Rapido LW Baggage-Express

[Ike the BN Freak]

I'm pretty sure I'll stick with the Walthers car (which is better still than the Kato baggage car used by other N scale AFT modelers).

FYI, the Lowell Smith cars are all Walther's cars

[peteski]

FYI, the Lowell Smith cars are all Walther's cars

Yes they are.  I have a set. Actually subscribing to Lowell's AFT series was what made me want to roll my own.  My expectation (for the price) was that these would be at least semi-accurate representation of the real cars. But many are not even close.  So I bought a $200 set of complete AFT decals, started accumulating more prototypical cars, and some day I'll get to that project.

[jmlaboda]

After some distractions that were well welcome I have identified the original car series for the CN baggage cars and the types of trucks used by them.  Below are the original number series but keep in mind that CN renumbered a fair number of these cars into new series (with no obvious reason for choosing to do so)...

CN 8829 - 8838  6-wheel trucks  '48
CN 8981 - 9030  6-wheel trucks  '49
CN 9031 - 9080  6-wheel trucks  '51
CN 9085 - 9142  6-wheel trucks  '52
CN 9143 - 9172  Messenger, 6-wheel trucks  '52
CN 9173 - 9202  6-wheel trucks  '53
CN 9203 - 9232  4-wheel trucks  '54
CN 9233 - 9352  Messenger, 4-wheel trucks  '55
CN 9253 - 9272  4-wheel trucks  '57
CN 9273 - 9302  Messenger, 4-wheel trucks  '58

According to the book Streamliner Cars Volume 3 ACF - Other Builders none of these cars were originally built with end doors but rather a small group of cars were rebuilt, in , with end doors and numbered 9600 - 9604 (ex-9228 - 9232).  I mention this not only to identify the numbers for the end door cars but also to say that as good as Randall's books are there are times when he missed the mark on some cars so there may be more.

I will be working at getting the subsequent numbers for these series posted to the Canadian National page at the N-scale Varnish User's Guide so that these numbers will be available for any who would want them.

[Puddington]

Our newsletter and official announcement of the Express Baggage just came out.... Here are some pre production images....













and the FL9's in N scale are also coming along.....



Lots of road names in the Express baggage car to choose from; here's the link:

http://www.rapidotrains.com/panbe.html

and the FL9 link....

http://www.rapidotrains.com/fl9_n.html

More images when we have corrections made and new pre production samples.....

[bbussey]

Let's get those FL-9 New-Image units to market! 

[Puddington]

Let's get those FL-9 New-Image units to market! 

Well; that guy in the picture and a friend of his are in Portland right now.....

"Workin on it" 

[wcfn100]

So Mike, why was the roof was made with the gaps between roof panels instead of an overlapped type seam?


Jason

[bbussey]

Well; that guy in the picture and a friend of his are in Portland right now.....
"Workin on it" 

Sorry, I should have been more succinct — Let's get those FL-9 New Image units to market NOW!   

[peteski]

So Mike, why was the roof was made with the gaps between roof panels instead of an overlapped type seam?


Jason

I mentioned that in another thread about these cars (looking at the pre-production photos of unpainted models).  I wonder if the designers in China simply misinterpreted the 1:1 drawings?  This "Rapido and deep engraving" kind of reminds me of their wooden meat reefers.

[Puddington]

So Mike, why was the roof was made with the gaps between roof panels instead of an overlapped type seam?


Jason

Because someone made a mistake in design at the factory; no big deal as we obviously caught it (and other things) as part of the initial review of the project first off samples and it will be corrected (along with other stuff) when they receive the correction planner. No first or second sample set is ever totally right.... and thus the danger of showing anyone pre production samples, they assume your product is flawed and sometimes do damage to its sales potential by perpetuating a pre production issue as being cast in stone.

[wcfn100]

I mentioned that in another thread about these cars (looking at the pre-production photos of unpainted models).

I had refrained, but then you asked.  I didn't see an answer so I asked here again.

Because someone made a mistake in design at the factory; no big deal as we obviously caught it (and other things) as part of the initial review of the project first off samples and it will be corrected (along with other stuff) when they receive the correction planner.

Okay, I missed that these were still pre-production like the other thread.

There has been some weird things that have been going on when it comes to tooling thin panels going back the MTL SP caboose where they did alternating raised and lowered panels instead of a seam.  And where it used to be standard to make hood doors a thin raise section, companies like Bachmann have resorted to huge moats around the doors.  Even the new Atlas PS-1 isn't as finely tooled as the 40 year old MTL car. 

Something's going on that I was hoping you could help explain, but I like 'mistake to be fixed' even better.

Jason

[Puddington]

I had refrained, but then you asked.  I didn't see an answer so I asked here again.

Okay, I missed that these were still pre-production like the other thread.

There has been some weird things that have been going on when it comes to tooling thin panels going back the MTL SP caboose where they did alternating raised and lowered panels instead of a seam.  And where it used to be standard to make hood doors a thin raise section, companies like Bachmann have resorted to huge moats around the doors.  Even the new Atlas PS-1 isn't as finely tooled as the 40 year old MTL car. 

Something's going on that I was hoping you could help explain, but I like 'mistake to be fixed' even better.

Jason

These N scale cars are made at our new factory; the HO version was made six years ago at the old factory so there's no "institutional memory" in play here. The drawings certainly didn't show gaps between the panels and I can't account for the creative licence that occurred but being as it is a pre production model it's not a big issue. In fact I am quite pleased that there were as few issues as there were with these; they are the very first models off the tool; the development was less than ten weeks from sending the design to landed samples - that's light years better than we're experienced in years past. The biggest thing at play here is the quality and speed of the tool shop; quite impressive to say the least. Even the painting was done very well and fast for a pre production sample.... all in all I'm over the moon so far...

[sizemore]

@Puddington how close are the paint samples to the previously released roadnames? Has the roof locking tabs been changed compared to the past releases? Lastly did you get the B&O sample in?!?!

My apologies if this has already been covered previously (getting some forum time in while eating lunch).

Much appreciated,
The S.

[wcfn100]

These N scale cars are made at our new factory

Any chance this new shop can make extra steam line connections you could sell as parts?

Jason

[Puddington]

@Puddington how close are the paint samples to the previously released roadnames? Has the roof locking tabs been changed compared to the past releases? Lastly did you get the B&O sample in?!?!

My apologies if this has already been covered previously (getting some forum time in while eating lunch).

Much appreciated,
The S.

Paint will match the previous N scale runs (don't hold me to HO colours, they sometimes are slightly different due to the time lag and two factories... The roof is cast on the baggage car - no Easy Peasy, therefore not need to remove it.... (I made the executive decision that we didn't need lights in the baggage express..... ) We don't have a pre production sample of the B&O; you never get a sample of every paint scheme; not practical or cost efficent, especially if you've done the paint scheme many times before. (Now; there are some paint schemes I now would insist on getting a sample; NP being one of them due to the constant debate on NP green, even by NP experts themselves....LOL)