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We've made so many announcements in the last year that occasionally one gets lost in the shuffle. It's time we gave the new HO scale Canadian RDCs some much-needed attention. We also want to increase the numbers for the factory, so we have a rare offer for you. Read on!

The RDC played a vital role in Canadian railroading. Together, CN, CP and PGE had 87 RDCs delivered between 1953 and 1957. As American railroads were reducing passenger services in the late 1950s and early 1960s, CN and CP boosted their fleets with 20 secondhand units bought or transferred from the States.

Perhaps most interesting was the variety of RDCs in Canada. It wasn't just all coach-only RDC-1s. CP had more RDC-2s and RDC-3s than they did RDC-1s. CN and CP also operated a mix of Phase 1 and Phase 2 RDCs, so you would rarely see a complete RDC consist all looking the same.

The VAST majority of RDC-2s in Canada were Phase 2, and this has never been done in HO scale before now. All your old Proto models are Phase 1. Don't know the difference between RDC phases or types? Click here to read our detailed Master Class on the RDC.

It's been over three years since we delivered the Canadian RDC-1s, and they are regarded by many to be the best RDC model ever produced, in plastic or brass, in any scale. In Model Railroad News, David Otte wrote:

Now we're making many of the needed RDC-2s and RDC-3s and "alternate phase" RDC-1s to bolster your fleet.

Because there was such a huge variety of RDCs in Canada, we could not do them all at one time. For example, all of our first-run CN noodle and VIA RDC-1s were Phase 1 models, despite the fact that almost half of CN's RDC-1s and fully half of VIA's original RDC-1s were actually Phase 2s.

Even with this new run, we still can't do every version. There are just too many. Despite that, this is our last planned big run of Canadian RDCs for a long time. So now is the time to fill up your roster.

Here's a complete rundown of Canadian RDC models in this production run. We offer numbered and unnumbered models, but please note that we need orders of at least six of any unnumbered version to produce it.

CP Phase 1 RDC-1 90snowblob0 (possibly 9050) is on the rear of a six-unit train through Westmount in 1975. The maroon scheme with the hockey mask ends lasted until 1980, well into VIA ownership.

Our orders for the new HO scale RDCs are good, but not nearly as high as the first run. We expected this, but Colin - our partner in China - has asked us to increase our order numbers to make factory production easier. He's offered us a quantity price break to do it, and we're passing that savings on to you.

So we are making you this unprecedented offer: buy four RDCs and the fifth is totally free. There are no air security surcharges, taxes, landing fees, or other junk. It's just... free.

This applies to dealer and direct orders, and it is retroactive. If you have already ordered four or more, you can contact your dealer and tell them which free one you want. If you've already ordered three, you can order two more and only pay for one of them! Dealers don't read all their emails, so if your dealer doesn't know about this offer, ask him/her to give us a shout to confirm.

If you've ordered some directly from us and you want to increase your order to take advantage of the offer, go ahead and order as normal. We'll go into the system and reduce the price of your fifth RDC to zero.

Canadian RDCs regularly ran in large consists on all four major railroads that owned them. The train of six CP RDCs in the photo above was often dwarfed by 10-car and 11-car RDC monsters in the Montreal area. In Ontario, three to four CN/VIA RDCs was the norm for Niagara Falls, London and Kingston trains. And on PGE/BCR, five or six was common, as in the photo below.

What I'm trying to say is... YOU NEED MORE RDCs!

Looking at the preorders, we once again need the PGE guys to step up. Unless we get a huge inrush of orders, PGE will be cancelled. Contact your dealer or click here to order direct.

We also have almost no orders for one of VIA's RDC-3s, number 6302. This is because originally this was an unnumbered unit. But as VIA only had three Phase 2 RDC-3s, we changed it to the third number. And we never actually told anyone. Whoops! So please give VIA 6302 some love! That is product number 16251 (DC) and 16751 (DC/DCC/Sound).

Click on the image above (or click here) to download the Canadian RDC sales brochure, which includes a primer on the differences between the different phases.

This gets even better. If you are outside Canada, the USD MSRP for the HO Scale RDCs is $225 (DC) or $335 (DC/DCC/Sound). We mistakenly used the higher Canadian price for both currencies in the original announcements. And you still get the free RDC offer, so this is even sweeter. Again, this is retroactive. If you already have RDCs on order, we will adjust the pricing for both direct and dealer orders.

The Final, Final order deadline is March 2nd. Please speak to your dealer or click here to order direct.

We are delighted to announce the newest release in our New Haven stainless steel passenger car series – the “County” cars. As with other cars in this series, these cars are being developed in association with The New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Association (NHRHTA).

The New Haven took delivery of a group of twenty stainless steel baggage-parlor-lounge cars in 1948. A part of the post-war passenger train modernization, these cars were named after counties served by the New Haven. That part was simple. Now the history of these cars gets more complicated!

The initial 1948 County Car order was delivered in four different interior configurations, but all with baggage compartments, a drawing room, two roomette sleeping accommodations and a mix of parlor seat arrangements.

In 1952 the New Haven determined that they needed more drawing rooms so two of the cars were rebuilt with drawing rooms in place of the baggage section. This conversion was successful enough that four more cars (for a total of six) were also converted. However, these six additional cars included no fewer than three NEW interior configurations! Cars #210-219 somehow escaped the rebuilds and retained their baggage sections throughout their service life.

The skirted McGinnis cars are only available from NHRHTA.

As you can tell, the County Cars are a huge headache for us as a manufacturer, but such is our dedication to New Haven modelers that we're doing them in all their super-modified glory. Though I don't mind telling you that we would love to go back in time and ask the good folks at the New Haven Railroad to please stop making life difficult for us.

As with many of the New Haven stainless steel cars, the McGinnis cars with skirts are an exclusive production for NHRHTA. Please click here to visit their web site to order those cars.

For all the other paint schemes and versions, please click on the image below to download the County Cars sales pack which you can take to your store. Or just buy them all!

We will start tooling the County cars in March. The initial order deadline is May 25th. We'll extend it if the tooling's not ready by then. Delivery is expected in the fall.

Full information can be found here.

Our New Haven Dining Car is in good company on the SSMRC layout.

