rapidotrains

Hi all, We recently sent out our latest newsletter. You can read it here: https://conta.cc/2x0ll6f Thanks for reading, Jason

When I first moved to the UK my parents came to visit. For a day trip, we drove from Brum to Salisbury and back. And we stopped in several twee places on the way to look around. Last time I was there, Gareth and I drove from Peterborough to Beer to Basingstoke in a day. No problem... -Jason

Actually I'm going to Dungeness to find the bit of beach where the BBC embedded an Axon spacecraft in 1970. It has to be the right bit of beach. Should take me no more than a week to find it. -Jason

Hi all, As you've read elsewhere on the forum I am indeed heading to the UK next week. I will be spending most of the time in the Birmingham area, with a quick detour to Dungeness. Because they're really close to each other! On the bank holiday Monday - 28 May - I will be at the Transport Museum Wythall with the first sample (or three) of our new New Look bus. Actually it's our second New Look bus so it's really our new new New Look bus. The Model Bus Federation will be there as well, and there will be lots of vintage buses on display and in service. I'll have a pile of Rapido trains at the show as well, so it's not just buses. Wythall is just south of Birmingham so it's pretty close to everyone in the entire country. I do also intend to ride some trains, though (gasp!) I have to hire a car for the trip. Maybe this time I will remember to turn RIGHT out of the Heathrow car hire place instead of left. Last time I ended up on the way to Paddington Station via residential streets instead of going to the M40. I will do my best to keep everyone updated in this thread, but as I haven't got much downtime on the train and I don't have Gareth or Bill to help out, I will probably get my first opportunity to update this blog in, erm, November. We're working on a newsletter for our UK customers. It should be out tomorrow. I look forward to seeing some of you soon! All the best, Jason

Thanks, Chris. That's appreciated! -Jason

Hi all, We've just uploaded a rather emotional video (well to us anyway) about the sleeping car we are trying to preserve. It has not been an easy journey. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APgooAOR5Us Thanks for watching, Jason

Why are you still awake? GO TO SLEEP!

Nah - I was the victim of an uncorrected edit. It should have said "Most of our OO UK products" not "4mm UK products." But yes, most of our products are compatible with those different gaugish thingies. I've been a UK outline modeller for a long time - I love the look of P4 models, but no, I will never build my own! -Jason

Obviously this is Ben and Mike's baby so they deserve a huge amount of praise. On the Rapido side, Gareth deserves 80% of the credit. Dan Garcia deserves 18% for the running quality and DCC programming side of things. And Bill and I each get 1% for working on them when in China. But it's really been The Gareth Show for this model, and Rapido is very lucky to have him. We've made a handful of extra models because we knew this would be a "home run" model (sorry, I'm not from around here). If you still want to get a Pendo and you haven't reserved one, contact Ben and Mike (UK/Europe) or Rapido (rest of the world) via the Rapido web site. -Jason

No worries there. Most of our 4mm UK products are compatible with 4mm and EM. -Jason

If Guy didn't build any in Wolverhampton and Daimler didn't build any in Coventry, I don't need any..... OK, OK - I'll stop. In all seriousness, our 3D prints can't replicate the fine detail that will be on the final model, and these were tossed together by our new young engineer, Ms. Chen, and put in one of the Warley boxes. We weren't even planning to announce them but they looked good enough to do a soft launch. Judging by the response so far at the show, it was a very good decision. -Jason, several thousand miles from Warley

We're still working on the teak. Attached is a photo from the factory of a test that was done last week. The teak is too subtle. We also need to improve the screen printing. I will be working on it when I am in China in a week's time, so your feedback is most welcome. -Jason

Yeah we thought he was Canadian too. He insists on doing Warley, which means he hasn't seen Thanksgiving dinner in four years. Our Thanksgiving is in October. A much more sensible time. -Jason

Nah - I just come for the buses. My next visit to the UK is for the Wythall event on the late May bank holiday. My life has been "All About That Bus" lately... -Jason (The Brummie New Look still needs work...)

