Train Addiction Help Line: 1.866.840.7777
Jan 13, 2009 - HO Scale
Rapido Announces New Lines - TRUE NORTH LOCOMOTIVES & TRANSCONA YARD Freight Cars
PWRS will have the new items
mentioned in this Bulletin ready for orders by late tomorrow. Check back then!
|
Dear Rapido Customer, Happy 2009! I have two big sneak preview product announcements for you today. The first is some brand new motive power for release this year... CN modellers have regularly been told that our locomotives were too unique to produce accurately in model form. In 2009, that's no excuse, especially for the locomotive pictured below.
I am pleased to announce the very first (and the only) accurate ready-to-run Canadian National - VIA Rail Canada FP9A locomotive in HO scale. This is the first in our new product line:
The True North Locomotives Canadian National FP9A. in HO Scale, Exclusively from Rapido Trains Inc.
For decades, CN (and VIA) modellers have been out of luck. If you wanted to model a diesel-era passenger train, your options for locomotives were very limited. The real trains were usually hauled by the FP9A, CN's most prevalent passenger locomotive. In ready-to-run plastic, you could choose between an F7 (which really almost always hauled freight) or worse, an FP7 with an added detail or two and passed off as a Canadian FP9.
As one of Canada's leading manufacturers of model trains, Rapido Trains Inc.. is well suited to bring out the first accurate model of Canada's leading passenger diesel of the 20th century. We are working with the CN Lines Special Interest Group as well as several expert modellers and retired CN employees to make sure that this model of CN's FP9A is absolutely perfect. We have photos of every locomotive number, and each model will have the correct details worn at one time by its prototype, including the various nose grab iron arrangements. That's right - our models will have road number specific details. CN placed five orders for the FP9A, taking delivery of the units between 1954 and 1958. Many of these locomotives are still in service today on tourist railways, business fleets, and even for VIA Rail Canada. The FP9A could be seen leading passenger trains across Canada and on CV and GT trains in the Northeast and Midwest states, respectively. It is truly an iconic engine of 20th-century Canadian and northern US railroading.
The Rapido Trains Inc. FP9A is being tooled from the start as an FP9A. That means it will have all of the correct details for all five orders of CN's locomotives, from the fuel tanks to the end doors, from the 36" or 48" fans to the correct number of pipes in the roof-mounted cooling coils. These details will be correctly placed at the factory for each road number.
We are also tooling the details added by CN later on, such as the roof bell, the "eyebrow" grab irons above the windshields, the huge winterization hatch on 6500-6509, ditch light supports, dual sealed beam headlights, and the air trap on the front of the nose. These will be installed at the factory on a unit-by-unit basis. Sound and non-sound versions will be available. Expected delivery date is fall 2009. The full features and product numbers are listed below. We won't be sending out dealer information or updating our web site for another week.. As promised, the Rapido Telegraph is where you hear about new projects first!
The True North Locomotives Canadian National FP9A features:
Canadian National 1954 Scheme 6500 was the first unit delivered and photographed, so it was an obvious choice. Above is a late photo of 6537 still in its 1950s colours. While almost all FP9As were repainted by the end of 1962, a few were still in older colours for another year.
Canadian National Wet Noodle 6536 was the first locomotive painted in the new scheme in late 1960. 6516 was immortalized in cardboard trains handed out to children onboard in the late 1960s and 1970s.
VIA-CN In 1976, the first FP9As were repainted in the new colours of VIA-CN. Locomotives painted in 1976 and early 1977 received the CN on the nose, and locomotives painted between 1977 and 1981 were given a VIA on the nose. The angled yellow nose was changed to a straight yellow nose in mid-1977, but could still be seen on locomotives as late as 1982. There are at least seven variations of the early VIA paint scheme. Unfortunately we can't do them all right now. The locomotive numbers we've chosen were two of the longest to carry the CN logo. It took until late 1981 or early 1982 to repaint all of the locomotives, so while locomotives were waiting to be repainted they had their CN noodle removed from the nose and a VIA logo added beside the unit number on the sides. 6535 was never repainted into VIA colours.
VIA Rail Canada VIA's 6500-series FP9As lasted until the early 1990s. Most were sold in 1995. Many were rebuilt into 6300-series FP9ARM units, and these lasted longer, operating on northern routes into the 21st century. In fact, 6300 is still active today at VIA's Vancouver Maintenance Centre. The VIA logo was placed on the nose until 1981. Most logos were gone by 1984 but some stayed right through the 1980s. We include the logo as a decal which you can apply if you choose.
ALGOMA CENTRAL RAILWAY and UNDECORATED In 1995, Algoma Central's then owners, Wisconsin Central, bought three of VIA's FP9A locomotives to haul the tour train to Agawa Canyon and the local run between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst, Ontario. In the past, we've had some trouble matching the ACR's unique grey used on their cars and passenger locomotives. These models will be closer to the real thing..
