The Rapido NSC Centerbeam Cars Have Arrived

[milw156]

Rapido rep was at Chicagoland RPM this weekend and I mentioned the wheel size issue to him. He said they were spec'd to come with 36" wheels, and was not aware they were shipped with 33s. Also mentioned the brake hose interfering with truck swivel. These are such nice cars, otherwise. I had several Columbus Trainmaster loads, but found I had to sand off the overlapped layers of paper on the ends of the loads (where they were folded over on themselves) to make them fit without bowing the ends out.

[mu26aeh]

I too found the ends of loads had to be sanded or cut off the folded over paper.  Also beware on the cars themselves the brake line that pins to the underside of the car near the inner axle is prone to pop loose of its hole/glue.  Placing it back in reveals the alignment is off and putting it back into the hole applies tension to the line, either the hole drilled wrong or line is too long.

[mu26aeh]

One added benefit to these is that you can put a load on the car, and store the car in its jewel case.  The Red Caboose cars had to be stored empty in their jewel case due to the clam shell/cradle.  +1 to Rapido for that.

I swapped out the 33" wheels with FVM 36" .563 wheels.  Now I got 33" wheels I can put in something else

[MetroRedLine]

Rapido rep was at Chicagoland RPM this weekend and I mentioned the wheel size issue to him. He said they were spec'd to come with 36" wheels, and was not aware they were shipped with 33s. Also mentioned the brake hose interfering with truck swivel. These are such nice cars, otherwise. I had several Columbus Trainmaster loads, but found I had to sand off the overlapped layers of paper on the ends of the loads (where they were folded over on themselves) to make them fit without bowing the ends out.

Perhaps there's an inconsistency while assembling batches of these? I took a wheelset off of one of my new Rapido centerbeams and used a digital caliper to measure the wheel diameter. I got 0.2285", which multiplied by 160 equals 36.56".

I also measured the axle width on that wheelset and it came out to 0.539", which is within the MTL-compatible ballpark. Some of you here have said they have .553" axles. So it looks like different batches of these cars are being made with different trucks and wheelsets.

FWIW, even though I preordered mine (one TTX 6-pack and two singles), I slept on sending in my payment for several weeks and did not actually get mine until late September. So if you received yours right when Rapido informed you they were ready to ship then that could be why. I only measured one of the singles (#562001A - BC Rail Road no. 730471).