These cars are arriving soon! If you did not place a pre-order, we have a few left for the shelf! Place your orders today!

Rapido Trains Inc. has announced new Steam Heater Cars

Canadian National (CN)

Canadian Pacific (CP)

VIA Rail Canada (VIA)

Yes, the Steam Heater Car is back and noisier than ever!

• First Time with Sound!

• New Paint Schemes

• Number Re-Runs

Steam Heater Cars, known in Canada as Steam Generator Units or SGUs, were introduced in the diesel era to provide steam heat to passenger trains in cooler weather. When passenger trains were hauled by steam locomotives, there was always a reliable source of steam. Unless a diesel locomotive was equipped with a boiler and water tank, heat could not be provided. This was before the days of electrical Head End Power for passenger cars. Heater cars were frequently rebuilt from boxcars, B-units and old steam locomotive tenders, so they varied in shape and size from railroad to railroad. That is, unless you are in Canada. It is so cold here so much of the time that purpose-built SGUs were built by CC&F (Canadian Car & Foundry), GMD (General Motors Diesel Division) and NSC (National Steel Car). Our model is based on the GMD prototype. Check out the usual insane amount of underbody detail!

Our recent sound-equipped locomotives have steam included, but we don’t expect you to pay $110 for a sound decoder. That’s why we’ve made our own sound chip, just for this model! And you can adjust the volume to suit your preferences. We think this is a beauty goal, eh?

The Oh, So Noisy! Steam Heater Car features:

• Numerous popular paint schemes

• Scaled from field measurements and original blueprints

• Steam sounds included, with user-controlled volume

• High-quality, high-bass speaker

• Works on DC and DCC layouts

• Super-detailed underframe and express trucks

• Working backup lights, controlled by magnetic wand

• Metal Macdonald-Cartier couplers

Order Due Date: June 15, 2020 September 15, 2020

  Anticipated Delivery Date: December 2020 TBD