Big Rapido Announcement Today

[Peter Amling]

What's the bathroom situation like on the Canadian? I recently took the Empire Builder from the Twin Cities to Chicago, and that left something to be desired. I would be hesitant to do overnights on Amtrak's equipment.

On another note, I preordered the CN FP9As in the 1954 scheme

[Narlie]

Took the Canadian about 6 years ago in the Wolfe Manor car. We had an upper and lower berth with our own wash basin and toilet. The shower is common for the car. Berths fold up for the day and you have 2 chairs to watch the scenery go by. A great trip to see a large chunk of Canada.
PS I think VIA now has a Prestige service on certain cars more deluxe accommodations, cars with larger windows and beds etc.


Dave B
Montreal

[Angus Shops]

"Prestige" class is the high end luxury sleeping car accommodation with 2 Chateau and a Park car on each train. $$$ with no available discounts but really nice facilities with double bed (converts to large couch by day) big screen TV, private bathroom with shower, available in room meal service and alcoholic drinks are included in the fare. I think the Park car is not open to regular "sleeper class" passengers in the summer, but it is in the winter season with the first two rows of dome seats reserved for "Prestige". The cars are beautifully rebuilt, particularly the former "mural lounge" under the dome.

"Sleeper class" is 'classic Pullman type' with double bedrooms, roomettes and open sections in the Manor cars. As noted, big discounts are available in Via's website; they are non refundable, but available up to 2 months prior to departure. I assume they are selling space not sold at the regular full price, but if you're willing to be flexible you can often (but not always) find a 'room for two', usually find a 'room for one', and almost always find an upper or a lower in a section. Sections are the cheapest; you can get all the way Vancouver - Toronto for about $800 Canadian. But four nights in a section requires some dedication. Bedrooms are private, have upper and lower bunks that convert to two chairs by day (although we usually ask the car attendant to leave the lower berth down during the day for comfortable lounging or snoozing). There is a sink with mirror and a separate "annex" (toilet) in each bedroom. Roomettes have the in-room toilette and the sections have 'communal' his and hers washrooms; these are more spacious than the in-room facilities and I've been know to 'make use of these facilities from time to time'. One of the former sections has been converted to a shower; these are a godsend with lots of hot water, enough space to move around without getting everything wet, and there never seems to be a lineup. Soap, shampoo, towels and etc. are all supplied in the rooms when you board the train. The car attendants are very helpful and do everything they can to make your trip comfortable. A couple of years ago my wife got a nasty cold one day out and the train staff made sure she was well supplied with hot lemonade wherever she went on the train.

Both "sleeper" and "prestige" class use the dining car (one in winter, two in summer). Breakfast (filling) retains the same menu for the full trip, but lunch and dinner change daily. It's first come first served for breakfast,  but lunch and dinner are served with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd call reservations. The food is really outstanding and is all included in the fare. Sleeper class passengers pay extra for alcohol, but the dining car staff will run a tab for you if you want. The service staff run from Toronto to Winnipeg and Winnipeg to Vancouver (2 days each) so you get quite familiar and hopefully quite friendly with the train staff, particularly your car attendant and the dining car serving staff. Seating in the dining cars is 'dining car traditional'; you'll be sat at whatever table has space for you so over the course of a longer ride, you'll meet and share a meal with many of your fellow passengers.

After a day on the train life on board slips into a rhythm. Wake early, watch Canada flow past from bedroom window, morning 'constitutional', BREAKFAST, nearest dome for scenery and light reading, call for LUNCH, back to dome, to room for snooze, back to dome for afternoon socializing, board games with beer or wine, possibly a gin and tonic, or, if you've really got it together, a Caesar in the Park car, call for DINNER, after dinner live entertainment in the Skyline (mid train dome) lounge (beer) or back to the Park for more cocktails in the lounge facilities there. This is all interspaced with regular wildlife sitings and two or three station stops for leg stretching. After four, or if you're really lucky, five days, I find I'm getting fatter and lazier.