Oh no.... Bill has turned into one of those guys that photographs his food!!!

Hi all, The first drawings have come in for our Brummie Bus. The trace of the scan isn't nearly finished yet, but it's already looking good! I have to admit I'm personally very excited about this project. Please feel free to share the images with any bus/modelling groups you belong to. See below. -Jason

Greetings from the LRC factory in China! This is just a quick reminder that we have a big order deadline this weekend. HO scale: - CN/CP SW1200RS locomotive. Delivery is early 2018. https://rapidotrains.com/ho-gmd-sw1200rs/ - Amtrak Cabbage. Delivery is spring 2018. https://rapidotrains.com/ho-amtrak-npcu/ - Amtrak rebuilt F40. Delivery is with the Cabbages. https://rapidotrains.com/ho-modernized-f40ph/ N scale: - TurboTrain 5% early bird discount ends this weekend. https://rapidotrains.com/n-turbo-2/ Realistically, if you get your order in with your supplier by end of day Sunday you are still OK. Suppliers have until end of day Monday to submit their orders. We'll also keep our online carts open until Monday. For orders in the UK, you can order directly from us, from Rails of Sheffield, or from any other UK stockist that specializes in North American outline. Thanks and regards, Jason

We recorded the packing scene about ten times, but when I looked at the footage, the first take was the best. I love how I scream at them to stop taping and - without any prior planning on their part or ours - they all took one last tug at the tape just to drive me nuts. -Jason

Hi guys, We've uploaded a video about our visit to Rails of Sheffield. If you've never seen what it's like behind the counter at Rails, it is definitely worth watching. And of course the video is very silly. One day we'll hire people who can actually act. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ2QHmk5xFc Best regards, Jason

Interesting discussion. The market for scale 2-rail is very small indeed. That's why there are so few models available. If an O scale model is not also available in three-rail and capable of navigating 18" radius curves, it won't sell enough to cover its tooling costs. The vast majority of O models are designed entirely for three-rail, hence the popularity of "shorty" passenger cars even though they went out of style in HO over 30 years ago. Our HO models tend to be so niche that we don't sell a huge number, even of those. We've had lots of requests for GMD-1s in O scale, but there is no way we would cover the tooling costs. Gareth and I are very impressed by Heljan's diesel offerings in 7mm. We'd have trouble selling even one in North America. -Jason

