rapidotrains

Our plan is to wind down the UK web site and just have one Rapido site. We're slowly working on that. -Jason

We're trying very hard to have them finished before Chinese New Year in January. -Jason

We need more photos in this thread!!! In addition to getting these from Rails, the Wythall Transport Museum will be selling the buses at our booth at Warley. So if you are coming to the show, your purchases will support the museum. Look for the real Brummie New Look in the exhibition hall. We are very appreciative of Rails for stepping in to distribute the buses. Hopefully they sell out quickly and we can do another run. More information in the newsletter: https://conta.cc/36iXsEJhttps://conta.cc/36iXsEJ Best regards, Jason

Thanks! The stuff they are doing now doesn't photograph well as it mostly takes place at outside vendors. I will ask the factory to send photos once they have something to show. -Jason

Hi all, The latest Rapido News - the first in a really, really long time - has been sent to subscribers. Bill gives an update and confirms that we do indeed still exist! You can read it here: https://conta.cc/36iXsEJ Thanks for reading! -Jason

I've seen them and they are HUGELY helpful. Thank you for sharing these and thank you James for leading me to Tony's bridge. -Jason

Our pleasure! It was fun having the Fleetline in the hall, and it was a convenient place for us to have meetings. The designs are not finished yet, but we will be doing several fronts - early indicators, later indicators, and later indicators with no vents. We also intend to do other buses using the chassis and interior of the Fleetline but with new bodies. It will be a while before these come out. The buses don't actually make us much money - I am doing them because I love them. So we squeeze them in between other production runs. We want to get the Guys out before we properly announce the Fleetlines with all details and samples. -Jason

Hi all, Bill, Gareth and I are all in the UK, but we're all in different cities! I think Gareth is in a swamp near Norfolk, Bill is still standing at the station at Bridgnorth wondering why no train has showed up all day, and I am in a very tiny hotel room at Heathrow. I can go from the bed to the desk to the bathroom without touching the carpet. Bill and Gareth (and Terry and some more friends) will be at the Rapido stand all weekend. I will be in the stand occasionally on Sunday, in between various meetings. We've got a really tall stand this year so you should be able to find us. I hope to see some of you there! Best regards, Jason

I've been enjoying reading this topic and sorry I am late to the table with my input. A couple of thoughts. First, to Ben's comment and a couple of other posts which mentioned our Prime Movers line. We actually upset a lot of people with that. While we have brought on some new customers with our HO scale CN/BCR Dash 8 locomotive, in the end it was not worth it. We've basically poisoned the market for anyone - including ourselves - to bring out a super detailed Dash 8. Because we sold so many of them, it would seriously affect the viability of a Rapido-level Dash 8. That means that the only model on the market is the entry level one. Now don't get me wrong - a lot of people are REALLY happy with the model. But we're not. We actually tooled the Dash 8 as the start of a planned train set which was going to retail in the $300-$400 range. But then we found that the unit cost was going to be higher than we budgeted and that track was prohibitively expensive and subject to huge production delays. So we decided to abandon the idea. But by then the moulds were made and the model was stuck as an entry-level model. And the Prime Movers line is officially abandoned. We won't do it again. In fact, our N scale Dash 8, just announced, is more detailed than our HO model. Secondly, I've mentioned before that my approach to manufacturing models is that I want to recreate memories in miniature. And my primary childhood memories of passenger cars are standing at trackside as the train pulled up - thus getting a very close-up view of the underbody appliances - and of riding on board the trains. Making the underframes and interiors as detailed as possible is a way for me to recreate those memories. Honestly, if I could make the AC condenser and compressor under the car really work, I would. It would add to that recreation of memory. We're actually looking at adding moving bits to some North American passenger equipment - beyond the wheels and trucks, of course. If we can pull that off (it's giving us headaches right now), there will be people who say "what a waste of time and money - I don't need that at ALL" and there will be others who say "I have been waiting for that forever - thank you!" There is nothing wrong with either point of view as long as it is respectfully shared, as they have been in this topic. On Facebook there are clearly some people who have a personal hate-on for me. I'm not sure what I did, but they make it personal. There's nothing I can do about those guys except ignore them and engage with the people who can respectfully share differences of opinion. -Jason

Speaking of burned-out cars, we passed a weird thing around Aston. There was a row of seemingly new houses surrounded by a fence and obviously unoccupied. Within the fence was a burned out caravan. Anyone know what that was about? -Jason

Here are the photos I took in a back garden in Betchworth...

I wouldn't shut up about VIA Rail Canada so they kicked me off the plane...

Air Canada knows how much I love the UK, so they have decided to keep me here. Here's the view out the door just to my left. I am stuck on the tarmac at Heathrow. The one cool thing is that this is what is outside my window, on the right: My wife flies from Toronto to Winnipeg tomorrow at noon. I hope I land before she takes off..... -Jason

When I got off the M25 at junction 9 to get to some place called Betchworth, the roads soon became very narrow and country-lane-ish. So I got a feeling for what it must have been like before. -Jason

I asked a lady about my flight and she said it was "boarding soon." So I headed to the loo. And then I hear "last call for Air Canada flight to Toronto." So I ran like mad and was the last person on the plane. And now we've been delayed so we're still sitting here. Hurry up and wait. The story of a railroader's life. -Jason