Coach passengers have their own Skyline, but don't have access to the sleeping cars portion of the train. Sleepers have one to two Skylines and  one or two dining cars (seasonal) plus the Park (seasonal as noted above). The bride and I have now made three winter trips, and we quit enjoy the country in the winter, and the slower pace of the off season on board vibe. CN's timekeeping is atrocious, so while Vanocouver departures are usually pretty reliable, Toronto arrivals can be up to a full day late. Via doesn't have a extra set of equipment in Toronto (for what reason I can't imagine), so it the arrival to Toronto is late, departure will be delayed or cancelled all together. If your train is cancelled or delayed overnight, Via will put you up in a hotel and work to put you on the next deparure. This is a fairly common occurance (at least in the winter, I'm not as familiar with the summer situation) and it must cost Via a fortune.

If it's not obvious, I'm a BIG fan of this train. The socialist in me is not impressed with "luxury train travel" so I have less (but not 'none') interest luxury rail travel. This is the last of the classic 'streamliners'; it's an honest scheduled 'common carrier' working train in the classic tradition with classic Pullman accommodations. If you missed out on the California Zephur, the City of Los Angeles, the Twentieth Century Limited, or the City of New Orleans, this is the train for you. (Via Rail, if your media relations department is listening, you owe me a "bedroom for two").

Oh, and by the way, I reserved TWO sets of as delivered, and two FP9's. I might up the order for the FP's but I need to spend some time considering the fleet of FP7's an 9's.
Geoff

[m_nanson]

For Christmas 2001 I took my Christmas leave and got a Railpass.  I took the Ocean from Halifax to Montreal, and then the Corridor service from Montreal to Aldershot on LRCs, to spend the season with my girlfriends family.  The Original Via will also work for this train, as it was before the Renset were imported for use with  on the Ocean.  I had a lower roomette in one of the Chateau cars,  Almost the same size as a bunk on a HMC ship.

But a question for Jason and the Gang.  Why are you not releasing 3 car sets of Original Via Blue, or HEP, for use with the LRC cars in Corridor Service.  Via Right now is running a train into and out of Ottawa made up of Budd coaches entirely.  I am not sure that it is the Fallowfield to Montreal Service, or if it runs to TO, but I have seen this train several times in the last few months.   

Mike

[CNR5529]

Hey @rapidotrains, would you guys consider at all selling individual Coach, Chateau and Manor cars (diners and Parks too)? The reason I ask is two fold: one, to partially re equip the Dominion, Atlantic Ltd and a host of pool trains, we could use individual cars. Two, the Canadian ran in a fairly regular configuration for many years, so to model it correctly we would need a particular number of each car type. As it is, if we purchase the 10 car set and the 3 car add on, we would have one coach too many and be short one Manor car (not counting the U series tourist sleepers). The extra coach is not a problem, I would use it on other trains anyways, but I would certainly like the extra Manor car. Or maybe a three car set with 1 Chateau and two Manors could be produced?

For anyone who is interested in such things, this is the typical car movement pattern on the Canadian when the train was inaugurated, taken from CPR documentation. It ran like this for a number of years.

Train #1 would leave Montreal (typically behind an F7 or F9 A-B lash up) with the following cars:
1 x Baggage Dormitory
1 x U series Tourist Sleeper
1 x Skyline Dome Coffee Shop
1 x Deluxe Coach
1 x Deluxe Dining car
1 x Manor Sleeping car
2 x Chateau Sleeping car
1 x Park Car

Train #11 would leave Toronto (typically behind an F7 or F9 A-A lash up) with the following cars:
1 x Baggage Dormitory
2 x U series Tourist Sleeper
1 x Skyline Dome Coffee Shop
1 x Deluxe Coach
1 x Deluxe Dining car
3 x Manor Sleeping car
1 x Chateau Sleeping car
1 x Park Car

In Sudbury, the two trains would be combined into #1 for the journey west in as few moves as possible with the following cars (typically hauled by an A-B-A lash up):
1 x Baggage Dormitory (from Toronto train)
3 x U series Tourist Sleeper (2 from Toronto train, 1 from Montreal train)
1 x Skyline Dome Coffee Shop (from Montreal train)
2 x Deluxe Coach (1 from Montreal train, 1 from Toronto train)
1 x Deluxe Dining car (from Toronto train)
3 x Manor Sleeping car  (from Toronto train)
1 x Chateau Sleeping car  (from Toronto train)
1 x Manor Sleeping car (from Montreal train)
2 x Chateau Sleeping car (from Montreal train)
1 x Park Car (from Montreal train)

The baggage dorm and dining car from the Montreal train, as well as the lead A unit, Skyline and Park cars from the Toronto train would wait in Sudbury for the next return trips of #2 and #12.