Jason & Gareth’s Brilliant British Adventure: 5 A day at the seaside with Railway Modeller By Gareth Bayer Thursday dawned earlier for us that most days because we had something of a drive ahead of us. Five hours or so depending on traffic. Skype and Facetime are wonderful inventions and without them Rapido simply wouldn’t be able to communicate. However there is nothing like a face to face meeting. So when the team at Railway Modeller magazine invited us to their headquarters in the beautiful village of Beer, Devon, we jumped at the chance of visiting the home of this famous publication. Up until now the combination of Jason’s driving and my navigating had worked quite well. We’d had no major bust ups, I still had a job, and there was only a slightly damaged manual transmission to show for our travels across the UK so far. The five hour journey from Northamptonshire to Devon though promised to test our relationship (and the gearbox) to destruction. Another stunning Northamptonshire village. It wasn’t long before Google Maps was giving us a warning of impending traffic snarl ups, with tailbacks on both the M6 around Coventry and the mother of all delays on the M42 between the M6 and M40. Fortunately there were alternative routes and they promised a more rewarding journey than the typical British motorway experience. Jason took the news that we were heading “cross country” on the A46 well… Passing Coventry… Passing Stratford-upon-Avon… Passing Cheltenham… Passing Weston-Super-Mare… Around Taunton we decided to “cut the corner” and avoid Exeter. Passing Taunton… Google Maps, where have you taken us?! 45 hair raising minutes later… We arrived at Beer! Beautiful Beer! As well as the offices of Railway Modeller and its sister magazine Continental Modeller, Peco’s site at Beer is also home to the factory that makes its world famous track and loads of other products, the Pecorama pleasure gardens, and the 7 1/4in gauge Beer Heights Light Railway. We say world famous because I’ve quickly found that most North American modellers I know swear by Peco’s track. The Code 75 and Code 100 ranges used to be really popular but these have been mostly superseded by the amazing Code 83 North American track. Jason has used about three miles of it on his layout – that’s actual miles, not scale miles. Jason loves it so much that he spent the first three hours at Peco pestering them to make their North American track with slightly wider sleeper spacing and Code 70 rail for branch line and yard use. Peco’s offices and factory. The factory is something quite special. Peco still make all their track in the UK and that’s something that they are justifiably very proud of. Rapido would love to make its model trains in Canada but that simply isn’t going to happen any time soon. The average Rapido model includes something like eight to eleven hours of assembly, which would quadruple the cost of our trains if we tried to make them in North America, that’s assuming we could find a factory with the kind of expertise that we require. (Ed: Quadruple? More like quintuple! But who's counting? -Jason) Anyway, we were at Peco to meet Steve Flint (editor) and Craig Tiley (features editor/writer) from Railway Modeller and talk about Rapido for a feature on the company planned for a future issue. Before the hard work of being interviewed began we retired to Peco’s classy restaurant for lunch… Golden Arrow Pullman Car “Orion” from 1951 – now a restaurant at Pecorama. This really is the only way to have lunch. Gareth and Jason relax in the private room in Orion. After lunch we were given a tour of the offices before the interview began in the boardroom. Foolishly they left us alone for a few minutes and a quick rummage found this… Suitable reading material – The Thomas the Tank Engine annual from 1979. Jason loves nothing more than telling the story of Rapido from his early days making resin kits to today’s hugely detailed ready-to-run efforts. Craig and Steve were both working in overdrive to keep up with the stream of consciousness. Jason, editor Steve and Gareth. Our reward for travelling all the way to Devon for a one hour interview was a trip on the Beer Heights Light Railway. Jason wanted to travel in this car, for obvious reasons (you did know we’re making a model of the real locomotive that inspired Toby from Thomas the Tank Engine, right?). “Toby” and Jason. Knowing my preference for diesel and electric power, Peco laid on BHLR “diesel” locomotive Ben for our trip around the one mile light railway. I say diesel because I think it was more lawn mower engine powered (it’s actually powered by a 998cc Mini lump). In a strange co-incidence, this locomotive was named by Revolution Train’s Ben Ando in August 2015! All aboard at Much Natter! A great way to end the day. About to enter the tunnel under the car park. Craig is closest to the camera. The journey to our next hotel in Basingstoke was eventful. Full of confidence after our trip on tiny “white line” roads when we cut the corner from just south of Taunton to Beer, Google Maps sent us via a succession of roads that were little more than tarmacked farm tracks for the first third of our trip back. Eventually regaining the A roads around Yeovil we realised that we’d be able to enjoy the sight of Stonehenge from our car windows in half an hour or so. Time for some speed tourism! Stonehenge… at speed! Unfortunately this proved to be too much for the driver. Waaaauugghhhh!

