rapidoandy

What is Rapido RailEx? We’re putting on a show! Over 2 days in September we are taking over the Market Hall in Maidstone with an exhibition of high-quality model railways. This is also a chance for you to come and meet the Rapido Trains UK team in person to discuss projects past, present and future, see new samples as well as getting the scoop on some new and exciting announcements we will be making! In addition to this, we’ll have trade stands for you to invest in your model railway including the chance to get 3D-scanned by Modelu for your own personalised 3D-printed figures, grab some rolling stock from some of our Official Retailers, beautify your layout with products from some of our partners and much more. A number of layouts are being confirmed as we speak but include Wendover (MET/LNER Joint) Hobbs Hill (BR(S) and Brewhouse Quay with trade support from MODELU, The Wagon Yard and Tony's Trains of Rugby with many more to follow. Keep an eye on the website over the coming weeks. Customised Rapido Wagons – An Exhibition First! You will have the chance to order your own uniquely decorated Private Owner wagon at the show! Simply fill in the form at our stand when you place your order and our graphic artists will draw up the artwork for you to approve on the day. Then your 7- or 5-plank PO wagon will be UV-printed with your chosen lettering and posted directly to you. All our PO wagon designs will be made using templates created from our painstaking research into real-life signwriting to create the most authentic look. Tickets Tickets for RAPIDO RAILEX are just £5 per adult. Kids are FREE when accompanied by a paying adult. Each ticket covers 1 day of attendance at the show, you are free to come and go during the day. ADVANCE TICKETS: If you book your ticket now (via the website links below), then you are automatically entered into a prize draw to win Rapido Trains UK goodies! You’ll find out if you’re the holder of the winning ticket when you arrive at the show. Find out more at www.rapidotrains.co.uk/rapido-railex/

Hi James. I dont have the source here but believe Gamma was delivered in blue lined black and yelllow - but with the Colmans bull on the nose. We have used this as the basis of 965002 both physically and the livery.

I’d be interested to see where that is recorded. It’s at odds with what we understood for Gamma.

Don’t give him ideas…

I reckon a O1 would like rather pretty shuffling those about 😉

We have no ‘standard’ pickup method (these things that modellers believe are often a fallacy) we look at things on a case by case method depending on a large number of factors. Always remember the golden rule of the internet - a far greater percentage of negativity will be posted rather than positivity. Whilst there will always be problems that we will help resolve - it’s not as dire as many people posting in threads will have you believe. Now if only all of that negative energy could be harnessed….or even some of those people who post it persuaded to work for a manufacturer - with their expertise there would never be a model with a fault or even the slightest blemish - that’s really easy right?

I have already spoken to someone else in the society but I will drop you an email. Andy

Sadly some societies are much more forthcoming than others. There are at least two I have tried to deal with whom were obviously uninterested or wanted to look down their noses at us as I didn’t know the secret handshake or the exact mix of paint that Stratford works used in 1911 so this I must be not worthy of their attention. Sad - and likely to mean we won’t look at things made by the company they obviously so adore. Interestingly we have found help outside of the ‘official’ channels with other excepted. Other specific groups and experts have bent over backwards and cannot be more helpful. So much so that when they have suggested new products and put packages and research materials together to show their idea we have taken it forward and you now all have their stuff on your layouts. Its not easy being a manufacturer…

We have announced an American prototype..

It’s a tampo print that has been applied over the top of the red base colour. Andy

We would love to have seen a photo that shows the carriage did not carry it. Sadly photos of the coaches in crimson are few and far between. We did ask for help from the Society but sadly we received very little. If they had told us this we would have taken it on board. Either way it would certainly have looked odd with only one coach with a crest - and probably led to more complaints for getting it wrong. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Andy

The Bluebell have named several locos - Bluebell and Primrose. Nettle was also used but i'm not sure if it ever got applied to a loco. As a result we thought we would continue the theme with Bramble...

I can confirm that it was simply a jokey Christmas greeting - Ernie is well known in our building and many of our followers and visitors also recognise him.