If a New Haven modeler ever tells you that no manufacturer is bringing out New Haven models these days - as Bill and I once heard at a trade show in Hartford, with our FL9 sitting on the counter in front of us - please ask him to look us up and be prepared to remortgage his house.

Bill took our new New Haven Dining Cars to the South Shore Model Railway Club in Hingham, MA. He and new Rapido engineer John Sheridan unboxed these beauties and put them through their paces. The cars also get the very important critical approval of Paul A. Cutler III, one of the world's foremost New Haven experts.

Click here or on the image below to watch.

We have some extra diners still in stock. Click here to order direct, or contact your dealer. If you've populated your Rapido diners with passengers and food, please send us photos! We'll share them on our Facebook page.

It has been SEVEN YEARS since we last brought out the HO scale CN and ex-CN FP9A locomotives. We think that's long enough, so we are delighted to announce a surprise run of new FP9A locomotives. And guess what? They are here! Now!

The GMD FP9A was Canada's workhorse passenger locomotive from the mid-1950s to the 1990s. CN received its FP9A locomotives in five deliveries between 1954 and 1958. Our new run is just of the last delivery - the E class. It's called the E class because the CN designation for their FP9A locomotives was GPA-17e: General Motors Diesel Division Passenger A unit, 1750 HP, delivery group "e." The coolest thing about the E class was that instead of having four 36" radiator fans on the roof it had two monster 48" fans.

You can read all about the different classes of FP9A locomotive in our FP9A Master Class. Click here to have a look. We also have an FP9A Spotter's Guide, available here.

Our HO Scale FP9A models feature the usual Rapido level of detail, including:

Available paint schemes for the HO scale FP9A are CNR (1954 scheme), CN (stripes), VIA #6540 with the early angled yellow paint, and standard VIA with the straight yellow paint. We made a handful of #6540 in the early scheme simply because I wanted one for my Kingston Sub layout. It's also available in the standard scheme.

Click on the image below to download a sales sheet to take to your hobby shop.

Click here to order direct or contact your dealer.

When these are gone, they are gone. So go out and buy yours today!

Another surprise announcement... more containers! We made a surprise run of our 53' containers in the latest CN and CP paint schemes. The good news is they are here now. The bad news is that we announced them to dealers last week and they sold out in one day. But that means your local hobby shop may have them in stock.

If not, have no fear! We are producing more containers in a variety of paint schemes, and we will take preorders for them. You can expect an announcement in the next newsletter and delivery later this year. You can also keep tabs on our containers web page.

The factories are closed right now for Chinese New Year, but as soon as they open up again next month they are ordering production materials for the N scale LRC Coaches. This is the first modern VIA Rail Canada passenger car ever offered in N scale, and it features:

We have to thank Mark Kaluza, a very talented HO modeller, for going out of his comfort zone and doing a fabulous job hand-painting our N scale LRC samples. They look wonderful. Production models will include all the little warning labels and doodads, which will be applied using our Tampo pad printing machines. They will also have properly flush windows.

These photos show off the interior lighting and working marker lights. You can turn off the interior lights and turn on the marker lights just by waving the Rapido Lighter over the roof.

This is a screen shot from our N Scale LRC video.

I'm going to ask our N scale friends to step up. I've had a number of people poll their N scale buddies and the consensus was "I'm looking forward to getting the LRCs but I haven't reserved any."

Our total reservations for the N scale LRCs are certainly strong enough to make them, but I gotta tell you: we've sold TEN TIMES as many HO LRCs as N scale LRCs. That doesn't mean the HO market is so much bigger. It means that a lot of the N scale guys planning to buy these haven't preordered. And that's what was confirmed by our informal poll.

There's no way we can make so much inventory to meet the demand for these. So please preorder your LRCs to make sure you get yours. Final numbers go to the factory on Friday, January 31st, so they can start work on the following Monday. To guarantee delivery please make sure your orders are in by Thursday night. Please let your N scale modelling friends know.

The LRC coaches will be delivered quite some time before the F40s and Budd coaches, so you can spread out your budget. We still have tooling corrections to finish on those.

Click on the image above to download a sales sheet to take to your store, or click here to order direct.

The LRC is leaving the station. Don't be left behind!

Chinese New Year - which is on January 25th this year - is like a big reset for our factories. They like to tie up as many loose ends as possible and start the new year fresh. So we've been flooded with new samples. We'll have some of them at Springfield and at our other upcoming shows. More on our show appearances below.

We're particularly proud of our new Alco/MLW FA-2 and Alco/MLW FB-2 models. These have left the factory already and are en route. They are expected to arrive in late February/early March. A small handful are still available. Click here to order your A units and click here to order your B units.

SP&S Alco FA-2.

First injection sample of our MLW M420. For a first sample, it's pretty good!

Hand-painted second injection sample of our Amtrak Horizon Coach.

Hand-painted second injection sample of our Amtrak Horizon Cafe.

First injection samples of a hodgepodge of later-phase F40s.

These are actually the same HO scale Flexi Flo samples we showed you in our Flexi Flo video, but Bill has spent all week decaling them! We'll have them at Springfield. Production starts early next month. Get your order in, like, RIGHT NOW.

We have a number of show appearances coming up. We hope you can join us!

("The Springfield Show")

Mallary Building section #148

Rapido Crew: Bill, John, Dan, Dan, Josh, Mohan, Craig

Otter Valley Railroad Open House

Rapido Crew: Dan G., Jordan

Rapido Crew: Jason, Dan, Dan, maybe more

Rapido Crew: Dan D., Bill, Craig

We'd like to invite our friends to join us on the Rapido Bus to the Copetown Show on Sunday February 23rd. We'll be picking up in Vaughan and in Oakville. There is no charge. Please RSVP by replying to this email with the subject "Rapido Bus." Space is limited so please let us know soon.

The bus trip is weather permitting. As long as the roads are clear and not icy, it will go ahead.

I always look forward to Great Model Railroads and Model Railroad Planning, the annual publications from Kalmbach. Here I'm enjoying GMR on a Great Western Railway Pullman Dining Car service from London to Exeter. Now that is the way to travel.

After an all-too-long absence, we're pleased to let you know that we are back in the pages of Model Railroader magazine. We will be parking ourselves on the inside front cover for the foreseeable future, and we plan to be more involved with our friends at Kalmbach.

