Rapido Newsletter-But is it in N scale?

[lock4244]

Meanwhile they are getting hammered on the GN boxcar, so the criticism isn’t limited to the N scale line.

I saw a review of this car, it was largely being panned for being midrange detail at a high end price.

[thomasjmdavis]

If Rapido can't sell an overdetailed>overpriced model in N scale , how is me (Atlas or Scale Trains) buying the tooling assets going to make the models sell better?

Just to be clear- the snark in my response is to Rapido, not to you, Learmoia. It is a good question.

I would guess the price would go down, for starters.
Fewer long "business trips" to China that include luxury train rides and meals and hotels? Maybe Atlas just has the Chinese manufacturer send the CAD drawings via internet instead of going to view them in person. No trans-Canada bus rides for antique bus shows, and trans-Canada train rides to do a 2 day show in Vancouver, on the company dime.....I dunno, but I think Atlas and Scale-trains could probably save a lot of money. They of course, travel as well, but they have MUCH larger sales volumes to write off the cost against, and they don't produce videos about how much fun they are having with the money we send them for models.

Additionally, the marketing by Scale Trains and Atlas is better by an order of magnitude, on both sides of the marketing equation. On the "what to produce" side, they are clearly more successful at making choices on what will sell well, AND have a MUCH better handle on what their customers want in terms of quality- especially on the customers' definition of quality. For instance, Atlas understands if the prototype rolls and the model does not, it is not a very good model. This is lost on Rapido. Atlas's (and Scale-trains, although they make stuff outside my modeling era) have ads that are informative and to the point.  It obviously works better.  I would bet that Atlas's 60' CNW cars, marketed in umpteen different foobie schemes, have far outsold Rapidos "Panorama" line of highly detailed, "poop chute" equipped (a big deal was made of it when introduced) models of CN cars that have been in production for many more years, and the new run of which was just canceled.  Why? Better choice of product, and better advertising and distribution. And when Atlas had issues (rolling) in the first batch, they fixed it for the next release. And, no insults to the customers.

[wazzou]

I saw a review of this car, it was largely being panned for being midrange detail at a high end price.

Precisely.  Same cost as recent Tangent cars, but with inferior detailing.
The running board on the model I saw was abysmal.  Think roller coaster.

[Englewood]

So... is there still hope for the Southern Pacific 3/4 dome cars in N scale?

[bbussey]

Precisely.  Same cost as recent Tangent cars, but with inferior detailing.
The running board on the model I saw was abysmal.  Think roller coaster.

I was thinking ski slope but yeah, the running board warping was horrendous.

[pdx1955]

So... is there still hope for the Southern Pacific 3/4 dome cars in N scale?

I'd put my money on Railsmith over Rapido at this point...

[TravelingCarpenter]

At the National Train Show I asked Rapido why did they offer the Soo Line in a Canadian van prototype. I just got a bunch of blank stares. Rapido and Walthers should join together so they can really show N scale modelers that they both don't care about N scale.
I  have two of the GP20 tanks,, nice models.
" nother one bites the dust"

TC

[thomasjmdavis]

I'd put my money on Railsmith over Rapido at this point...

Now, THERE is a company that could make some money with Rapido's passenger car tooling.

[up1950s]

Well , if Rapido made skeleton log cars would they sell ? We see underbody the best , no body to disappoint , eg , deep siding grooves , wavy walkways ,

[wmcbride]

I bought two Rapido Dash 8-40CMs with sound and thought they were excellent runners with really nice details and finishing, and nice sound. I ended up buying two more.

I had soured a bit on Scale Trains with their initial bad speaker installation (not sealed and resulting in weak/tinny output which required me to re-do the speaker and enclose it).

At that point I had 5 ST diesels (3 with sound) and 5 Rapido engines.

I recently bought a ST ET44 from their Discount Depot and it is a gem. Paint and details were excellent, the headlights and ditch lights were bright (looking at you Atlas GP40-2W). I ended up buying a faded ST BNSF Dash 9-44CW and a SF unit. I like their detailing and finish and they run very nicely. I added Lokpilot V4 Next 18 decoders to them).

I get that we have varied opinions on details like N-Scale grab irons. I like them and have spent too many thick-fingered hours adding them to my Kato units. I liked the details on my Rapido engines. I take issue with their statement that N scalers do not want them, so they are stopping that.

