There are a lot of great layouts in Canada, but one of the best has to be Chris Plue’s Rapido Route. I’ve posted an update about the layout on my blog at http://cprailmmsub.blogspot.ca/2015/11/update-on-chris-plues-rapido-route.html
If you’ve viewed the video (linked off the MR website), now you can learn more about his layout.
John Longhurst, Winnipeg
There are also a lot of great pictures of his layout on the MR “Photo Galleries” page,under his forum name,Chris1. Good stuff!
Mike
How did it get the name Rapido? Does the layout contain all Rapdio products or is it named after a city?
More than likely he named it after the same thing that Rapido Trains did - CN used “Rapido” as the branding for its express passenger trains throughout the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, and this carried over through the early years of VIA as well. Chris based the layout on his memories of riding trains between Toronto, Montreal and Quebec in the 70s/80s, when “Rapido” was attached to the premier services on that route.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapido_(train)
Of course the passenger equipment on his layout is almost if not entirely from Rapido, so that works well 
I continue to be stunned by just how incredible Chris’ work is, just unbelievably impressive!
Dang, I never knew that. I frankly didn’t know the history of Rapido; I used to think it was a Spanish model train company by the name, which produce some north American models. Sounds like a Spanish word, as in mui rapido (very fast) or is it a French word too? Rapido sure is a different company in the past 10 years since Jason Shron become the public face of the company! But, I digress with apologies. Back to your topic. Thanks for education!
I’ll have to check out the photo’s later when I’m home.
There was an old company that mainly made N-scale equipment years back called “Rapido” but there’s no connection between that company and Mr. Shron’s company.
Happy to help explain 
As wjstix pointed out, there was an old company called Arnold-Rapido that was a european N-scale manufacturer decades ago, but Rapido Trains has nothing at all to do with them. Jason founded the company in 2003 (initially to produce a resin kit of the LRC, long before even thinking of moving into RTR stuff), so he’s always been the “public face” of the company!
They make reference to where they got their name from on their website: “The name RAPIDO was introduced by CN in 1965 to headline the railway’s high-speed intercity passenger services. Until the mid-1980s, RAPIDO stood for fast schedules, frequent trains, and superb service. Today, we continue the RAPIDO idea with our state-of-the-art models and attention to detail.”
As I say, I’m sure it’s the same inspiration for Chris. The origin of the word Rapido is from Italian and then Spanish, referring specifically to a fast intercity train or express. So evidently CN was inspired by the sound of the term, and it works well in English (playing off of “rapid”) and in French (playing off of “rapide”). The LRC train would later work off of the same concept, with the acronym standing for &quo
Indeed, Chris took the name “Rapido Route” from his memories of travelling by those trains as a kid between Toronto and Montreal.
John Longhurst, Winnipeg