Our hobby is a small community, and we feel it's best to work together to expose more people to the wonders of model railroading and the unique approach to it that is embodied by Rapido Trains Inc.

Most of us at Rapido are still very much fans of printed model railroad magazines, so we will continue to support White River Productions, Kalmbach, Cowcatcher Magazine, N Scale Magazine, Canadian Railway Modeller, and other publishers. If you have a regular model train magazine in print, please reach out to us and we will consider advertising with you.

Our order deadlines are somewhat flexible. Until we are ready to start production, we keep punting the order deadlines. There is no reason to stop taking orders if we haven't started making the stuff yet. When we say that an order deadline is FINAL it means "No more dilly-dallying. We're starting to make this stuff."

The Amtrak Horizon cars will start production as soon as the last tooling corrections are done. Because the factory is closed, we don't yet know how long this will take. So we're not calling the deadline FINAL just yet.

January 29th

February 10th

February 24th

March 2nd

The 3800 Hoppers are here! You can order yours by clicking here.

In Stores Now:

Shipping Now:

Arriving February:

Arriving March:

*Undecorated models will arrive in the spring.

We'd like to introduce you to more of the people behind the scenes at Rapido, and give you regular updates about our team.

Mohan George, the spectacular manager that seemed to be dropped in our laps by the Almighty (see the bottom of Rapido News 110), has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Yes, we are now big enough to have a COO. That is the scariest part.

Dave is our Warranty Repair Manager. Dave spent many years fixing photocopiers before coming to Rapido. In fact, due to an unfortunate photocopying accident, the Dave in our office is just a three-dimensional copy of the original Dave, who has been stuck inside a Xerox 8200 in Banff, Alberta since 1987. Photocopy Dave is brilliant at diagnosing and repairing model trains. He is the only human who can do a motor-motherboard-decoder replacement on an RS-18 locomotive in less than three days. Photocopy Dave is an excellent N scale modeller and knows everything about every science fiction television show and movie ever made. Live long and prosper.

Roslyn Brex has been working at Rapido for almost two years. We hired her because I could tell instantly that she was as big a nerd as I am. She has moved up the ranks from Gopher to Order Desk Manager, and now she is vital to the operation of the company. In her spare time, Roslyn makes enamel pins that explain the meaning of life through the metaphor of fast food. Click here to buy her first pin. It's really neat! Roslyn is the only person I know aspiring to be a D&D geek. Most D&D geeks out there are actually aspiring to be Roslyn. Roslyn and her husband, Noah, have a beautiful toddler, Griffin. I recently was chagrined to learn that Griffin is not named for the founder of Hogwarts.

When Lystra showed up for work she was immediately thrown in front of the camera for her critically-acclaimed cameo in our hit video, A Day In The Life of Rapido. She was so new to our team that Bill called me and asked who the nice lady in the video was. (Seriously.) Since then she has become the face and voice of Rapido to our visitors and callers. She's good at getting people - without offending them - to stop telling her the number of every Union Pacific locomotive they have ever owned. She's also become an expert at telling people off the street why she can't sell them bus tickets. She is a married mother of three beautiful children ages 19, 16 and nine, and she is a huge foodie. We're thinking of promoting her to office chef.

Mark Stapleton just showed up at the office one day and started fixing things. We're not sure who let him in, but he's been here since September and he's actually very good at it. First he was fixing the food replicator, then the ceiling tiles, then the furniture, and then - lucky for us - he started fixing model trains. He has since become indispensable to our warranty repair team. In fact, he's 50% of it. But he's hoping to be 33% or even 25% of our warranty team. That is a not-so-subtle hint that we're still looking for more warranty repair people. (Please click here to submit your resume.) As you can see in the above photo, Mark is an accomplished British 4mm scale modeller and "he don't half know how to build 'em, don't he?"

And that's it for another Rapido News. Thank you to all seven of you still reading this far down. We do very much appreciate connecting with you in this way each month.

Until next time,

Jason

P.S. My mother and my Uncle Michael give me a hard time when these newsletters don't contain photos of my kids. (Bill will be writing more of these newsletters so you can see photos of his kids instead.)

Here are two photos taken last month when Dalya (aged 12) helped me lay track on my Kingston Sub layout. It's always a joy to get the kids involved in layout construction. You can tell I'm a proud papa.

Please click here to follow the Kingston Sub construction progress on Facebook.

We've made so many announcements in the last year that occasionally one gets lost in the shuffle. It's time we gave the new HO scale Canadian RDCs some much-needed attention. We also want to increase the numbers for the factory, so we have a rare offer for you. Read on!

The RDC played a vital role in Canadian railroading. Together, CN, CP and PGE had 87 RDCs delivered between 1953 and 1957. As American railroads were reducing passenger services in the late 1950s and early 1960s, CN and CP boosted their fleets with 20 secondhand units bought or transferred from the States.

Perhaps most interesting was the variety of RDCs in Canada. It wasn't just all coach-only RDC-1s. CP had more RDC-2s and RDC-3s than they did RDC-1s. CN and CP also operated a mix of Phase 1 and Phase 2 RDCs, so you would rarely see a complete RDC consist all looking the same.

The VAST majority of RDC-2s in Canada were Phase 2, and this has never been done in HO scale before now. All your old Proto models are Phase 1. Don't know the difference between RDC phases or types? Click here to read our detailed Master Class on the RDC.

It's been over three years since we delivered the Canadian RDC-1s, and they are regarded by many to be the best RDC model ever produced, in plastic or brass, in any scale. In Model Railroad News, David Otte wrote:

Now we're making many of the needed RDC-2s and RDC-3s and "alternate phase" RDC-1s to bolster your fleet.

Because there was such a huge variety of RDCs in Canada, we could not do them all at one time. For example, all of our first-run CN noodle and VIA RDC-1s were Phase 1 models, despite the fact that almost half of CN's RDC-1s and fully half of VIA's original RDC-1s were actually Phase 2s.

Even with this new run, we still can't do every version. There are just too many. Despite that, this is our last planned big run of Canadian RDCs for a long time. So now is the time to fill up your roster.