So if modeling the full CPR era Canadian west of Sudbury, one would need 1 bag dorm, 3 U sleepers, 1 Skyline, 2 coaches, 1 diner, 4 Manors, 3 Chateaus and a Park car. I will be ordering the 10 car and 3 car sets, but will need to hunt down a spare Manor car for completeness. As for the U sleepers, our very own @Angus Shops makes fantastic kits of these cars (which I already have 3 examples of...). I acknowledge that the consist did see some changes now and then, with the occasional spare lightweight baggage car, through baggage boxcar (in later years), or 2100/2200 coach tacked on. Locomotives were also swapped out as need. But in it's heyday, spare traffic (and cars) would have been diverted to lesser trains, meaning the consist on the Canadian was fairly regular.

Anyways, if you do make individual cars, I would certainly be interested in them! 

[Angus Shops]

I've ordered two sets. The plan, at this point, is to use one set, less one coach but with an extra Manor from the second set, plus two U series tourist sleepers as my model of The Canadian. I've designed my layout (mostly the staging, but also the passing sidings) to accommodate a 12 car train with 3 units for power. The second set will used for the Dominion, but I'll only need the Park, one Manor, one Chateau, a dining car, and a Skyline with the rest of the train filled out with various heavyweights and 'curved side' cars. This means one Chateau, 3 coaches, and a baggage car are unused at this time...

A question for Rapido: Will the windows and domes have the green tinted "glass" as was done on the HO cars (I just checked 'cause I couldn't resist purchasing the coach, Skyline and Park cars that Rapido has offered 'a la carte' so far). It's a very effective touch and looks great.
Geoff

[SF Chief]

I'm really interested in the buying original Canadian Pacific version of the Canadian, having ridden it from Montreal to Vancouver in 1965. It's a really beautiful train. One thing I that holds me back is that I really insist on coupling that is reasonably close to prototypical. Out of the box, most of the available N-scale passenger cars ride a LOT farther apart than the real thing. That said, by adjusting couplers, substituting trucks and/or couplers, and maybe fiddling with diaphragms, I am able to make Kato, Concor, Rowa and Centralia cars close-couple in a way that looks good and runs well, really well. But the Rapidos are more difficult--love the cars but have not quite figured out how to make them look their best in a consist and run reliably.  I run passenger cars on two foot radius curves so I don't worry about negotiating too-tight curves. If you Rapido guys could make the Canadian passenger cars couple closely, or maybe offer an add-on that would allow close-coupling, or spell out in an attached instruction sheet how to make modifications to close-couple in a way that would make the train look good and run well over large radius curves, I would be much obliged. And I would buy a set plus the 3-car add-on. (I've already bought two Kato F7B unit shells with winterization hatches that I'm detailing and modifying to look like CP units that could run behind the FP9.) I just hesitate to pull the trigger on such an expensive set if I'm not sure I can get it to look and run right. Thanks. Rick

[thomasjmdavis]

SF Chief- could you be more specific about how close you want your cars to couple?  My Rapidos scale to 40".
.

[OldEastRR]

The Rapido streamlined NH coaches couple extremely close --  On straight track, when coupled there's about 1.5 scale feet distance between diaphragms. However, because of the springs in MTL couplers if you push the cars together the buffer plates touch.
On their Osgood-Bradley coaches there are two mounting holes for the couplers - they come with the couplers on the inside hole but you can move them to the outside hole for more clearance. The streamlined coaches don't have two holes per end.
I would guess if you want the diaphragms touching when running a train you'd need really wide curves. I had to move the couplers on one end of all my OG cars because on my only sharp (13.5") curve the car ends ran into each other and pushed one car off the track. The streamline cars rub a little but don't derail each other.
Of course I don't know how the Canadian cars will operate because they haven't been made yet.

[SF Chief]

SF Chief- could you be more specific about how close you want your cars to couple?  My Rapidos scale to 40".
The Rapido streamlined NH coaches couple extremely close--

Thanks for the replies.  I seem to be out of date. The only Rapido passenger cars I have are the smooth side panorama coaches and duplex sleepers that came out about 8-10 years ago.  I don't recall the original scale distance between these cars and have since modified them. Sounds like the newer Rapidos fit the bill nicely. I'll be in for a Canadian. Or is it Canadien? Rick