Jason & Gareth’s Brilliant British Adventure: 4 A hard day’s work with Revolution Trains By Gareth Bayer After an enjoyable night’s rest at Castle Farm Guest House in the tiny village of Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire, it was time to look forward to the day ahead… The view from the guest house at Fotheringhay. The yellowish stone is local to the region and most of the buildings in the area are built from it. After the exertions of the previous 24 hours, trudging up and down hundreds of staircases at Rails of Sheffield and investigating its ever expanding collection of apartments, industrial units and other spaces, we were looking for an easier day for our promised very long meeting with Revolution Trains. After consulting with Ben Ando and Mike Hale of Revolution two options presented themselves: 1/ spend the day behind steam on the Nene Valley Railway and 2/ spend the day on the “real railway” behind English Electric Type 3 power (Class 37s) on the Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft routes. I was voted down so despite strong protests we met at Peterborough for a day’s meandering behind Southern Railway “Battle of Britain” Class 4-6-2 No. 34081 92 Squadron. RTV31, an experimental 1960s high speed hover train, at Railworld Peterborough. This is the sight that greets you at Peterborough, the rather sad collection of portable buildings and slowly rusting equipment that forms Railworld Peterborough. There are plenty of cool items though if you look closely though. We boarded the train of Mk.1 coaches and took a quick trip up and down the line. We hardly had a chance to start the meeting before it was decided to detrain at Ferry Meadows and investigate the eclectic selection of stock stored there. The Mk.3 sleeper garnered many “ooos” and “ahhs”. A popular choice with the Revolution guys as much as Rapido, sadly we weren’t able to check out the interior and compare with Canadian sleeper stock. (Speak for yourself - I've taken Mk3 sleepers loads of times, Nyah Nyah Nyah! -Jason) Well restored Mk.3 sleeper No. E 10731 at Ferry Meadows. Unfortunately our plans to make a full range of Mk.3 coaches, using the Prototype HST trailer cars as a springboard, came to nothing after another manufacturer beat us to it. That’s model railway manufacturing and we wish them well! Of slightly more interest to Jason was 1949-built switcher No. 801, one of five Alco S1 locomotives built at Schenectady, New York state, for South Wales steel plants in Port Talbot and Margam. This is one of two S1 switchers at the NVR and sister Alco No. 804 can just be glimpsed in the RTV31 picture above wearing psuedo Union Pacific livery. Alco S1 switcher No. 801 is being restored by the International Railway Preservation Society. The rest of the yard was full of former Travelling Post Office vehicles, Royal Mail vans, several imported European loading gauge coaches, and the Class 325 cab mock up! After a productive wander we returned to the station to await our train. Ben, Jason and Mike enjoying the pleasant surroundings at Ferry Meadows. Despite appearances lots of actual real hard work was done and Ben’s 3,000 word agenda was covered in full. No. 34081 arrived – covering us in soot for good measure. Give me a diesel any day of the week! The NVR’s finest in action. The compartment coaches were very welcome and allowed plenty of privacy to talk about sensitive matters of business, such as the scene below… “Where’s the Pendolino, Jason!!!” After updating Revolution with the progress of their 423 projects underway with us at the moment we alighted at Wansford for lunch. Jason found a friend. “Look, Isaac, it’s Thomas!” After lunch it was back on board for the final run from Wansford to Peterborough. As well as current projects we discussed lots of future ideas and even finalised the next two powered models we intend to work on. If you were in the third coach, second or fourth compartment, you probably have a very good idea about what we’ll be making for Revolution Trains over the next couple of years too! Not a bad place to have a meeting. After saying our goodbyes to Ben and Mike we were off to our second meeting of the day. We told you that we were working hard! The villages in Northamptonshire can be breathtakingly beautiful. Jason was more interested in the red phone box. Our second date was with Chris Leigh, editor emeritus of Model Rail magazine and formerly of the much-missed Model Railway Constructor. Chris has been involved in railway journalism since the 1960s and he is still a guiding hand at Model Rail. As well as his beloved Great Western Railway, Chris is a huge Canadian railroad fan and he regularly visits Rapido’s side of the Atlantic to enjoy travelling across the country on VIA Rail Canada. Many Canadian modellers also know his name well because he produced a small range of detailing parts for the North American market back in the pre-Rapido days when most manufacturers didn’t consider Canadian specific details on their ready-to-run models as cost effective. He’s also been a huge supporter of Rapido. Thanks, Chris! Chris’s house is full of model railways but the dual-Canadian/British roundy-roundy layout is the highlight. Here a very familiar looking HO scale railcar traverses the stunning trestle bridge – hint: It’s a Rapido RDC-1″ Chris treated us to dinner at the local pub, the Montagu Arms. Well, actually he treated me. Jason had to eat store-bought salad. I recommend the lasagne and garden veg. Very tasty. Chris and Jason pose in front of the Canadian poster in Chris’s layout room. Actually the whole house is a layout room, but who’s counting! Then it was back to Chris’s house for a chat. Chris lives in the former London & North Western Railway station at Barnwell. The trackbed itself has disappeared under the A605 but fortunately the building remains and it is great to see it still in railway use… well model railway use. Chris’s passion for railways and model railways is inspirational and we’d like to say a huge thanks to him for allowing us to look around.

