rapidotrains

Interesting, guys. Thanks for the explanations. I am once again reminded how different our railway industries are, and it explains the "root for the underdog" mentality I often see in regard to railfreight in the UK. It's hard to sympathize, given how the freight industry here has done all it can to push out passenger services and the governments generally sit back and let them. The Canadian - our flagship train - has been regularly arriving 10 hours late into Toronto because of freight traffic on the eastern 1200 miles of its journey and the fact that there are NO penalties to CN for delaying VIA trains. Finally VIA threw up its hands and said they can't operate like this. So our transcontinental passenger train is now only serving western Canada. To give you an idea of how much freight is handled here, you can sit beside the tracks at my local station and watch a mile-long freight pass by at least once an hour, usually with double-stack containers, oil or grain. All day and night. Every day and night. -Jason

What determines that maximum length? We've had to deal with the headaches of 15,000-foot trains clogging up the mainline. At least they are a bit shorter these days but that means there are more of them! -Jason

I've just finished the latest Rail magazine (that I've received, which was published almost a month ago!). I'm amazed at how unprofitable freight is in the UK, though of course I understand the reasons for it. How long can freight trains reasonably be in the UK? What is stopping the freight operators from hauling a 1km-long freight train with two or three Class 66s on the front? Most Class 1 (i.e. large) North American freight railways are approaching (or past) 60% operating ratio, which means that for every dollar of revenue, 40 cents is gross profit. And they have to maintain all of their own tracks and infrastructure whereas the UK freight railways just pay track access charges. -Jason

And here's the video of it running with its own coaches... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkKsgwEHjQ -Jason

Not bad if you like candy canes. Actually I like simple, highly-noticeable designs and this one may win on that front. It's clear they are trying to distinguish themselves from the West Coast branding. I will give it this - the new design is far superior to the old Virgin Mk2 and Mk3 livery. -Jason

Hi guys, We've been ridiculously busy with our North American product launch so we haven't had the chance to update the Rapido Pendolino page. We will have it updated by the 10th or thereabouts. Because of the delay which is entirely our fault, we will be holding at the Kickstarter prices until the end of February for people outside Europe. The old price outside Europe is still more expensive than the new price inside Europe as Rapido doesn't include taxes in our prices. So if you are in the UK or Europe you won't save any money by buying from Rapido and having it sent to you via your aunt in Ottawa. The shipping and VAT will increase your costs dramatically. You're still better off ordering from Mike and Ben in the UK, even at the new prices. If you are outside of Europe you will really want to order by the end of February as the higher price is, well, even higher! Best regards, Jason

When I get to the structures stage of my Kingston Sub layout, I plan to do most of them on a laser printer. And once you're doing one.... So yes, we will eventually sell the turntable. And the roundhouse, to boot! -Jason

The paint job on their model is almost as crooked as the paint job on our first sample! -Jason

We haven't finalized that yet, but I think to be fair we will probably have to. We'll update our web site in the coming days. Right now Bill is swamped with preparation for the Springfield show - the North American Warley. -Jason

Well done everyone! That was an AMAZING achievement! Now we're going to see lots of Kickstarter attempts, but I doubt any will be as successful. OK - who is with me in supporting a new fleet of APT-P train sets in 1:1 scale? We'll put it on Kickstarter and we only need to raise £210,000,000! Seriously well done. -Jason

Hi guys, If you could help with the final push, we'd all appreciate it. Here are three ads which you can post on your Facebook feeds, Twitter, Pinterest, forums, etc. Please feel free to use them at will! Note that the forum software shows a low-res preview. Click on the image for the full-res version. All ads should link directly to the Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/840142652/pendolino-uk-n-gauge Thanks, Jason

Agree with the congratulations deserved to Ben and Mike. They have done an amazing job. Thanks for the kind words about Rapido. We do make a small profit at the Kickstarter pricing or we wouldn't have offered to do it in the first place! :-) But we see this as an excellent opportunity to get into the UK N gauge market, so we did not get on board expecting a windfall. It's also an opportunity to keep the factory busy. They are interested in growing, but I can only give them so much business. They have capacity and they are actively looking for new clients. (That's a subtle shout out to UK manufacturers reading this who need a second supplier in China - give me a shout.) -Jason

Unfortunately each Pendolino will not come with a working Transporter.... -Jason

For my seventh birthday, my parents took that postcard and had it blown up to 30" wide and framed. I still have it... -Jason

*ahem* designed by both of us. You did the bulk of it. I just cleaned it up. OK everyone - go order six more trains. -Jason

Actually MRC/Gaugemaster produces a Tech 6 DC controller which will operate the sounds on DC. It also gets much better motor performance out of sound decoders than regular DC controllers. It is worth the investment if you are running DC and sound. -Jason

For those of you who have not been following the other thread, the whole UK adventure of Rapido Bill and Rapido Jason is now online in one spot: http://www.rapidotrains.com/blog/2014/11/26/1159/ Thanks for reading! -Jason

Thanks and you're welcome! I was about to comment that nowhere in the UK is too far from Warley until I noticed you are in Korea. OK - you win! It was great to meet so many of you at the show. Bill will be at York and I'm sorry I will miss it! But I will be back at Warley next year. Between now and then we'll be busy doing all sorts of 3D scans, most of which you guys will find about only afterwards. Sorry! (I'm Canadian - I apologize a lot. Sorry about that.) But talks are already under way about the possibility of another 3D Scan Railway Party somewhere in the UK for 2015. I will keep you well teased about that.... Best regards, Jason

It was great meeting so many of you! These are indeed very rough first castings. Our biggest concern is that UK modellers are used to seeing unpainted test samples that they might think this is "final" when they see it in the magazines or online. The stripes were painted using masking tape and are not remotely straight! So please remember these are first test shots. All that being said, Bill and I are delighted with how these turned out and now we're going to concentrate on finishing the tooling in time for the York show. -Jason

The samples arrived in Birmingham this morning. Remember - these are first engineering samples. They still look amazing, though! We will indeed have them on display. -Jason

You can view the Rapido newsletter that includes the Pendolino here: http://rapidotrains.com/rapidonewsuk01.html -Jason

Ben's summed it up nicely. The Kickstarter campaign needs sales of 800 trains. Say the sales reach only 700 trains - then I know we can try it as a regular release. But if the sales are only 200 trains, then we wouldn't touch the project with a 25kV cantilever mast.... And remember - a regular release Pendolino would be much more expensive. There's your argument for the Kickstarter campaign right there. So my advice: if you want this train, buy it through Kickstarter. -Jason

It is indeed - that's because Ben and Mike are not in this to make a profit and they don't have the usual model railway manufacturing overhead costs. If the Kickstarter campaign doesn't get enough pledges, Rapido will likely bring this out as a general release, but it would be at least 25% more expensive than what Ben and Mike are offering it for. Fewer people will be able to afford the full 9-car or 11-car train. That's because if it goes out as a general product, our distributors and the model shops will all have to make money on it (and quite rightly, too!). Ben and Mike have basically gone straight to the manufacturer to avoid those extra margins and ensure the model is made as affordably as possible for N gauge enthusiasts. Best regards, Jason

Hi guys, The minimum for sound is one. So don't worry - if you order sound and the project goes ahead, you will get sound. And I've been very impressed by Legomanbiffo's Voyager sounds so if he and I can come to an arrangement to use his Pendolino sounds, I'm sure it would be awesome. -Jason

First test shot photos over on this thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/91652-apt-e-mould-progress/&do=findComment&comment=1652332 -Jason