Here's a complete rundown of Canadian RDC models in this production run. We offer numbered and unnumbered models, but please note that we need orders of at least six of any unnumbered version to produce it.

CP Phase 1 RDC-1 90snowblob0 (possibly 9050) is on the rear of a six-unit train through Westmount in 1975. The maroon scheme with the hockey mask ends lasted until 1980, well into VIA ownership.

Our orders for the new HO scale RDCs are good, but not nearly as high as the first run. We expected this, but Colin - our partner in China - has asked us to increase our order numbers to make factory production easier. He's offered us a quantity price break to do it, and we're passing that savings on to you.

So we are making you this unprecedented offer: buy four RDCs and the fifth is totally free. There are no air security surcharges, taxes, landing fees, or other junk. It's just... free.

This applies to dealer and direct orders, and it is retroactive. If you have already ordered four or more, you can contact your dealer and tell them which free one you want. If you've already ordered three, you can order two more and only pay for one of them! Dealers don't read all their emails, so if your dealer doesn't know about this offer, ask him/her to give us a shout to confirm.

If you've ordered some directly from us and you want to increase your order to take advantage of the offer, go ahead and order as normal. We'll go into the system and reduce the price of your fifth RDC to zero.

Canadian RDCs regularly ran in large consists on all four major railroads that owned them. The train of six CP RDCs in the photo above was often dwarfed by 10-car and 11-car RDC monsters in the Montreal area. In Ontario, three to four CN/VIA RDCs was the norm for Niagara Falls, London and Kingston trains. And on PGE/BCR, five or six was common, as in the photo below.

What I'm trying to say is... YOU NEED MORE RDCs!

Looking at the preorders, we once again need the PGE guys to step up. Unless we get a huge inrush of orders, PGE will be cancelled. Contact your dealer or click here to order direct.

We also have almost no orders for one of VIA's RDC-3s, number 6302. This is because originally this was an unnumbered unit. But as VIA only had three Phase 2 RDC-3s, we changed it to the third number. And we never actually told anyone. Whoops! So please give VIA 6302 some love! That is product number 16251 (DC) and 16751 (DC/DCC/Sound).

Click on the image above (or click here) to download the Canadian RDC sales brochure, which includes a primer on the differences between the different phases.

This gets even better. If you are outside Canada, the USD MSRP for the HO Scale RDCs is $225 (DC) or $335 (DC/DCC/Sound). We mistakenly used the higher Canadian price for both currencies in the original announcements. And you still get the free RDC offer, so this is even sweeter. Again, this is retroactive. If you already have RDCs on order, we will adjust the pricing for both direct and dealer orders.

The Final, Final order deadline is March 2nd. Please speak to your dealer or click here to order direct.

We are delighted to announce the newest release in our New Haven stainless steel passenger car series – the “County” cars. As with other cars in this series, these cars are being developed in association with The New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Association (NHRHTA).

The New Haven took delivery of a group of twenty stainless steel baggage-parlor-lounge cars in 1948. A part of the post-war passenger train modernization, these cars were named after counties served by the New Haven. That part was simple. Now the history of these cars gets more complicated!

The initial 1948 County Car order was delivered in four different interior configurations, but all with baggage compartments, a drawing room, two roomette sleeping accommodations and a mix of parlor seat arrangements.

In 1952 the New Haven determined that they needed more drawing rooms so two of the cars were rebuilt with drawing rooms in place of the baggage section. This conversion was successful enough that four more cars (for a total of six) were also converted. However, these six additional cars included no fewer than three NEW interior configurations! Cars #210-219 somehow escaped the rebuilds and retained their baggage sections throughout their service life.

The skirted McGinnis cars are only available from NHRHTA.

As you can tell, the County Cars are a huge headache for us as a manufacturer, but such is our dedication to New Haven modelers that we're doing them in all their super-modified glory. Though I don't mind telling you that we would love to go back in time and ask the good folks at the New Haven Railroad to please stop making life difficult for us.

As with many of the New Haven stainless steel cars, the McGinnis cars with skirts are an exclusive production for NHRHTA. Please click here to visit their web site to order those cars.

For all the other paint schemes and versions, please click on the image below to download the County Cars sales pack which you can take to your store. Or just buy them all!

We will start tooling the County cars in March. The initial order deadline is May 25th. We'll extend it if the tooling's not ready by then. Delivery is expected in the fall.

Full information can be found here.

Our New Haven Dining Car is in good company on the SSMRC layout.

If a New Haven modeler ever tells you that no manufacturer is bringing out New Haven models these days - as Bill and I once heard at a trade show in Hartford, with our FL9 sitting on the counter in front of us - please ask him to look us up and be prepared to remortgage his house.

Bill took our new New Haven Dining Cars to the South Shore Model Railway Club in Hingham, MA. He and new Rapido engineer John Sheridan unboxed these beauties and put them through their paces. The cars also get the very important critical approval of Paul A. Cutler III, one of the world's foremost New Haven experts.

Click here or on the image below to watch.

We have some extra diners still in stock. Click here to order direct, or contact your dealer. If you've populated your Rapido diners with passengers and food, please send us photos! We'll share them on our Facebook page.

It has been SEVEN YEARS since we last brought out the HO scale CN and ex-CN FP9A locomotives. We think that's long enough, so we are delighted to announce a surprise run of new FP9A locomotives. And guess what? They are here! Now!

The GMD FP9A was Canada's workhorse passenger locomotive from the mid-1950s to the 1990s. CN received its FP9A locomotives in five deliveries between 1954 and 1958. Our new run is just of the last delivery - the E class. It's called the E class because the CN designation for their FP9A locomotives was GPA-17e: General Motors Diesel Division Passenger A unit, 1750 HP, delivery group "e." The coolest thing about the E class was that instead of having four 36" radiator fans on the roof it had two monster 48" fans.

You can read all about the different classes of FP9A locomotive in our FP9A Master Class. Click here to have a look. We also have an FP9A Spotter's Guide, available here.

Our HO Scale FP9A models feature the usual Rapido level of detail, including:

Available paint schemes for the HO scale FP9A are CNR (1954 scheme), CN (stripes), VIA #6540 with the early angled yellow paint, and standard VIA with the straight yellow paint. We made a handful of #6540 in the early scheme simply because I wanted one for my Kingston Sub layout. It's also available in the standard scheme.