Hi guys, Gareth is having posting issues so here is the latest instalment from him. -Jason Jason & Gareth’s Brilliant British Adventure: 3 Exploring Rails of Sheffield By Gareth Bayer Having spent two relaxing evenings at Epworth in the care of Lord Graham Wilson it was time to make the short hop to South Yorkshire to meet the team at Rails of Sheffield. We visited Rails earlier in the year to chat business and the fruits of this conversation are already starting to be seen. The biggest news to come of that was at the York Model Railway Exhibition in April with the announcement of the OO gauge NER/LNER Dynomometer Car project under the new Rails Limited brand. We’ve also joined forces with Rails of Sheffield to distribute our existing range of North American N and HO models in the UK as well as our new range of British OO gauge models. The first example of the latter will be the Birmingham City Transport Guy Arab IV bus announced last Sunday, but there is a good chance that we’ll be revealing something else at Warley 2017, with some bigger news in mid-2018. Our hosts for our day’s tomfoolery at Rails sprawling premises were Adam and Oliver Davies and we had a blast. While January’s trip was about laying the groundwork for our new relationship, this jolly was mostly just to say hello and record a new video to be released over the next couple of weeks. Adam and Oliver kindly gave us the run of the place and allowed us to film anywhere we liked. We love visiting Rails. At the front of the shop you have a traditional model railway shop with loads of racks and display cases full of locomotives, rolling stock, detail parts, scenic accessories, and almost anything you’ll need to complete a model railway. Out the back though is where Rails really amazes… The storage room immediately behind the storefront is understandable enough. However the rest of Rails is collection of former houses, flats, industrial units and, even, sheds, that have been pressed into use for storage. Much of it is brand new stock. As well as railways this includes Scalextrix and buses… lots of buses! Even the toilet is now used for storage. If you’re quick you can even buy Rapido’s new HO GMD-1 locomotive from Rails. This is the cool one with the stripes! These are new in and a basically out of stock already pretty much across North America. Buy him now! He’s a little loud but is cheap to keep happy, only requiring a new British bus book every couple of weeks. More stock… The packing room, where the lovely ladies ship out all your orders. We’ve been very impressed with their speedy service when they send us stuff to Canada. Did we mention we were making the OO gauge NER/LNER Dynomometer Car for Rails Limited? This is the first of what we hope will be an exciting range of exclusive models. Rails might even announce a second project with us later this year! Don’t hold us to that though. Do you remember Battlespace? This is part of a new archive of models that has just come into Rails’ possesion. Look out for some of these items on Rail’s eBay site over the next few months. 50 years ago this was Tri-ang’s best effort at serving the North American market. We are loathe to call that an F unit! Rapido has made accurate Canadian versions of all four of these models over the last ten years. Really, Canadian National green on that… thanks Rivarossi. After the tour of what seemed like hundreds of small rooms stuffed full of models, books and PC and photography/workstations it was time for lunch-supper (lupper) at a nearby vegetarian restaurant with Rails boss John Barber. They all heartily recommend the “rib eye” burger! Then it was off to a tiny village near Peterborough, for the next stage of our journey. We stayed at Castle Farm guesthouse in Fotheringhay. A very nice way to spend a couple of evenings. One more blog post to follow this one... Best regards, Gareth

