rapidoandy

Also be aware that the Holly Bank engines had non-standard handrails. They have extra handrails around the smokebox and also some grab style handrails above the steps to access the water filler. I did look at doing them in early condition but wasn't sure if the missing handrails would put people off.

Looking at the painting specs the details for Hollybank No.3 as delivered are as follows: Olive Green lined black style & vermillion with 0.25 inch yellow distance line. Robert Nelson No.4 and Carol Ann No.5 were also the same. At various points before changing to blue they had NCB applied in varying places and sizes.

Feel free to come straight to us. That’s certainly not right and I’d like to take a look at it. Head to our website and fill in our warranty form - we can get a postage label to you to return the model at our cost to sort out. My apologies!

Sadly not on this - I wanted to but for various reasons I wont go into its not something that was provided. It is something we are actively working on with our Canadian counterparts and electronics engineers.

Morning all, Nice to see that everyone is (generally) very happy with their locos. Its been a labour of love for me as I have been lucky enough to drive and fire several of the preserved locos and I count them among my favourite types. Firstly - if anyone has any issues with a model go onto our website and fill in our warranty form. We dislike sub-standard models and only want happy customers and will always do everything we can to sort them. So to answer a few questions that have cropped up: Brake function on DCC - Our market research showed us that this feature is split nearly 50/50 between those who like it and those who don't. Supplementing that with a further question to those that do - we found they are the more advanced DCC users who tend to want yo chose their own chip anyway due to preference. However those who don't tend to be "out of the box type". As a result we opted not to on this model - but we will try it on a future release and compare the feedback. Another option is to set our project up with a CV that when turned on or off would give a "prototype" function or a "model railway simple" function which could include enabling the brake. Lots of whistles - well after speaking with various ex-NCB crews there were different whistle combinations set for things like, setting forward, setting back, etc etc. So we recorded and included those. Sadly they got missed form being explained in the manual - one to add in the future. Slow speed running - we do say in the manual that each individual model only gets about 30 seconds of testing. The lubrication does not get to work round fully and the gears to work in. If after some time you have issues do let us know. The lubrication grease on my models (which have done a fair bit of running as they were samples delivered a few months back) has worked round a bit and loosens up but I have seen some that are a little heavy on the stuff. Removing couplings - i'm going to feed this back to the factory - on the samples they were tight but did pull out. However they are now too tight on the production models and required keeper plate removal on some which is a bit more involved and less than ideal, P4 - EM etc. So our policy here at Rapido is that if we can make something work for the finescales without costing us any more money then we will do so. Our wagons are a good example of that (Scalefour News has an article on our SECR opens and the ease of conversion). I also speak to various people who model using said standards to seek advice etc. However, if its going to cost us money, or mean we have to design it completely differently to accommodate the tiny percentage that use these standards then we cant do it. Its just economics. Our big survey we did a couple of years ago showed less than 2% of people were working to any finescale standard. So why design the chassis like we have - well if you take a Hunslet and cut it in half then you will see that we have used all the possible space. Flywheel in the smokebox, motor in boiler and tank and driven down through the firebox with the speaker in the bunker. This allowed the proper daylight and some motion bits under the boiler. Some will say a flywheel adds nothing, we disagree and have done tests to show it is useful. Maybe we can put a smaller motor vertically in the firebox - but it would be smaller and not as ideal. As a result the model becomes completely integral. If it was a big side tank loco we might do it differently. Our factory that made this also like this format - its used around the world in other models - its just not so normal here. I don't mean any of this to sound offish - I just like to explain our thoughts. I do look at feedback and comments and we take those forward into stuff into the future. Just remember the next model may not get it as that is likely to be fully designed and in production. It does take time. I would love to see photos of peoples customised models - its always great to see different things. Now to think about a second possible batch... Happy modelling! Andy

Bit late in the game for considering for the next industrial… there are several already well considered 😉

What a fantastic photo! If you have any others in colour you would like to share and let us use I would love to see them :-)

As seen in the latest newsletter - our CAD team have made a few colour renders of the forthcoming E1s to whet your appetite.

