rapidotrains

Wheels! Wipers! Noses! Love the noses. Dan's still there. He's staying an extra few days. I don't think he's done Karaoke Television (KTV) yet. He doesn't know what he's missing... -Jason

Here are some factory photos. 1. Drilling holes in the PC body shells to install door handles. This dude's been studying algebra since 1987. I love seeing English writing on Chinese clothes. 2. Lots of windows! We decided to leave off the tint as it obscured the interior detail, which is really where this model shines. This is easily remedied with an aerosol if you are determined not to see the interior. 3. Lots of joint modules! 4. Testing the new circuit boards that just arrived at the factory. Love the "ATP" circuit board. Things are progressing well for the first 500 to leave by the end of the month. As of now, it looks like we'll have another few hundred leave the factory in February and the last batch leave the factory on March 10th. Dan got a foot massage last night. He deserved it! -Jason

Hi All, Dan has been at the factory for a week now. Last week he and Colin, our manager of Chinese operations, did some drop tests. The first was the easy one. Have a look: After the second one, where they threw the box off the balcony, it was decided to strengthen the PVC blister. In the revised packaging, the APT-E survived both tests with nothing coming loose. That means: if your APT-E arrives in the post with the nose or some other parts loose in the box, the treatment it received at the hands of the courier/parcel company delivering it was WORSE than throwing it down a flight of stairs or off a 15-foot-high balcony. Note in the photos above that the packaging is completely undamaged after being thrown down the stairs. We've recently received a couple of emails along the lines of: "My F40 had the horn broken off but the box was undamaged, so it must have happened in the factory." No. It didn't happen in the factory. The box is just much stronger than the fragile plastic model inside it. UPS dropped your F40 20-feet from a conveyor and then threw it into a bin and then threw it into a truck and then threw it onto the floor in your hobby shop, who repackaged it and sent it out again to receive the same treatment a second time! I'll post more photos from the factory shortly. -Jason

Well the first 500 are on schedule to leave the factory by air at the end of this month. So if you are in the first 500, it's a few weeks. The rest are leaving China by air early next month, so for those it's a few weeks and a bit. -Jason

Shhhh! You're not supposed to tell them that! You're off the script, Kit. Remember: the APT-E went from Penzance to Wick on a demonstration tour in, er, 1974 ish. It visited every single mainline and branchline in existence on the way, including all Greater London suburban services and the Ffestiniog. And it travelled back in time to visit each GWR/Western Region branchline terminus (including the fictional ones) several times between 1930 and 1965. OK - now we're sorted. -Jason

It's to let in the creepy crawlies attracted by the rotting sandwich. -Jason

If we told you, we'd have to lock you in a cupboard for seven years. Let's just say we're making a "bunch." -Jason

Hi all, Here are the latest photos from the factory. Underbodies painted and printed: Boy, you Brits need a lot of logos on your models. We just have to put "CHINA" on models for the North American market. Thankfully, North America is not part of the EU. We're happy to be a bunch of yahoo ex-colonies. It's a good thing Bill thought of these logos a couple of weeks ago. "Hey, Locomotion - what are the funny doodles you need us to put on the models?" My, what a lot of bogie bits! Why settle for one computer bank when you can have hundreds? Production is coming along nicely. We anticipate the first 500 trains arriving in Shildon in early February, with the remaining trains and extra carriages arriving in late February. -Jason

"They" say we now have the round speakers in stock. We didn't before so we included our usual speaker, which is the oblong one. We can get you a round one. If you can get the oblong one to fit, the sound is much better quality. I've never tried fitting one... -Jason

41001 will definitely be available on its own. As for the others, we haven't finalized that yet. -Jason

I am seeing an opportunity for an after-market supplier. Customers can order their very own Rapido de-powering kit for £19.95. It comprises two screwdrivers and a pair of wire nippers!

Hi all, Bill and I are actually meeting with the NRM tomorrow to discuss our options for the HSDT. I would like to be able to offer the coaches as well, but it has to make economic sense for us to do it. My guess is it will be some months before the official announcement with product numbers and pricing, but I may be wrong... One thing though. We don't make dummies. While I normally say "never say never," I am pretty sure we will never produce a dummy locomotive again. We did it once - what a mistake. They cost us exactly $6 less than a powered locomotive. That's the cost of the motor. All other costs are the same. So all of our Class 41s will be powered. Sorry if that hurts your bank balance! -Jason

It was great meeting everyone! We had an amazing time. I'll post more in the "Excellent Adventure" thread, hopefully by Wednesday. We're zonked! -Jason

We're having an enjoyable time in New Hampshire, recording the sounds on the real thing. But honestly... this thing sounds exactly like a Voyager. I'm not kidding. -Jason (We also got to run Jim Abbott's 1:8 scale layout. Now that was fun!)

If this was a straight Rapido product, there would be no problem. But the APT-E is for Locomotion and consequently we're not carrying any stock. So your best bet is to speak with Sandra at Locomotion and let her know you would like to buy the interiors of any trailer cars that come back for warranty purposes. Best regards, Jason

We've modified it. The original rivet placement was physically impossible to do in 4mm scale. But there are still about 40,000 rivets on the trailer car. If that isn't enough for some guys, they should cancel their orders.... -Jason

Or you can wait and someone will eventually produce accurate 2200s. Don't know who that could be.