After a very busy day on Sunday, Terry Wynne, Gareth and I decided to stop in Nottingham on the way to Epworth, Lincolnshire. As there are 12 different vegetarian restaurants in Nottingham, we were certain that finding a place for supper would be absolutely no problem at all. Little did we know that vegetarians in Nottingham don't eat out on Sundays. Every single one was either shut for the day, or - bizarrely - shut just before suppertime. Who closes a restaurant at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m.? Vegetarians in Nottingham, that's who. So we turned back and went to Sparkhill to the same curry place that we always go to. It was terrible. Next time, I'll go to a pub and ask for a salad. Completely knackered, we arrived in Epworth at 10 p.m. to a cosy B&B called Wesley Guest House. Upon learning that I liked whisky, the proprietor - a lovely man named Lord Graham Wilson (I wasn't sure if I should bow or pray to him) - poured us about 300 ml each of the finest Scotch he had. Gareth and I were now knackered and sloshed. Terry had a coffee, the clever #$%^@. Epworth is a lovely and surprisingly bustling English town: The next morning we were off to Sandtoft, throbbing headaches and all. Sandtoft is the real reason for us coming to the UK. In fact, it's probably the real reason we are making buses. I needed an excuse to write off a trolleybus driving experience as a "business expense," and so I decided we should start a line of British buses. If you've never been to The Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum, I can't recommend it highly enough. I discovered it soon after I became obsessed with classic British buses. One of the first books I picked up was The Colours of Yesterday's Trolleybuses, and it remains one of my favourite British bus books. I soon discovered that if you like trolleybuses, you have to visit Sandtoft. So I booked myself a treat - driving a trolleybus for the day! We first got an introduction to trolleybus technology and our bus for the day - Maidstone 72, a Sunbeam W4 built in 1947. Soon it was my turn. This seems to be how I regularly find myself these days - bum stuck out of a bus cab. Richard, my instructor, was very patient as I nearly toppled the bus over by going too fast around the first corner. Gareth was not so relaxed about it. When I was recovering from my harrowing first run, I sat in the top deck and noticed a very familiar shape on the side of the road... I'm telling you - I fly 5000 miles to the UK to go to a museum in the middle of nowhere, only to find a Canadian New Look bus. This is actually an Edmonton Transit trolleybus built around 1981 by Brown, Boveri and Company using a GM "New Look" bus body and chassis. It later ran in Toronto, where I rode it on the Annette 4 route. I look forward to seeing someone bash this out of our North American New Look, which has the exact same body. There were only two other drivers on the course, so we got to drive the bus a LOT. To be honest, I enjoyed "playing conductor" as much as I enjoyed driving. It was great fun to hang on the back as my co-driver barrelled around the curves. Also, I don't have an "inside voice" so calling out for people to "HOLD TIGHT PLEASE" comes very naturally. Unfortunately I sent one of the instructors to the hospital with a burst eardrum. It really is a wonderful place, with trolleybuses everywhere - such as the parked Bournemouth trolleybus I'm passing in this photo: If you want to drive a trolleybus, I advise you book as early as possible. By the time I booked back in January a lot of the dates were sold out. If you just want to visit, Sandtoft has their biggest event of the year in a couple of weeks. The annual Sandtoft Gathering is on Sunday 30 July. It's worth the trip to Lincolnshire... Today we went to Rails of Sheffield.... but Chris Leigh is sitting across from me so I'd better go. I'll tell all about the (extremely painful) visit to Rails in the next instalment. I say painful because I kept falling down the stairs. Best regards, Jason