Click on the image below to download a sales sheet to take to your hobby shop.

Click here to order direct or contact your dealer.

When these are gone, they are gone. So go out and buy yours today!

Another surprise announcement... more containers! We made a surprise run of our 53' containers in the latest CN and CP paint schemes. The good news is they are here now. The bad news is that we announced them to dealers last week and they sold out in one day. But that means your local hobby shop may have them in stock.

If not, have no fear! We are producing more containers in a variety of paint schemes, and we will take preorders for them. You can expect an announcement in the next newsletter and delivery later this year. You can also keep tabs on our containers web page.

The factories are closed right now for Chinese New Year, but as soon as they open up again next month they are ordering production materials for the N scale LRC Coaches. This is the first modern VIA Rail Canada passenger car ever offered in N scale, and it features:

We have to thank Mark Kaluza, a very talented HO modeller, for going out of his comfort zone and doing a fabulous job hand-painting our N scale LRC samples. They look wonderful. Production models will include all the little warning labels and doodads, which will be applied using our Tampo pad printing machines. They will also have properly flush windows.

These photos show off the interior lighting and working marker lights. You can turn off the interior lights and turn on the marker lights just by waving the Rapido Lighter over the roof.

This is a screen shot from our N Scale LRC video.

I'm going to ask our N scale friends to step up. I've had a number of people poll their N scale buddies and the consensus was "I'm looking forward to getting the LRCs but I haven't reserved any."

Our total reservations for the N scale LRCs are certainly strong enough to make them, but I gotta tell you: we've sold TEN TIMES as many HO LRCs as N scale LRCs. That doesn't mean the HO market is so much bigger. It means that a lot of the N scale guys planning to buy these haven't preordered. And that's what was confirmed by our informal poll.

There's no way we can make so much inventory to meet the demand for these. So please preorder your LRCs to make sure you get yours. Final numbers go to the factory on Friday, January 31st, so they can start work on the following Monday. To guarantee delivery please make sure your orders are in by Thursday night. Please let your N scale modelling friends know.

The LRC coaches will be delivered quite some time before the F40s and Budd coaches, so you can spread out your budget. We still have tooling corrections to finish on those.

Click on the image above to download a sales sheet to take to your store, or click here to order direct.

The LRC is leaving the station. Don't be left behind!

Chinese New Year - which is on January 25th this year - is like a big reset for our factories. They like to tie up as many loose ends as possible and start the new year fresh. So we've been flooded with new samples. We'll have some of them at Springfield and at our other upcoming shows. More on our show appearances below.

We're particularly proud of our new Alco/MLW FA-2 and Alco/MLW FB-2 models. These have left the factory already and are en route. They are expected to arrive in late February/early March. A small handful are still available. Click here to order your A units and click here to order your B units.

SP&S Alco FA-2.

First injection sample of our MLW M420. For a first sample, it's pretty good!

Hand-painted second injection sample of our Amtrak Horizon Coach.

Hand-painted second injection sample of our Amtrak Horizon Cafe.

First injection samples of a hodgepodge of later-phase F40s.

These are actually the same HO scale Flexi Flo samples we showed you in our Flexi Flo video, but Bill has spent all week decaling them! We'll have them at Springfield. Production starts early next month. Get your order in, like, RIGHT NOW.

We have a number of show appearances coming up. We hope you can join us!

("The Springfield Show")

Mallary Building section #148

Rapido Crew: Bill, John, Dan, Dan, Josh, Mohan, Craig

Otter Valley Railroad Open House

Rapido Crew: Dan G., Jordan

Rapido Crew: Jason, Dan, Dan, maybe more

Rapido Crew: Dan D., Bill, Craig

We'd like to invite our friends to join us on the Rapido Bus to the Copetown Show on Sunday February 23rd. We'll be picking up in Vaughan and in Oakville. There is no charge. Please RSVP by replying to this email with the subject "Rapido Bus." Space is limited so please let us know soon.

The bus trip is weather permitting. As long as the roads are clear and not icy, it will go ahead.

I always look forward to Great Model Railroads and Model Railroad Planning, the annual publications from Kalmbach. Here I'm enjoying GMR on a Great Western Railway Pullman Dining Car service from London to Exeter. Now that is the way to travel.

After an all-too-long absence, we're pleased to let you know that we are back in the pages of Model Railroader magazine. We will be parking ourselves on the inside front cover for the foreseeable future, and we plan to be more involved with our friends at Kalmbach.

Our hobby is a small community, and we feel it's best to work together to expose more people to the wonders of model railroading and the unique approach to it that is embodied by Rapido Trains Inc.

Most of us at Rapido are still very much fans of printed model railroad magazines, so we will continue to support White River Productions, Kalmbach, Cowcatcher Magazine, N Scale Magazine, Canadian Railway Modeller, and other publishers. If you have a regular model train magazine in print, please reach out to us and we will consider advertising with you.

Our order deadlines are somewhat flexible. Until we are ready to start production, we keep punting the order deadlines. There is no reason to stop taking orders if we haven't started making the stuff yet. When we say that an order deadline is FINAL it means "No more dilly-dallying. We're starting to make this stuff."

The Amtrak Horizon cars will start production as soon as the last tooling corrections are done. Because the factory is closed, we don't yet know how long this will take. So we're not calling the deadline FINAL just yet.

January 29th

February 10th

February 24th

March 2nd

The 3800 Hoppers are here! You can order yours by clicking here.

In Stores Now:

Shipping Now:

Arriving February:

Arriving March:

*Undecorated models will arrive in the spring.

We'd like to introduce you to more of the people behind the scenes at Rapido, and give you regular updates about our team.

Mohan George, the spectacular manager that seemed to be dropped in our laps by the Almighty (see the bottom of Rapido News 110), has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Yes, we are now big enough to have a COO. That is the scariest part.

Dave is our Warranty Repair Manager. Dave spent many years fixing photocopiers before coming to Rapido. In fact, due to an unfortunate photocopying accident, the Dave in our office is just a three-dimensional copy of the original Dave, who has been stuck inside a Xerox 8200 in Banff, Alberta since 1987. Photocopy Dave is brilliant at diagnosing and repairing model trains. He is the only human who can do a motor-motherboard-decoder replacement on an RS-18 locomotive in less than three days. Photocopy Dave is an excellent N scale modeller and knows everything about every science fiction television show and movie ever made. Live long and prosper.