All this talk of announcements is a bit much…

According to the experts not all carriages received the lining in carriage brown livery. I think we came to the conclusion that after stuffing the photographic evidence available neither vehicle ever received lining. Possibly done deliberately to match the tram body? Andy

I'm sorry that you are still having problems. I have just looked into this and found the paperwork here. We removed your decoder and tested it with one of our own ESU sound decoders and it ran perfectly well on the test track. Likewise with a blanking plate it also ran well which lead us to the conclusion that the decoder was at fault. We know some decoders are better than others - can you remind me your decoder type as that is not referenced on the paperwork ( I have asked for this to be logged from now on). The full limit of travel is not needed on the recommended radius of curves so the pickups are unlikely to all come away from the wheels unless it is being operated over very tight corners. Again testing on our R2 test track showed not problems. Please do fill in the warranty form - we will happily take another look and check the pickups as required. Many thanks and Merry Christmas. Andy

Pretty much - although the Titfield livery did happen of course.

Well you didn't have too long to wait.... I'm pleased to say these are now available to pre-order with and RRP of £144.95 (DC) and £249.95 (DCC Sound). Happy modelling!

Rapido Trains UK is proud to announce brand-new N Gauge Iron Minks and Not-Quite-Minks. Our range of Iron Minks was an absolute blast in OO and loads of you have asked us to shrink them down to N Gauge. We have been mulling it over, and we think that now is a good time to follow up on the popularity of the recently released Not-Quite-minks, and iron out the designs for our N Gauge fans. The Great Western Railway’s V6 ‘Iron Mink’ is one of the most recognisable designs that came out of the Swindon wagon drawing office. What made these wagons so recognisable was the fact that they shunned traditional wooden construction and were made from metal instead. Shortages of timber forced the GWR to investigate building vans from metal but it wasn’t until 1888 that what could be called the ‘Standard Iron Mink’ appeared. This boasted a 16ft 6in underframe and a capacity of 8 tons. Over 4,000 were built up to 1901 when the GWR reverted to wood bodies. With war looming, the ‘Iron Mink’s’ metal construction made it an ideal gunpowder van. Wooden doors were replaced with thick metal ones and the end ventilators were covered with a plain panel. After the First World War, these ‘Iron Minks’ were converted back to goods traffic. The ‘Iron Minks’ were long lived with examples surviving through until British Railways days in revenue and Departmental service. They could be found all over the UK railway network and some were recorded as far north as Inverness. Though the GWR pioneered the ‘Iron Mink’, the basic design was adopted by not only private wagon builders but other railway companies. Other railways and builders would use what was essentially the ‘Iron Mink’ body but use underframes and fittings to their own design. Whilst not quite right we thought we would offer ready-to-run ‘Not-Quite-Minks’ that represent railway companies and private owner organisations where the pickings of RTR models are quite slim – we trust that modellers will overlook any slight prototypical inaccuracies in order to enjoy highly authentic and well-researched liveries on a beautiful looking and refined model. Amongst the range is a nice selection of tooling variants to cover some of the different guises the ‘Iron Mink’ had throughout its existence. These include plated or vented ends, wooden or gunpowder van metal doors, and numerous brake configurations. The models are currently in the design stage, and we are hoping to have samples in Q2 of 2024. You can find out more at https://rapidotrains.co.uk/iron-mink-n-gauge/ Happy modelling!

I honestly don’t think they would be viable - not without a hefty price tag to offset the low production volume. With the current tramcars 50% of the run were made up of Titfield sales… Andy

Oh - watching this with interest.... :-)

I have to say I have loved reading some of the responses in this thread Never underestimate the amount of variables that should be considered when asking the question ‘what wagon should we make next’. Here are some simple thoughts: Prototype volume does not always equate to sales volume. People do have a regional bias and some regions sell better than others. Everyone should have more opens than vans but modellers prefer vans to opens. They cost the same to make but people think they get more value with a van. Visual differences do help - it needs to be different, but not too different. Colourful liveries or interesting lettering are popular. With all of that in mind what would you make? I’m genuinely interested to here and am always happy for a PM to be sent my way so we can exchange ideas and details… Andy

Whilst I can't go into loads of details and numbers I will say, that like a lot things in relation to modelling, modellers following the prototype are fairly rare.... Our SR 8 planks sold far, far better than the D1666 - which has been one of the poorer sellers in our range of 4w wagons. Don't get me wrong it has been successful - but it has made me think quite hard about why it has not been as good as other comparable items.

Don’t be daft. I’m quite content with photos in Model Rail…

Quite simply our initial render had an error - the production ones will only have the L&Y plate. Andy