I hope that you are as excited about our new locomotive line as we are. Remember, your dealer does not have the information about the CN FP9A yet, unless of course he or she gets this newsletter. Full dealer info will be sent out next week. To answer the three most obvious questions about True North Locomotives: yes, we are working on the CN F9B; yes, we are working on the one in our logo; and yes, we plan to release some True North models in N scale. But we can only do so much at once...  OK - all of you freight modellers have been yawning away for the first half of this newsletter. Thanks for sticking with me! Here's the announcement you've been waiting for.
It is with great pleasure that I introduce the first foray into freight equipment by Rapido Trains Inc. Transcona, Manitoba is a railway town through and through. For the last 100 years, the name Transcona has been synonymous with railway freight operations. It is located in sunny Winnipeg, the geographical heart of North America. I will bring to Transcona Yard the same attention to detail that is the hallmark of our Super Continental Line passenger cars. We'll start in HO scale and, provided the demand is there, we will look into N scale as well. For our first release, I looked at what was out there and, more importantly, what was missing. And this is what I came up with...
The new HO Scale Transcona Yard Wide Vision Caboose The Most Detailed Caboose Model. In Any Scale. Ever. Based on the CPR Angus Shops prototype, our new Wide Vision Caboose is like nothing you have ever seen before. Until now, you were lucky if your caboose model had a few blobs of interior detail. Our caboose has full interior detail (which will be painted in different colours), including floor textures, a hot plate, and stoves!
Every model railroad needs freight trains (even mine!). And freight car models have come such a long way in the last decade. But if you want a modern era caboose, your options are still quite limited. Well, they were limited...
Our new wide-vision caboose features:
We're finalizing the circuit board that controls the lighting. The plan is to include a magnetic switch (like in our "Easy-Peasy" Lighting sets) that can be turned on and off with a wave of the Rapido Lighter. I'll let you know once we've finished the design. As you can see, the tooling for our new Transcona Yard Wide Vision Caboose is basically finished. It's nice to announce a project that's almost complete, for a change! In the next few weeks I will finalize the paint schemes for our first run and provide an order deadline (likely May 1st). Visit the PWRS web site over the next week or two as more information will be posted there soon. I'll also include paint scheme and road number information in the next Telegraph.
Product and Shipment Updates We've just received a new shipment of "Totally Wired" Telephone Poles, with improved arrangement and instructions. We sold out of the first run of these in two weeks. We have plenty in stock, so you can order them from your hobby shop at any time. If your dealer is sold out, ask him or her why these aren't always on the shelf! They are a wonderful addition to any model railroad. We've also received new baggage cars. These will leave our warehouse early next week and you'll have them a couple of weeks after that. Roadname are: Baltimore & Ohio, Milwaukee Road (1950 Scheme), Ontario Northland (Modern), Great Northern, and Great Northern (Big Sky Blue). Baggage Cars coming the first week of February are: Canadian National (Green), Canadian Pacific, and the replacement Illinois Central and Chicago & North Western cars. So send in your UPC codes if you haven't already! One quick update about our forthcoming CPR coaches announced as part of our "Oddballs" group of paint schemes. I mistakenly numbered these in the 2100-series when I announced the cars. They will, in fact, be numbered in the 2200-series. The 2100-series cars had small windows, and are not remotely close to our Lightweight Coach model. We will be updating our web site with the new numbers next week. We'll see you at Springfield! We're getting ready to pack up for West Springfield, MA, where we'll be exhibiting at the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show, January 24th and 25th, 2009, at the Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds in West Springfield, MA. Click here to visit the show's web site. We're located in the Better Living Center, Section 63, Tables L and M. This is near the show office and the N Trak layout. At the show, we'll be exhibiting our latest samples, including the Wide Vision Caboose and the first test castings of our New Haven Osgood-Bradley Project passenger cars. My chief engineer photographed the samples at the factory yesterday. See the picture below. We'll have them here in the office tomorrow.
As I mentioned in the last Telegraph, I won't be at the show this year. While Jean and Dan head to Springfield, I'm taking this opportunity to go back to England to visit some friends in London, Crewe, Manchester and Birmingham... all in a couple of days! I'll also be in Wales to see where they make the TV show Doctor Who, my other obsession, and you can bet I'll be taking lots of trains! I was living in Birmingham, England back in 2003 when I told my wife that model railroading is an expensive hobby. She told me "as long as it pays for itself, you can spend as much as you want on it." She was talking about selling stuff on eBay. I had something different in mind, and Rapido Trains Inc. is the result!
Some Thoughts on Preservation The gorgeous photograph by Don Jaworski (above) is what railroading is all about. To me, CN's 1960/61 paint scheme is the most striking paint scheme ever to grace a passenger train in North America. It is the longest-lived paint scheme in Canada - almost 50 years old and still going strong in a modified form. It also is one of the most important. As I ment |
© 2024 Pacific Western Rail Systems
Train Addiction Help Line: 1 866 840 7777