I just picked up a Rapido Steam Generator Car that I have had on order it seems forever. I opened the box and read the instructions and am amazed with the detail and complexity and number of parts pictured in the center page of the instruction booklet. It comes with Steam Fluid , a black wand and some small parts in a bag and a very detailed instruction booklet. I hope to run it tomorrow in the daylight when I can see it better. (lights are not so good in the train room) . Has anybody else bought one yet and how do you like it? Any tips or quirks you have found to pass along?
I am still awaiting delivery. Canadian Model Trains is holding a number of items until the Steamy comes available, and then I get a big bill when they package it all up and ship it. I expect an email any day…I guess.
-Crandell
They are finally delivering them! I gave up and canceled my order 6? months ago.
Those cars have been available at the local hobby shop for at least a couple of weeks. Very nicely done, with lots of detail, but the smoke/steam effect is too gimmicky for my tastes. Looks like someone left their cigarette burning in the ashtray. [swg]
One can only hope that it’s assembled better than their good-looking passenger cars - I’ve had three or four here to weather for a friend, and all required some type of repair or re-assembly right out of the box - not damaged, simply assembled poorly or with loose or ill-fitting parts.
Wayne
It is disappointing to keep reading of QC problems with some of the Rapido product line. They’ll have to get a grip!
-Crandell
Well I set the SGC on the track behind an Intermountain EMD FP9A w/sound and attatched a string of Rapido passenger cars. I opened the top hatch of the SGC (held on by magnet) and removed the little metal hatch/plug and put the supplied fluid in by the supplied syringe. Then I set the slide control inside the hatch to “on” . Replacing the roof hatch, I turned the track power (DC) to start the engine and increased the voltage to about 7-8 so to get the lights, bell and whistle working on the engine while it sat idling. The SGC has a motor that has a slight whir, and then the steam came out of the car. With the engine lights and bell dinging, steam coming out of the SGC and the lights on in the passenger car, it increased the realism. I am very impressed with the SGC and it has all the bits attatched well and so far has no QC problems. I havent had any problems with the other Rapido products and reccomend them highly. Way to go Jason, now make me a CPR Royal Hucson and I can die happy!
I’m still waiting for the 2 I have on order at my LHS. I never thought about the fluid to make the steam. What is it? Does it leave a film? Does it stink?
We’ve been improving with every run. That’s the trouble with trying something totally new (every pipe as a separate piece, every grab installed at the factory, guided single axles, etc.) - it takes a while to iron out some of the bugs. We have not yet heard of any problems with any of our Steam Gennies.
The trouble is a lot of our early stuff is still out there, so even though our passenger cars have been 99.6% trouble free for the past year, our return rate when we first started out was higher than I would like.
To give you an example: our cars include long shank couplers in the box for people with tighter radius curves. One shipment was sent out with a note saying that we couldn’t get the couplers in time, and please contact us for couplers. That was over two years ago. Yet we get coupler requests every week from people just buying (or just opening) the cars now.
I’m sure in 10 years we’ll still be getting requests for couplers from those 2007 cars. Lately, almost all of Dan’s warranty repairs have been from our earlier releases and our TurboTrain, which is a finicky beast to say the least. We have only had a handful of new passenger cars with issues in the last year.
As always, if anyone has any trouble with a Rapido product, they just need to give us a call. We stock a full line of replacement parts and we will repair or replace anything that is not up to scratch - free of charge.
Best regards,
Jason
Thanks for the comments, Jason. It’s good to know that replacement parts are available and I had no doubts that you would stand behind your products. The issues which I experienced earlier with my friend’s cars were more of a nuisance than anything, and were easily rectified. Great-looking stuff. [ tup] [tup]
It almost makes me wish that I hadn’t back-dated my layout to the '30s, [;)] although there’s lots available for that era, and it’s not difficult to kitbash to a more “Canadian” appearance if necessary.
Wayne
Any idea if the steam fluid is somrthing like the “smoke” fluid for steam locos or is it something else??
