rapidoandy

Not that my new hobby is boat spotting…. but I can say that they have left Hamburg and are on their way to Antwerp before heading to the UK. Not long to wait!

The decorated samples have arrived...

The models are in tooling right now and with a fair wind I am hopeful we will have them for display at Warley. The order book will close a few months after the tooling sample arrives before production starts - all being well we will have the finished models late next year.

Now the final design work is finished I am pleased to say the 44xx models are on sale now! DCC Ready models are £172.95 RRP and DCC Sound models are £284.95 RRP. Head over to https://rapidotrains.co.uk/gwr-44xx/ to order yours or visit any Official Retailer.

Love them or hate them, nearly everyone has a view on them – the S160 will be joining the Rapido Trains UK fleet. Having been in the top 10 of various wishlist polls for many years, the S160 has been one of our most requested models. Coupled to that, as we are a company with links to North America it seemed a no-brainer for us to make a model of an American-built loco that operated in the UK. Designing the S160 has not been the easiest of undertakings. We have been working on this alongside our other projects for well over a year. No two preserved locos are the same, and there are even differences between the locomotives as built because they were supplied by several different manufacturers. After the war, the engines saw service all over the world and were heavily modified to suit their new operators’ requirements. Our plan is to produce models of the original locomotives ‘as built’, when they were seen across the entire country during the Second World War. We will also produce tooling to allow for several preserved examples to be modelled as closely as possible. It's a little early for us to announce which exact locomotives and liveries we will be producing. Rest assured we will share the news as soon as we are able.

Since Rapido Trains UK started we have been asked to produce a small industrial locomotive suitable for industrial and light railway use. With Andy’s interest in such things, we didn’t need asking twice. Fifteen years ago, our General Manager Andy passed his steam loco driving test on “Matthew Murray”, an 'L' Class built by Manning Wardle in 1903 and residing on the Middleton Railway - a stone’s throw from its birthplace. The railway is also home to a sister L class “Sir Berkeley”. This type has never been produced in OO gauge in any form so it’s no surprise that we opted to produce this model. The L class were dainty and attractive little locomotives with double-bossed wheels and a variety of bolt-on options the purchaser could add. The resulting engines were unmistakably Manning Wardles. Our model is in the final design stages and will feature a number of tooling variants to allow for open and closed cabs, different pipework layouts, different frame styles and different wheels among others. We are currently finalising the design and until then will keep the planned list of liveries, physical specification and prices close to our chest to provide a little more excitement later on. "But why does anyone think you are making it?" we hear you ask. Well, when we visited the Middleton Railway earlier this year to record the sounds of the Y7 we also recorded “Sir Berkeley”. Obviously, this drew lots of attention and we were even caught on camera which may have fed the rumours.

We are a cynical lot aren't we?

Modelu are also working on a set of bespoke crew for Lion.

You assume these are part of the three we mentioned earlier in the week......never assume anything where Rapido Trains UK are involved ;-)

I know, I know! I’m fairly certain anyone who has read the various threads in this section of RMweb will know what it is and can probably even guess which loco(s) we may (or may not be) producing…

Ooooo that’s a good idea. RDC units in Network Southeast livery! Would save me tooling anything new…

Sadly - the "lot of unhappy people" actually seems to be a small amount. The sheer amount of emails I have had from the bus model world telling me it was the wrong model to make was very telling. Interesting comments on the 70s/80s stuff. What would you see us make? the NA stuff is very much Jason's wheelhouse where as with the UK company it falls to me and the team. Personally I think the 70s/80s/90s/00s market is getting quite crowded...If you have the next big seller in that area that one of the other manufacturers are certainly not doing then please do send me an email - I am always open to discussions...

I never got to play with it with the longer cab so never had the luxurious set up!

For those looking for some nice crew for Lion - watch this space as our friends at Modelu are working on something...

As standard all the models will come with a set of dumb buffers in a polybag for the user to fit. Whats more they will also come with 4 of the running plate mounted shunting poles and fire irons!

Sadly this has come about because of the microprocessor shortage. Everything was made at the same time - currently there are a large number of Titfield sets sat in China awaiting decoders. The plan was Titfield should be first. However not enough components were supplied to ESU that resulted in a decision being made. Either wait for enough to make Titfield and Lion in one go, or use the first delivery of decoders for Lion (which was smaller than Thunderbolt orders) and get something moving. The backlog also causes other issues, if we had waited we probably would have had Lion, Titfield and the 15xx arrive at the same time which is a headache logistically for us, our retailers and cashflow for the retailers and end users. As a result as soon as Lion was completed we air freighted it over to smooth out the flow. It was the best solution for the majority of people. Titfield is my daily priority and hopeful that the decoders will be delivered to the factory this week. Apologies! Andy

Joined up thinking? It will never catch on! Perfect for our NCB livery Hunslets, 15xx and the forthcoming Y7. Possibly some other stuff in the future too ;-)

It does meet NEM standards - read on to find out more… *Most* modellers seem to think there is just one standard - the one that Kadees plug straight into with the NEM pocket and two pronged fitting. This is in-fact just part of the NEM standards - namely NEM 362. However this does not fit every installation - on the Loriot it would be in the axle so as you can imagine we have to do something different. This is where NEM 363 comes in. This part of the standard is for installations where space is restricted - and the Loriot and several other things we have fully meet this standard. The problem for Kadee users is the fact that Kadee don’t make a NEM 363 compatible coupler. We have tried to persuade them to make one… We try to meet laid down standards and have done so with the Loriot. If we had done something non-standard we would likely open ourselves up for lots of other problems. Hopefully that helps Andy

Well a quick search will find a more comprehensive list here: http://www.gwr.org.uk/nobrakes.html It states that 17233 was allocated to St Blazey. If you don't believe that this photo proves it: Andy

Correct. They will be a customer fit part and supplied with ends to allow for the sheet rail to be either up or down.

I think Hattons might have missed the photo. We supplied them with this:

Sadly we couldn't quite get these finished and on sale for this newsletter. However progress is happening and we can announce the planned batch we aim to produce:

We couldn't resist hand painting a few samples...

Oh and the Y7 too!

Orderbooks for the latest GWR wagons will close on Monday 10th July! Will some hand painted samples persuade you...