Roslyn Brex has been working at Rapido for almost two years. We hired her because I could tell instantly that she was as big a nerd as I am. She has moved up the ranks from Gopher to Order Desk Manager, and now she is vital to the operation of the company. In her spare time, Roslyn makes enamel pins that explain the meaning of life through the metaphor of fast food. Click here to buy her first pin. It's really neat! Roslyn is the only person I know aspiring to be a D&D geek. Most D&D geeks out there are actually aspiring to be Roslyn. Roslyn and her husband, Noah, have a beautiful toddler, Griffin. I recently was chagrined to learn that Griffin is not named for the founder of Hogwarts.

When Lystra showed up for work she was immediately thrown in front of the camera for her critically-acclaimed cameo in our hit video, A Day In The Life of Rapido. She was so new to our team that Bill called me and asked who the nice lady in the video was. (Seriously.) Since then she has become the face and voice of Rapido to our visitors and callers. She's good at getting people - without offending them - to stop telling her the number of every Union Pacific locomotive they have ever owned. She's also become an expert at telling people off the street why she can't sell them bus tickets. She is a married mother of three beautiful children ages 19, 16 and nine, and she is a huge foodie. We're thinking of promoting her to office chef.

Mark Stapleton just showed up at the office one day and started fixing things. We're not sure who let him in, but he's been here since September and he's actually very good at it. First he was fixing the food replicator, then the ceiling tiles, then the furniture, and then - lucky for us - he started fixing model trains. He has since become indispensable to our warranty repair team. In fact, he's 50% of it. But he's hoping to be 33% or even 25% of our warranty team. That is a not-so-subtle hint that we're still looking for more warranty repair people. (Please click here to submit your resume.) As you can see in the above photo, Mark is an accomplished British 4mm scale modeller and "he don't half know how to build 'em, don't he?"

And that's it for another Rapido News. Thank you to all seven of you still reading this far down. We do very much appreciate connecting with you in this way each month.

Until next time,

Jason

P.S. My mother and my Uncle Michael give me a hard time when these newsletters don't contain photos of my kids. (Bill will be writing more of these newsletters so you can see photos of his kids instead.)

Here are two photos taken last month when Dalya (aged 12) helped me lay track on my Kingston Sub layout. It's always a joy to get the kids involved in layout construction. You can tell I'm a proud papa.

Please click here to follow the Kingston Sub construction progress on Facebook.

Rapido is excited to announce a new locomotive model from a new (prototype) manufacturer: the Fairbanks Morse H-16-44 in HO scale!

The H-16-44 series was Fairbanks Morse’s attempt to compete in the growing hood-unit market in the 1950s. Built between 1950 and 1963, the H-16-44 offered 1600 HP from its 8-cylinder opposed piston diesel engine. 209 units were built for US railroads and 58 for Canadian roads.

In 1955, Fairbanks Morse updated the design for their H-16-44 locomotives. These changes involved raising the walkway & simplifying the design of the short & long hood to make construction easier. From the outside the locomotives looked much like their bigger brother – the H-24-66 “Trainmaster” but with 4 axles instead of 6. Under the hood the locomotives were nearly identical to the earlier phases of H-16-44 except for replacing the Westinghouse Electrical System with a more reliable General Electric system.

A total of 165 of the H-16-44 Phase III Locomotives were built between 1955 and 1963. Locomotives for the Canadian Pacific Railway & Canadian National Railway were built by Fairbanks Morse subsidiary Canadian Locomotive Company. The last H-16-44 was built for the Ferrocarril de Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad in 1963. This was the last Fairbanks Morse Locomotive to roll off the assembly line as the company folded the same year. 

Our HO scale model is this Phase III version. Since we so much enjoy reducing our design engineers to tears, we are of course offering these locomotives with all the road-specific details we can fit. We want to make these models as accurate as possible!

Now you might be wondering... How the heck did Rapido find an H-16-44 to measure? Well, we found one! It was hidden deep in an abandoned Malon theta radioactive antimatter waste repository. Intrepid researchers Jon Calon and Chris Doering measured the locomotive for us and had to spend three days in a decontamination chamber at McKinley Station. Thanks to Jon and Chris, and also thank you to Captain Emily Bosch as well as the Alberta Energy Regulator for giving us access to the site.

Our new HO scale H-16-44 model features:

Click on the image above (or click here) to download the H-16-44 brochure, or click here to go to the web page. Note this is the first run. If you don''t see a paint scheme you want, we may do it on a second run. The sound decoder will either be a TCS-Rapido or an ESU LokSound. We''ll let you know in a forthcoming newsletter, well before the order deadline.

Speaking of order deadlines, we will announce that when we have samples. We expect this to be in tooling by the end of March. You can order your H-16-44 fleet from your dealer or you can order direct by clicking here.

Apparently we have a star on our hands! It seems that every time that we release a new video WITHOUT Janet in it, we are bombarded with messages asking "Where''s Janet?!"

So (and without analyzing this trend too much) - HERE''S JANET!

If that''s not enough, you also will get to see Jordan beating up Jason. I''m sure that he deserved it! Click on the image below to watch.

Trains? You want TRAINS in your video.... Oh, OK. There are some gorgeous Horizon cars tootling around on Jason''s layout, after Janet had the guys clean up the layout room first. Did I mention that Janet was in the video?

March 2nd, 2020 is the Final Final deadline for getting your orders in for the HO scale Horizon coaches and dinettes. That''s like, RIGHT NOW. You may have seen these great cars in the new video (did we mention that Janet was in the video?). Now is the time to get your reservations in.

Introduced by Amtrak in April 1989, the Horizon fleet consisted predominantly of two basic car types - Coach and Dinette - with 86 and 18 cars respectively forming the 104-car order placed with Bombardier.

Over the years, the Horizon cars have remained largely unchanged from their as-built appearance, with the only predominant visual differences being the evolution of the Amtrak paint schemes from Phase III through Phase VI. However, two key changes that have occurred include the replacement of the original power sliding doors with manually-operated Dutch doors, and the replacement of the fold-down stairs with fixed steps. Of course, we''re making these variations!