It’s our own mix, but it smells just as awful… [:)]
Jason
Generally, model railroad smoke is mineral oil which smokes when heated. Although I am sure the info is proprietary, I’d like to know more about the mix. I presume some trial and error went into that.
The clouds coming out of the steam generator car are not supposed to be steam (unless the safty valve on the boiler is lifting), but smoke from the simulated, oil-fired boiler which supplied steam for train heat. When this boiler was operating correctly, there was no visible smoke. I suspect an FP9 would already have a steam generator (although there was a huge pedantic/semantic controversy about that subject here on the forum not long ago), so a steam generator would not be used with it, unless of course the FP9 steam boiler had failed. Having grown up riding the New Haven during their bankruptcy years, I recall that steam boiler failures were not unusual; sometimes preceded by lots of oil smoke. However, the NH steam generator cars did not look like the Rapido model, and were gone by then anyway. And there were plenty of steam leaks from one end of the train to the other, so a smoke generator on the head end makes sense, if you are running in cold weather.
I can only speak for CN and VIA, as our SGU is based on the CN/VIA prototype and these are the roads I model.
Actually, the separator blowdown valve is designed to exhaust steam automatically and regularly. The outlet on our car is beside one of the molded separator blowdown valves. Also, steam escaped through most of the steam connections along the train. Sometimes the steam escaping from under the SGU was quite intense - the photo on the Steam Genny box is an actual photo of a car sitting in The Pas, Manitoba. All that white fluff in the photo is steam.
SGUs were almost always used behind FP9As and FPA4s, even though both engines had steam generators. Yes, they were used behind freight units and later behind F40PH-2Ds, but usually were found behind standard passenger power as the vast majority of CN trains were pulled by FP9As and FPA4s. The boiler capacity of an FP9A or FPA4 was about 5 cars, whereas one locomotive could be assigned u
Great info, thanks.
Jason, thanks for your response. It seems we often get adverse observations and few updates from people who have been ultimately satisfied. For some reason, this forum seems to have been the recipient of several adverse observations, including from those who do peripheral work either full-time or part-time for customers, such as decoder installations, repairs and modifications (bashing and detailing, for examples). We don’t get many of those members coming back and closing the loop by reporting that they have received satisfaction and that they are now happy with the product.
So…I am sure you do your best to ensure your products improve. I get the sense that your heart is really in it, and why would you not want to succeed in a grand way? All I wanted to impart to the discussion is that it is unsettling when credible and accomplished members here report what sound like, or are described as, quality control problems that appear on various units that are let out to their ultimate users. It is no less unsettling for me when I read adverse reports about products from my favourite steamer supplier, BLI.
Call it wishful thinking, and sure, call it naivete, but I would very much prefer that premium products in the hobby have far fewer negative attributions to them. It would please me greatly to learn, over time, that you are finding ways to accomplish that. That goes for BLI, too. [:)]
-Crandell
I am peripherally involved with Chinese toy/scale model production, as well as being a consumer of said toys/models. Very few are perfect, especially when new models are introduced. One thing I can say is that the consumers greatly appreciate honesty and a willingness to confront the issues on the part of the designers/importers. There is nothing worse than being ignored or being told that the problem doesn’t exist. Believe it or not, that does happen! On the other hand, nothing builds brand loyalty more than a few folks who are willing to admit that something is not right, and to make it right through an exchange, a new part, or whatever. On this score, things are looking good for Rapido. I expect to buy the new American Flyer coach in 1938 NH paint when it arrives. Big thanks to Rapido for undertaking that project. I’m looking forward to more.
Doesn’t CP use a stem generator on their Christmas Train?
Just ordered mine today, looks great in any scheme. will let you know how i like. How is yours?-Pete
I beleive they use a boxcar with a generator in it to power the lights, passenger cars & the stage.
Gordon
I just wanted to chime in that I have been a beneficiary of Rapido’s customer service. When there was a problem with one of the cars I had purchased, Jason responded to my emails immediately and went above and beyond to make things right. No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.
Looking forward to the release of the leg rest coaches for UP, Jason!
Evan