In Praise of Rapido Trains

[Dwight in Toronto]

The standards and expectations on TRW tend to be above average, and we are quick to offer critique and constructive suggestions, as/when/where deserved.  Conversely, we are equally generous with our compliments and admirations where those, too, have been duly earned.

Here’s a little ‘happy outcome’ story involving one of our more prominent model makers.

After a 5 year search, I recently acquired a DC version of Rapido’s N scale Turbo Train (originally released in 2018).  I saw it on eBay two months ago, in the white CN livery that I’d been looking for, but it was twice the original price, and because the vendor was in the UK, shipping/duty/taxes were substantial.  Regardless, I bit the bullet, paid the piper, and the train arrived last week, back in Canada where it belongs!

The set features a powered dome car (PDC/loco) at each end of the train.  Curious about the viability of carrying out my own DCC/sound upgrade, I disassembled one of the PDC’s.  I knew that the main boards featured Next18 connectors, but finding factory-fitted speakers was a nice surprise.   I concluded that it seemed to be a fairly straightforward procedure to upgrade the set using a pair of ESU LokSound 5 decoders.

I visited Rapido on Monday to explain my approach, pick their brains etc.  Their tech guy said “why not just let us do it”.  I handed over the box, asked them to provide a cost estimate, and with visions of dollar signs dancing in my head, returned home, expecting to be making weekly follow up calls for the next month or so.

I was pleasantly shocked when they called me the very next day saying “all done”.   As it turned out, Rapido’s decoders were exactly the same price as I would have paid elsewhere ($139 Cdn).  Plus, they replaced a faulty coach-lighting LED board for free, loaded the proprietary sound/lighting project, ensured that everything worked properly, didn’t charge anything for time & labour, and reinstated the warranty on all the new work … all for the cost of two decoders.  I picked the set up two days after dropping it off, and it runs/sounds wonderful!

I had convinced myself that there would have been at least a $100 service charge.  
As coincidence would have it, the day I retrieved the set, Jason Shron (Rapido’s founder) issued a request for donations for a new project aimed at restoring an FP9A locomotive.

Since F units are my favourite, and in light of the exceptionally satisfying customer interaction that I had just experienced with the Turbo upgrade, I happily donated that ‘avoided service charge’ to the loco project.

You know, good karma and all that!

[John]

Glad to read your post and that you got a great outcome -- The Rapido response is also heartening ..

[kscessandriver]

Funny enough, I've been kicking around trying to find a Turbo Train set. Good to know they'll at least support what they've made.

[peteski]

I might as well pile onto the Rapido Trains praises.   I  also have 2 Turbo Train sets.   I reserved mine when they were first announced and finally received them after few years wait.

I run minie at the club's NTRAK layouts we set up at the train shows.  Some rough handling (by other members or even sometimes by spectators), and some spectacular derailments are basically to be expected.  This set has rather fragile details (rods) at lower corners of each car, and also the coupling mechanism inside the diaphragms contains some rather fragile parts.  Thankfully few spares for the fragile rods on the cars are included.

But after experiencing broken parts during few shows, I wanted to get more spares. I emailed Rapido explaining my situation and also mentioned that me running the trains during public shows is a good advertisement for them).  I don't know if that actually made any differences, but after couple of email exchanges Robin at Rapido sent me a package containing several of the rods and few complete diapghram sets.  No charge.

At another time I broke  some of those super-fragile parts of the Comet car's trucks and after few emails with Robin and Andrew replacement trucks were sent to me free of charge.   

Rapido provides a  very good customer  service.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I continue to maintain that Rapido is full of good people, all climbing up the slippery learning curve together.

Yes, I want them to do better, but for both our benefits.

It's why I usually give them the benefit of the doubt.

[Dwight in Toronto]

I too had pre-ordered one of those original 5-car sets, and took delivery back in 2018 … the same CN white, but with full DCC/sound.

Unfortunately, that model would not run more than two or three feet without derailing on my layout.  All my other equipment operated flawlessly - Kato, Atlas, Athearn, Model Power - any and all would run all day long without incident.  I was stumped over why the Turbo was giving me grief.

I dropped the set off at Rapido on the same day that it had been delivered.  Several days later they said that the two PDC locos had required some speed matching, but for me, performance remained dismal.  As I was returning the set for a refund, there was another fellow handing his back due to similarly dashed expectations, so my thought at the time was “endless frustration diverted”.

However, within a month or two, I came across forum testimonials proclaiming things like “this might be the best-running train I’ve ever had”, and “Rapido has knocked this one out of the park”, and even Spookshow gave it a glowing review.  I concluded that maybe I had been overly hasty, and should perhaps have given that Turbo a fairer shake.  And thus ensued five years of a$$ kicking and train searching.

I dismantled the layout 3 years ago.  Round 2 has thus far been a much more successful experience - the newly-acquired set runs perfectly on my 16’ Unitrack test oval.  It’s nice to have it back, but I wish that I would have paid more heed to the phrase “want what you have” during that first go-around!