Jason & Gareth’s Brilliant British Adventure: 1 Launching the first British Rapido bus By Gareth Bayer Our new bus in the form of JOJ 976 and MOF 9. Both numbers will be reproduced in 1:76.2 scale. We weren’t sure what to expect for our first British Bus Scan Party at the Transport Museum, Wythall. Past events at Locomotion Shildon to kick off the APT-E and Stirling Single had been very successful and there was always a little worry at the back of our mind that no-one would turn up. Jason was the first to arrive…. on the Friday! Insisting it was for an initial survey of the site, it was actually because he now prefers the company of buses to people. Spending the day surrounded by Wythall’s eclectic collection is Jason’s idea of bliss and the excellent Transport Museum, Wythall, has become a regular stop on past trips to the UK. Just a tiny selection of the other classic buses that can be found at Wythall. A great day out! I made my way over on the Sunday morning after the long trek from Toronto, loaded down with samples of our models, via a quick visit to my parents in East Anglia. Other than the British bus launch we had two big aims for our day at Wythall: 1/ to complete a 3D scan of the bus and 2/ to introduce Rapido to a new segment of the market and show people what we do. As well as being our first British bus, this would also be our first British model under our own name which upped the stakes considerably. Rapido General Motors “New Look” to the left and the Birmingham City Transport “New Look” in the centre. Our chosen bus, the Gardner-6LW powered Birmingham City Transport (BCT) Guy Arab IV with a Metro Cammell Weymann (MCW)-built body, is considered a classic by bus fans but for most of us (including me) it needs a little introduction. Some 200 examples of this particular Birmingham bus were delivered between 1952-4. The design was considered quite innovative when the first iteration was launched in 1950 and many hundreds of similar buses were built by other chassis and coach builder combinations. The concealed radiators were widely adopted by other bus operators all over the UK and their modern appearance led to the nickname “New Look” after Christian Dior’s famed dress designs of the 1940s. This is not to be confused with our HO scale model of the equally classic GM “New Look” bus. The Rapido HO scale General Motors “New Look” or “Fishbowl” bus. Two examples of the BCT “New Look” were on display, JOJ 976 and MOF 9. Now, normally, when a manufacturer picks a new model they are looking for the perfect project that meets a number of different criteria. I’ve just decided to call these the five “L”s, for longevity, lots of liveries, lots of locations (geographical spread), a lack of other models (or the quality of existing models) and the prototype’s appearance on lots of (wish)lists. Our first North American model bus, the aforementioned GM “New Look”, fits all of these criteria perfectly. They were ubiquitous in the US and Canada, they lasted for ever, existing models are terrible, and so on. The Birmingham “New Look” on the other hand doesn’t hit many of these targets. Erm, ok, the closest it gets is that it isn’t exactly popular in model form. However, we do have a cunning plan… Jason explains how we turn 3D scan data into a model bus. It can take up to three months for a vehicle of this complexity. The British bus market is amazingly well served by various manufacturers …as long as you like die-cast. Die-cast buses make wonderful collectors items but to our eyes, smaller scale die-cast often looks out of place on most model railways where they can now expect to be surrounded by modern high quality plastic injected-moulded model railway products. This is especially the case for older vehicles as it is extremely difficult to represent rivets using die-cast. Rather than launch in the UK with something obvious like a Routemaster which potential customers would likely tune out amongst all the other Routemaster models, Jason’s big idea was to reveal something unexpected, that might actually be rise above the normal internet noise level. A subject that might provoke discussion. That Jason used to live in Birmingham and had fallen in love with the Brummie “New Look” was, of course, secondary. That somehow over 75% of past North American Rapido products have prototypically run on the Kingston Subdivision in Southern Ontario circa 1980, the exact same route that Jason just happens to be modelling, is also, of course, entirely secondary. Forward… to a high quality 1:76.2 scale model! Back to the launch. Some effort had gone on behind the scenes at Rapido HQ in the months leading up to the event to try and and reach out to a wider audience than just railway modellers. As well as cultivating links with publications like Buses magazine we also managed to have some limited success with local media. For once we felt we had done all we could in advance. Gareth and Terry welcome the first visitors to the event. The third member of the Rapido team at Wythall was Terry Wynne. Terry has