I'm in for the next round of NP cars; if you do an NP dome I'll buy at least a half-dozen... Milwaukee stuff would float my boat, too...
yep, I haven't bought anything or a while now because my job literally forgot about me. I don't mind splurging on gorgeous models, if I could go back and restart I would've spent less because I would've bought Kato and atlas stuff.
I forgot to mention, after all the repairs, adjustment & tweaking, they still have tracking issues. So some are the draw & some are on my wall. Pretty expensive dust collectors. But these are MY cars, I hope you other guys have had better luck. :crying:
Likewise the early release of the 'dayniter' coach included Norfolk and Western. Before purchasing several I contacted Rapido by email and was assured there would be further releases in that road ... yet nothing since! I would happily purchase coach cars, sleepers and cafe-bar-lounge cars if offered in Norfolk and Western. Cheers, Kev
When it comes to my main road, CB&Q I want accurate for something easily recognizable to the prototype. Does it have to have an exact number of rivets no, but you should clearly know what you are looking at. I feel this way to all passenger stuff and engines. Ongoing freight car purchases I also want reasonably close. For everything else I am fine with a Foobie until a more accurate version comes along. I had a bunch of UP Kato 4 cars sets plus Walthers, etc. All sold when Kato came out with the COLA. I also had some Milwaukee Road stuff from a variety of companies, now sold or boxed up with the arrival of my FVM cars. So as far as NP goes I want a complete train. I want the feel of the NCL but don't really care if every window is just right. Smooth side, two tone green cars, that is what I want. I like Rapido's colors better, but I like Centralia's more frequent and more complete offerings. Other advantage for Centralia is IM F units that hopefully match dead on! So I am buying both companies cars for now. Now if Kato offered an NCL set with engines than all my older NP stuff would get boxed up/sold if it didn't match the Kato.
"They DID owe us those cars. I certainly don't mind that they shifted gears , but as a customer service, they should have produced the stuff they had announced and taken orders on.......they upset a lot of people." It was a situation that was not under their control and Rapido was not the only one that announced new items only to have the production postponed because of China's manufacturing crapping out. Its no different than if you worked for a company who provided a product for another company only to have the customer's orders disappear and people laid off... been down that road and it was my second favorite job that I ever had but thankfully I at least found the best job I have ever had because of it... I just wish the folks I worked for at my earlier job would have been so fortunate.
My only real complaint with Rapido was that they spent and invested so much time into one project, that may been a little beyond their abilities, that they completely cut out all their N scale customer base and I have to wonder how many HO scalers were put off as well. Not every HO person is going to buy the Canadian! Any company getting into N scale has to realize we want regular product releases even if it isn't a large sized release. On the positive side they have been very forthcoming with information and where they are at with it. Like I said somewhere I won't preorder the two new cars but do plan on buying a couple in NP.
I really like the Rapido products I bought in HO and I think my Rapido N passenger cars look outstanding. Unfortunately, I have had the same problem with tracking through Atlas code 55 turnouts and some ME code 55 ones. I am in the process of building my own so I will see if the problem lies with Rapido or with the Atlas and ME turnouts. If Rapido offered a Canadian, I would buy one, probably the mixed Via/Canadian option they had in HO (if it ever came in so many flavors in N). Why would I buy it, because it would be cool and it would be accurate.
Jerry.....You are correct that there were some problems with the flow of stuff from china, but everyone else worked thru it. Rapido made a very deliberate decision to NOT work thru it. They have delivered other products that they chose to put ahead of the products they had previously announced. I'm the first one to admit that it's their company and they can run it the way they see fit, but they clearly created some bad PR for themselves, and they lost a lot of potential sales by letting other manufacturers leapfrog ahead.
Well, for me it was the paint color. I had collected some Con-Cor, Kato, Walthers cars in NP paint (the Kato was a custom-painted one). I also have a 4-engine A-B-B-A set (Kato, also custom-painted). All of these matched very closely. Then I got one Rapido car, an although it looks and runs beautifully, the dark green on it is almost black and does not match any of the other NP passenger stuff I had. They said that they got their colors from the NP historical society. But I have the NP society's color drift card set, and no way does the Rapido car match the dark green card in there. I actually took the card to a paint store, got a quart of enamel mixed to match, then masked and repainted and relettered my NP car. Now it matches the others and it looks great, but I'm not doing that with any more cars that I have to pay $40 for. I don't mind the foobie window patterns. Heck, my whole NCL is a foobie. I'm not duplicating the correct consist. I'm just duplicating the "feel" with come coaches, domes, diners, baggage, etc. But to see 10-12 cars and engines that almost completely match, and then this one Rapido car with the super-dark green on it, it stuck out like a sore thumb. Anyway, love the car, but that's the reason I didn't buy anymore.
Then for god's sake DON'T model UP passenger trains -- in N scale not only every manufacturer has different colors, but every RUN of every manufacturer has different colors!!
That's my philosophy, too. I've sold dozens of items with low starting bids and I've only gotten stuck once with a $1.00 sale.
For me, I'm just glad that Rapido does models in N scale. Yes, I know that they are based on CN prototypes but then very few models are actually produced of exact prototypes IF you want to get down to pulling hairs. Some on here complain that Rapido hasn't produced all the cars that they may have promised, remember that: 1. They are a small company with limited resources and having to deal with an increasingly difficult manufacturing situation in China, and 2. That nasty little Economy that keeps bouncing along in the doldrums and not really expanding. I've had good service from my cars (painted for 1941 N&W streamlined coaches with the rare brown roofs). The tuscan red matches well with other cars that I have purchased in the past few years. If finances allow, I'd love to have one of the CP Canadians if they do make it in N.