Jacks Green and Holly Bank No.3 are both preserved in the guise we have modelled. Primrose, Beatrice and Arthur are all also preserved but are carrying other liveries or not in traffic. To fit the chip the saddle tank un-clips. All very simple!

Great news - very pleased you happy.

I didn’t spot that! Blame lack of sleep with a small baby in the house for that one…

The Hardy’s Hobbies exclusive is also ready to go but needs to go to them first so may be a couple of week. We will have a stock of decoders with our project on in the future - keep an eye on the website for that I’m the future! Andy

I think its RT models - I have seen a friends example they built and it looked rather good.

Sadly (and don’t read anything into this - I have previously looked at these personally - there are a LOT of variations between them - so much to do them accurately would be a costly tooling exercise… Now a Manning Wardle do like - but I think the Brill ones are K class and represented by a good kit.

Maybe we just like celebrating historical anniversaries. or maybe we are doing the Bo-Bo in N or maybe S7 or maybe it’s a hint at a red 45xx or maybe were going to make an engine that built the Met or maybe we are going to make an Ashbury set. or maybe it’s nothing at all and we’re just having some fun. it’s why you love/hate (delete as appropriate) us! Happy Saturday!

You might get lucky and not get caught then ;-)

Unfortunately we don't help in this regard - our direct customers receive parcels wrapped in Rapido Trains UK tape! :-) Andy

Having compared the works drawings I can say they are different in many ways…

Evening all. So I have spent a little time looking at this over the Christmas holidays - here's what I have personally found. I have looked at 100 wheelsets with the callipers - some on production wagons and some from the spares that came off of the production line. The back to backs were OK on all but 2 wheel sets. Brake rigging - looking at a few models some have either worked loose or not been fitted quite right. Not many and to be honest to be expected with a finely detailed model. However, the big issue I have found seems to be a physical tooling error... We set up a slope and tested some wagons down it. Some ran fine while others crawled down the slop with resistance. These were checked for other faults than the one I am about to described and I couldn't see any. However - the frame of the wagon is in two parts as seen in the CAD image below of the approved design. The main part is the solebars/headstocks/w-irons etc (white) while a sub frame (made like this because you couldn't mould it otherwise - seen here in yellow) You will notice there is a cut-out in both parts for the wheelset. Now if you look very closely at your models the yellow part does not look like it should. In fact it looks model like the (crudely drawn) image below: As you can imagine the wheels gently rub against this - particularly when the containers are in situ. The yellow part is very thin and we found that if you gently cut back the affected section with a sharp scalpel using the correct white frame part as a guide - the running is much more as it should be, All our wagons that had poor rolling resistance on the slope suddenly started to run away! Will continue to look further but it would be interesting to see if this helps others. I shall be taking this up with the factory when I return to the office. Many thanks Andy

Evening, Well it looks like the auto send feature decided it was too sleepy after Christmas festivities to work - I have just logged in and sent it. Simply we have a few APT-E sets left at bargain prices - there's only a few and I would love the shelf space ready for some mega deliveries in January. We also have some bargain prices on in-stock buses. Many thanks Andy

Looking wonderful!

For those that have not seen it elsewhere…

May favourite van - and one we will probably produce - is a GWR V14 van in black marked up as "To work between Eastleigh and Motive Power Depots Only". I think a nice BR(S) GWR van is called for...

Progress is being made! It’s going to take a little time but we are on the home straight. To give everyone an idea of what we have to do - The PCBs arrive as produced in blocks of 10 - these need cutting apart and the ends removing. Car needs unboxing. Body removed PCB removed PCB installed Contact spring checked Body reassembled Test electronics Visual check and rectify any other faults Box model Complete paperwork. Repeat 2999 more times… Sort shipping. All is done by hand and it is taking time but progress is being made. I might even work over Christmas to progress it… Happy Christmas everyone. Andy

Well people did ask nicely.... We are pleased too add 'Wroxall' to the line up of forthcoming E1 models. As usual the model is available in both DCC Ready and DCC Sound set up. These are available to pre-order now direct from us or from any Official Retailer. Happy Christmas. Photo courtesy of Colour Rail