does look just like the real thing (at least to my eyes).
I just thought I’d add a little extension to this thread.
First, I recently went to work “modernizing” my LRC coaches. They now all have the large Canada Flag and Canada wordmark logo, as well as the roof-top access panels. I added these all from Rapido’s previously released LRC decal sets. I first removed the small Canada flag using a pencil eraser and a bit of Microsol. I also used the eraser to “gloss-up” the areas I needed to decal. After removing all eraser residue, I added the decals, then sealed them by very carefully masking the entire car so only the decals were exposed, and then spraying those areas with Dullcote. The finish is reasonably close to the factory finish on the cars, so it’s not very noticeable.
I also took some photos of the interior of the cars, check them out:
And check out the bathrooms…complete with toilet and sink, both of which even have molded drains! (unfortunately they’re tough to see in photos, but obvious when viewing the actual car)
I assume you’re talking about the real cars! Rapido’s ones are well detailed, but I wouldn’t try that in the models… you may notice that the instruction booklet with the cars includes this line: “While the galley in the LRC club car is equipped with a hot water spout for making tea, we do not recommend pouring real boiling water into the galley as it will melt the plastic”. I’m almost surprised they didn’t include a warning about not trying to use the washrooms!
I know what you mean though, the LRC’s do have huge bathrooms. It’s the same on VIA’s HEP-2 cars as well. Even the old HEP-1 cars have large bathrooms, but nowhere near the size of the “accessible” washrooms on the LRC and HEP-2 cars. The Renaissance equipment, on the other hand, has the most airplane-like railroad bathrooms I’ve ever seen. Tiny and poorly laid out. At least a bunch of them are now getting upgraded with “accessible” bathrooms, which will actually be more than a closet…