been a good friend to the company from the start and if you’re based in the UK and purchased a North American model direct from us then Terry probably posted it to you. He’s been a regular presence on our exhibition stands, which was his main job today. So while Terry was ably looking after the displays inside, Jason talked buses with visitors while I took photos and measurements. Never happier than when talking about buses. Despite Rapido’s Canadian roots we had quite the varied collection of new and recent models to show off. North America was well represented, but we were especially please that British prototypes now took up around 50% of the table space, with production models of the APT-E, ScotRail Saltire Class 156, and Revolution N TEAs. We also had new samples of the Class 92, OO TEA and N gauge KFA, all of which have arrived in the last two-five weeks. Also new was a production sample of our Pennsylvania Railroad Alco FA-2 locomotive. The latter is so hot off the press that this is its first appearance outside the Rapido office. Nick Godfrey of Central Scanning explains the day’s scanning action. The scanning begins… A complete survey was also made of the interior of the bus. Loving that moquette (lower deck only, workers upstairs please). We hadn’t even had a chance to get all of these models out of their packaging when the first enthusiasts turned up eager to chat buses and find out more about our chosen BCT bus. This was still one hour before doors open. We considered this an encouraging sign. JOJ 976 being moved ready for its “lift”. Many stayed to watch while others enjoyed a romp around the area in MOF 9. By the time the 3D scan of JOJ 976 started at 12 noon, Wythall was buzzing with over 50 people through the door. Not bad we thought. By the time we had the bus up on jacks ready to scan the underside of the bus we reckoned between 120-150 people had passed through the gate. Kevin Hill’s sister “New Look” MOF 9 was busy all afternoon offering bus rides around the local area. Gareth and Nick discuss the early 3D data. 3D scanning technology is becoming more common in the hobby in the UK, especially for older vehicles that pre-date computer aided design. Finding complete drawings of older equipment can often be impossible. Our chosen scanning company, the very nice chaps at Central Scanning of Birmingham, had already made one site visit last week to make a preliminary scan of the body. Their main task on the Sunday was to complete the job with a full scan of the underside (we’re not happy unless our models look just as good flipped on their roof in a ditch). Scanning the underside of a vehicle is a rare luxury. Scanning the underside involved lifting the bus six feet up in the air courtesy of Wythall’s recently acquired Somers column-style vehicle jacks. Unlike a railway vehicle or a car these actually lift the bus up from under the wheels – a little worrying at first but very safe. As well as the scan we took lots of pictures and video for the designer back at Rapido HQ. The exhaust bone is connected to the silencer bone… As much of this as possible will be on our model! As well as JOJ 976 and MOF 9, Daimler CVD6-chassied Met-Camm “New Look” JOJ 707 was also on display. The similarities were obvious – as you’d expect from two contemporary buses with bodywork from the same coachbuilder – although the differences were equally striking. Spot the difference! Daimler CVD6 vs Guy Arab IV, both with Met-Camm coach work. Feedback from visitors was overwhelmingly positive, and we even took a decent number of pre-orders on the day. It seems that quite a few bus fans have been looking enviously at the high standard of model railway products now available and wondered why bus models had not seen a similar leap in quality. We were bombarded with ideas for new buses and we really appreciate the good wishes that people passed to us. A bus full of happy bus fans returns from a trip on MOF 9. We’d even been anxious beforehand about aggressive prodding from passionate Midland Red followers, but all the BMMO fans were super nice people who couldn’t wait for us to get on and make a D7 (a contemporary of the BCT “New Look” – also with a Met-Camm body – and apparently BMMO’s first “lightweight” double-decker). What might be considered BMMO’s answer to the BCT “New Look”, the D7. The last visitors left shortly after 4pm, giving us the chance to take a breather and reflect on a fun day. The weather even took a turn for the better in the afternoon following a showery start to the event. Our initial concerns were unfounded and Jason, Terry and me all reported great enthusiasm and excitement for Rapido’s latest venture into the unknown! What do you think Jason is trying to explain in this photograph? One final word for the incredibly friendly staff at the Transport Museum, Wythall. They made us feel very welcome considering we took over their site for the day and they have been super helpful in assisting us in the development of our new British bus. We can’t thank them enough. Thanks guys!