The factory reports that the APT-Es should all leave China by the end of January, unless there is an unforeseen delay. Bill was just in China and will give a detailed report of his visit, which was mostly concerning the APT-E. The rivets look incredible. We're using a new method for doing rivets which is far finer and far more reliable than any other method we've used, and it shows. And no, I'm not telling you how it's done! -Jason

Hi guys, Thanks for the support. It is a monumental undertaking, but as I said in the newsletter we pulled off The Canadian with far fewer resources so we should be able to achieve this one. The response we've had proved what we at Rapido had already figured out a long time ago. The online North American forums are heavily skewed towards modern modelling, but truthfully there are many more transition era modellers out there than you would guess by reading the forums. As one fellow said on the CanModelTrains forum, our VIA models have increased the number of people modelling VIA, so hopefully these models will increase the number of people modelling steam. And if the availability of (more) affordable and accurate Canadian steam models increases the number of people actually taking the plunge in our hobby, we'll all be better for it. -Jason

Thanks, David. That's really appreciated. We do indeed have some very talented people on staff. We've also had help from some Pendo experts who prefer to remain nameless. Without them, we could not get this done with anything approaching this level of accuracy. -Jason

The entire train is about 46" long. I suggest you make a 4' long cassette and shove EPDM foam around the four sides. It will fit in almost any car, even if you don't have a back seat! -Jason

This is a common misconception. The APT-E is very, very small even by UK standards. If you put it on the track in Canada it would look like a toy train beside the 22-foot-tall container trains. Don't worry - the model is indeed OO. -Jason

Hi guys, Here's a quick update as to where things are at. Sorry I haven't been participating much on the forums lately. I've been swamped at the office - we've finally hired a new warehouse and admin guy but it will be some time before he is fully up to speed. The APT-E has certainly been a challenge! People don't realize how complex it is due to its streamlined appearance, but getting it to tilt while going around #2 radius curves required some ingenious engineering. I'm glad that our engineers are up to the task, as I would never have been able to come up with their solutions! Right now we are finalizing the plugs that go between cars to ensure electrical reliability and to have power to both motors, speakers, and all of the lighting. We had originally designed a magnetic plug in the same style as Apple's Magsafe adapters, but we have too many wires in there so the magnetic surface wasn't large enough for reliable coupling. We're using micro mechanical plugs and we will shortly be doing some endurance testing to make sure that they will survive repeated coupling and uncoupling. For your sanity and for the longevity of your train, I highly recommend that you build a casette that takes the entire train. Leave it permanently coupled and just put it in the back seat of your car to take to shows or the club. We've reduced the "fiddle factor" of separating the cars but there is no way to reduce the fiddle factor for reconnecting all of those plugs. It will take you a good half hour to set up, at least. The factory is currently designing all of the circuit boards for the interior - there are several! That includes all the blinking lights, even though, as Kit says, the real lights didn't blink all that often! I'm thinking along the line of some master villain's computer room in Doctor Who, such as the BOSS in The Green Death (1973). If only we could get the tape spools to rotate..... The final step before production begins is to burn the rivets onto the moulds. This will be done last, after we are 100% certain there are no final adjustments to be made. It only takes a couple of days. But making changes after the rivets are in place is virtually impossible. We are still on track for delivery before the end of this year. Below is our revised coupling system. I'm sure it's quite clever, though looking at it I still have no clue how it works. But it definitely does - the factory sent us video and photos of it running around the test track. It will all be injected in black plastic to hide it when the train goes around curves. Bill thinks we should add some sort of baffle to prevent seeing through the gap between the joint module and the car ends but the real train didn't have that. What do you guys think? Best regards, Jason

Hi all, I will weigh in with one comment. Rapido's - and Locomotion's - sales target was reached before the deadline. And no, I'm not telling you what that was! Speculation over. I can't speak for Locomotion, but for our own products we always accept late orders that come in a day or two after the deadline. Often people forget and only realize a day or two later that they meant to order and got distracted, were out of town, internet wasn't working, etc. We aren't computers. We're people. And that means we're flexible. Heck, if someone came to me a week after the deadline and said "I forgot to order and I want 200 of them" I will gladly tell the factory to order more materials and make the models for that guy. I'm not going to turn away a large order because the deadline that I made up has passed.... :-) If it's a month after the deadline, then generally we can't even fill a 200-strong order. Because all of the materials for production have been delivered to the factory and we'd need a 1000-strong new order to make more. That doesn't usually happen.... Regarding the APT-E, I recommended to Locomotion that they allow a couple of days' grace period, but I never heard back as to whether they were going to or not. I guess they decided to follow my advice. Best regards, Jason

Hi guys, Bill uploaded a video showing off some of the APT-E sounds: https://youtu.be/34XNk9tCpE8 The deadline is less than two weeks away! Please make sure you order yours before the deadline: http://www.locomotionmodels.com/apt-e.htm/ Thanks, Jason