Our HO scale Horizon models feature:

For a full, printable item listing please click on the image below to download our Horizon Car sales pack.

The Final, Final order deadline is March 2nd. We will take orders all next week and then send the numbers to the factory. Please speak to your dealer or click here to order direct.

Click here or on the image to watch.

We are taking orders for just a few more days on the next run of HO RDC models. These include Canadian RDC-1, RDC2 and RDC-3 models. A complete rundown of Canadian RDC models in this production run can be found here.

Don''t forget, we''re offering a special deal on this group of RDCs: buy four RDCs and the fifth is totally free There are no air security surcharges, taxes, landing fees, or other junk. It''s just... free. This applies to dealer and direct orders, and it is retroactive. If you have already ordered four or more, you can contact your dealer and tell them which free one you want. If you''ve already ordered three, you can order two more and only pay for one of them!

This offer is only applicable to this production run. Gord in Thicket Portage has four really nice rubber-band-drive RDCs he bought in 1966, but that doesn''t mean he''s getting a free Rapido one now. Sorry, Gord. And please stop calling us.

Click here to watch the Canadian RDC Video...eh.

We managed to get together a new video of these RDCs in action just in time. Sorry, Janet is not in it - she''s still recovering from the last one. However, there are some amazing shots of HO RDC models! Click here or on the image above to watch. It would have made sense to have a four- or five-car consist in the video but Jason forgot them at home. We''re really professional. 🤦🏻‍♂️

If you''ve ordered some directly from us and you want to increase your order to take advantage of the offer, go ahead and order as normal. We''ll go into the system and reduce the price of your fifth RDC to zero. The free RDC offer also applies to dealer and distributor orders too!

The Final, Final order deadline (we mean it this time!) is March 2nd. We''ll take last-minute orders throughout most of next week, but then the factory gets to work. Please speak to your dealer or click here to order direct.

Our last run of containers could not be contained - they sold out immediately! So, we''re producing more containers in several new paint schemes and others with new numbers. We are taking reservations for them now. You can expect delivery later this year.

For a full listing of available schemes and numbers see our containers web page.

For a long time now Jordan has been driving us NUTS around the office BEGGING for us to make the Rohr Turboliner train in HO. He even found a few friends who also seemed interested. They started an e-mail blitz that convinced us to offer the train - conditionally.

We announced that we would make the Turboliner if we received enough orders by the order deadline - March 17, 2020.

Well, we''re waiting.......

To date we have indeed received quite a few orders, but not yet enough to kick us over the threshold needed.

So, if you want to see the Turboliner as well, or if you''re a friend of Jordan''s, then please make sure to reserve your fleet quickly! We''ll announce whether the project will go ahead after March 17 and the orders are tallied.

We should warn you, if the project does not get enough reservations then Jordan will have nothing to do but make more videos, and he''ll be really grumpy in them. So please, help us all out....

To make this more attractive, Orders place before March 17th, 2020 will be entered at a special Early Bird price, saving 5% off the MSRP.

(Orders places AFTER March 17th, 2020 will be at full MSRP).

For a full, printable listing please click on the image below to download our Turboliner sales pack. Make sure to order one of each!

Reserve your Turboliner from your favorite hobby shop or directly from us. The 5% early-bird discount applies to all orders received by March 17th, whether from your hobby shop or direct. Click here for more info!

Jordan and Gomez (with Mike''s help) have recently finished a video showing off our gorgeous new HO scale RS-11 locomotives. They show the details, run through all the features, and then get to play trains for a while. (Some job....) Click on the image below to view.

We have a handful of RS-11 locomotives left in stock. Click here to see what is available.

With the factories having been closed for the Chinese New Year holiday - and beyond (see more below) - progress on many projects has been delayed. However, we are moving forward on the HO scale PA and PB Project and I thought that I''d share an early CAD rendering with you.

To be honest, I''m always nervous about showing something this early in the process. This is only the second CAD file that the factory has sent (the first being VERY basic) and there are still LOTS of things to add and correct. Still, we are making good progress and the factory engineers are working on an updated version even as I type this. We''ll have more updates for you in upcoming newsletters.

One of the biggest challenges on this project has been finding good, reliable information. As you may have followed, we were lucky enough to be given full access to Doyle McCormack''s gorgeous "NKP 190" at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center and allowed to perform a 3D scan of it. (You can watch the video of that event here.)

Recently we''ve also received a bunch of help from the folks at the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, Texas and I want to take this opportunity to thank them for it. Their crew is restoring the other PA-1 in the US, Santa Fe #59L. They have been able to provide us with field measurements and photos of parts that are either not on Doyle''s unit or have been modified on his.

You can click here to see the story of their impressive restoration efforts. I''m sure that they''d also appreciate any donations that you might want to put toward their efforts!

So, regular readers might be wondering at this point where Jason is. Well, in fact he''s still thawing out.

Recently Jason was interviewed for The Platforum, a video podcast put together by noted Canadian modeller and Rapido friend, Bob Fallowfield. In each episode Bob tortures his guests by making them sit outside in the cold and talk trains.

In this episode, Jason discusses the trials and tribulations of trying to build a large model railroad while also trying to run a business and juggle family life. It''s actually quite interesting! Most impressively, Bob was able to get a few words in during Jason''s interview! Jason doesn''t know when to shut up. (Seeing as he already fired me a few paragraphs ago, there''s nothing holding me back.)

Click on the image above or here to watch. Don''t forget to dress warmly!

We have a number of show appearances coming up. We hope you can join us!

Rapido Crew: Bill

Expo 2N booths C25, C26

Rapido Crew: Bill, Dan D., Craig

Rapido Crew: Bill

Rapido Crew: We''re still figuring it out.

On a more serious note, many of you have no doubt been following the news about the Coronavirus outbreak in China. If you''ve read these newsletters or have watched our videos for any time you''ll know that we have a very close relationship with our factory workers and partners in China and are proud of it. We are happy to report that, to the best of our knowledge, none of our factory workers has been infected.