Perhaps what they missed is that N scalers prefer engines and rolling stock to which details stay attached (ST engines, for one) and do not appreciate high-cost models that do not run well upon delivery (looking at you my Rapido "The Canadian").

I do love my TurboTrain. I am glad I bought it.

[Tristan Ashcroft]

Don't the HO guys want this as well? 

Ayup.  Also, I get annoyed every time I unbox something and find out I spent an extra $7.50 on a bunch of dumb underframe detail that I will never see.  One of Teichmuller's great captions in his PRR hopper book is of a picture of an H39 on it's side being scrapped, something to the effect of "and here is a shot of the underframe, in case you want to model your wrecks correctly".

[basementcalling]

Ayup.  Also, I get annoyed every time I unbox something and find out I spent an extra $7.50 on a bunch of dumb underframe detail that I will never see.  One of Teichmuller's great captions in his PRR hopper book is of a picture of an H39 on it's side being scrapped, something to the effect of "and here is a shot of the underframe, in case you want to model your wrecks correctly".

You do see brake lines and cylinders more if your layout is built at eye level, but I bet most modelers wouldn't really object to the bottom of a car being smooth metal weights on boxcars. Air lines and such under a non hopper or tank car are just details waiting to fall off.

I would have more free standing grabs on my Kato and Atlas units if so many were not UP. Never found a good way to remove the cast on ones and not botch the paint job. Reapplying Armour Yellow is not as easy as BN green or SP gray. But the grabs don't stand out as visibly against darker body colors as they do white and yellow.

If Rapido makes cars sans details that roll and have accurate paint, representing a model I need, I may still buy one. Maybe a few folks in the know could suggest specific cars that would fill large gaps in the N scale rolling stock offerings. Beyond "almost any tank car will do." I am not the one to be in charge of product development. But I've got to think there are a half dozen or more tank car or covered hoppers we need.

[nkalanaga]

Tom:  And, since Railsmith got started by buying Walthers tooling, there is a precedent for it.  If they want to sell the tooling, it's a possibility.

The only Rapido passenger car I might have a use for is a CP "Chateau" sleeper, in whatever paint they wore in 1974.  Amtrak leased a bunch that summer, so I could justify one.  But I don't know if Rapido made it, and I certainly don't need an entire CP passenger train to go with it!

[learmoia]

Just to be clear- the snark in my response is to Rapido, not to you, Learmoia. It is a good question.

I would guess the price would go down, for starters.
Fewer long "business trips" to China that include luxury train rides and meals and hotels? Maybe Atlas just has the Chinese manufacturer send the CAD drawings via internet instead of going to view them in person. No trans-Canada bus rides for antique bus shows, and trans-Canada train rides to do a 2 day show in Vancouver, on the company dime.....I dunno, but I think Atlas and Scale-trains could probably save a lot of money. They of course, travel as well, but they have MUCH larger sales volumes to write off the cost against, and they don't produce videos about how much fun they are having with the money we send them for models.

Additionally, the marketing by Scale Trains and Atlas is better by an order of magnitude, on both sides of the marketing equation. On the "what to produce" side, they are clearly more successful at making choices on what will sell well, AND have a MUCH better handle on what their customers want in terms of quality- especially on the customers' definition of quality. For instance, Atlas understands if the prototype rolls and the model does not, it is not a very good model. This is lost on Rapido. Atlas's (and Scale-trains, although they make stuff outside my modeling era) have ads that are informative and to the point.  It obviously works better.  I would bet that Atlas's 60' CNW cars, marketed in umpteen different foobie schemes, have far outsold Rapidos "Panorama" line of highly detailed, "poop chute" equipped (a big deal was made of it when introduced) models of CN cars that have been in production for many more years, and the new run of which was just canceled.  Why? Better choice of product, and better advertising and distribution. And when Atlas had issues (rolling) in the first batch, they fixed it for the next release. And, no insults to the customers.

No offense taken... My initial question was snarky

When Rapido advertises... We included a full interior of this passenger car even the bathroom with poop in the un-flushed toilet.. just like the prototype.. and the bathroom compartment has one shaded window that you can't see inside...... I kind of    You want me to pay a premium for poop in a toilet in a room I can't see without disassembling the car...   I don't think they have 'actually' done that (yet) but I wouldn't put it past them.

[davefoxx]

<ducks for cover> Come to HO scale, where your view on Rapido will be markedly different!    </ducks for cover>