However, in an ongoing effort to control the spread of the virus, both the Chinese national government and many regional authorities instituted travel restrictions and factory closings. As a result, both of our factories remained closed an extra three weeks after the end of the Chinese New Year break. This means no production, no shipments - nothing - until after they have reopened and had a chance to get back up to speed.

Because of this, some projects have now been delayed at least an extra few weeks, some more. This is why we have continued to take orders on products that are technically past the order deadline, and have extended some other deadlines a few more weeks.

The good news is the factories have now reopened and workers are returning. Of course, it will take some time to get back up to full capacity, but we are assured that things are improving daily now.

To compound the delivery uncertainties, the Canadian rail system was shut down for the last three weeks due to blockades. (Jason was quoted in a Toronto Star article about this. Click here to read it.)

Our container of HO Alco FA and FB-2 models was stuck in the port of Prince Rupert for over two weeks. Fortunately, that too is now on the move and is... stuck behind all the other trains that were stopped! At least it''s moving now!

Obviously, both of these situations are outside of our control, and we appreciate your patience.

So, with that in mind, here is our best current estimate of delivery times:

Arriving Early March:

Arriving Late April:

And that''s it for another nice short edition of Rapido News.

Should any of you have actually made it this far, remember... order more Turboliners! Please? Pretty please? With sugar? You don''t want a sad Jordan, do you?

Until next time,

Bill

P.S. A lot of people have been asking Jason about how he built his helix. He''s just started showing this process on his layout''s Facebook page. Click on the image below to get involved in the discussion. Now I''m hoping he''ll hire me back.

We''ve been a bit bus-focused lately in these newsletters, and our customers have taken notice... Our bus orders have tripled in the last three weeks. Thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered their 1/87th New Look Bus fleet. The order deadline is Monday, May 18th. We''ll guarantee any orders received by end of day on Tuesday. If you''re reading this past the deadline, have no fear! We always make a few extra Deluxe buses in each livery. Go ahead and send in your order.

Our best seller, for some reason, is Santa Monica bus number 2525:

Please be kinder to your model 2525 than these guys were to the real thing!

Here''s a listing of liveries we are doing in this run:

If you would like to commission an exclusive run for your home town, it''s not too late! Let us know by Tuesday. Minimum is 300 buses.

It''s not just the lighting that increases the appeal of our Deluxe New Look buses. The Deluxe buses also have enhanced interior decoration, such as two-tone seats where appropriate and the handrails picked out in silver. As you can see from the photo above, this adds a huge dose of realism, and helps explain why the vast majority of our sales are for Deluxe models. If you want to upgrade your model to Deluxe, your dealer can adjust your order. Just let them know.

Click on the image below to download a bus catalog:

Remember that order deadline - it''s basically NOW.

Click here to visit the bus web page. And please send us photos of your Rapido bus models so we can share them. Because you know it''s all about that bus,''bout that bus... I''ll stop now.

Our new YouTube superstar, Jeremy Fleming, has created another "how-to" video. This one is about putting little people in your model Fishbowl Bus. Even if you have no intention ever to do this, it''s a very entertaining video. It even includes a guitar.

Click here or on the image below to watch.

Because we haven''t beaten this dead horse enough today, HERE''S THE LINK to order your new bus models.

Well it''s not a HUGE sale, but it''s... respectable? Adequate? Tolerable? Not half bad?

Whatever it is, the chance to save 10% on almost everything in stock AND qualify for free shipping across North America expires on May 29th, when prices SHOOT UP back to what they were in the olden days.

Please click here to start shopping.

We really miss connecting with you, our customers. Our last "Ask Me Anything" was on Facebook Live back in March. So here are three Rapido Facebook Live events coming up:

Join me in VIA Rail Coach #5647 and let''s chat about Rapido, the model railroad hobby, real trains, all the roles Norman Jones played in Doctor Who, and anything else. Click here to visit our Facebook page.

Celebrate Memorial Day with Bill Schneider and Jordan Smith from Rapido. Ask them the same questions you ask me and get TOTALLY. DIFFERENT. ANSWERS. Bill and Jordan have extensive knowledge of our American model plans and will be sure to drop some completely misleading hints. Click here to visit the TrainWorld Facebook page.

Thank you to everyone who ordered Sidura''s book after the last newsletter. We really, really appreciate it. You Are Not What We Expected rocketed to the top of the charts for short story collections on Amazon''s Canadian site that weekend! The official book launch takes place on Monday as part of the National Arts Centre''s #CanadaPerforms program. Please click here to visit Sidura''s Facebook page.

This worker at the Rapido factory is using a three-head tampo printing machine to apply logos to N scale BCR Dash 8 Locomotives.

The factories are extremely busy with both N scale and HO scale production. Have a look:

The N scale CN Dash 8 shells are in the printing room, receiving their loco numbers.

Geez - that must be every N scale QNS&L Dash 8 we sold in that one bin, there...

This tampo worker is verifying that the black stripes on the D&RGW Ski Train cars are straight. He''s using the best tools for the job... his eyes!

We''re making several thousand Ski Train cars and each car has about 40 seat pairs to install one... at... a... time. Could you do this all day? I certainly couldn''t!

We''re almost finished decorating the new TH&B USRA boxcar shells... with black doors!

Flexi Flos in the printing room! Woo-hoo!

Amazingly, we are receiving shipments and we are sending them out!

The HO scale Pullman-Standard Dining Cars are mostly out the door. If you ordered a dining car and you have not heard from us, chances are our email ended up in your spam filter. Please get in touch ASAP. If you''ve ordered from a store that has either closed permanently or never seems to fulfill their Rapido pre-orders, please contact us as well so we can make sure you get your models.

We have a handful of diners left available. Visit the web site to order yours.

The HO scale USRA boxcars and Northern Pacific boxcars are also here... crammed into our very small Cargo Bay 2. We''re moving them into Cargo Bay 1 on Tuesday and will start shipping them late next week. The Missouri Pacific FB-2s are with them.

We''d really like to renovate our Cargo Bays. Jordan wants Cargo Bay 2 to look more like this:

The next major arrivals will be the Rio Grande Ski Train and the HO scale LRC. We expect both to arrive in early July. The C&NW FA-2s and FB-2s and the TH&B USRA Boxcars are expected in June.