Rapido Update Email

[OldEastRR]

For anybody wanting an FA with DCC and sound, the LL locos "laying around all over train show tables" will wind up costing quite a bit to get there anyway. If you are capable of doing so. So fine -- you people who don't like DCC, you've got pleeeeenty of hard-to-DCC FAs out there for cheap (allegedly). But for us wanting more, we've got  ... F units, E units, GG1s, GEVOS, PAs, GP7s, U-boats out the yingyang -- and more to come!-- so WTF are we complaining for?
Funny how HO guys already had many FAs to choose from yet Rapido, Bachmann, etc, still made more anyway. Boy, are THEY suckers!

[bbussey]

How many N scale steam engine models are available?  How many of them are available RTR with DCC+sound?

[draskouasshat]

For anybody wanting an FA with DCC and sound, the LL locos "laying around all over train show tables" will wind up costing quite a bit to get there anyway. If you are capable of doing so. So fine -- you people who don't like DCC, you've got pleeeeenty of hard-to-DCC FAs out there for cheap (allegedly). But for us wanting more, we've got  ... F units, E units, GG1s, GEVOS, PAs, GP7s, U-boats out the yingyang -- and more to come!-- so WTF are we complaining for?
Funny how HO guys already had many FAs to choose from yet Rapido, Bachmann, etc, still made more anyway. Boy, are THEY suckers!

I take it you don't understand the correlation between how many n-scale modelers there are vs HO and how that relates to sales numbers?
that plays a HUGE part in this game.

[Joetrain59]

Does anyone have a part # for the WKW/LL RS2 wheelsets?
 Thank you,
 Joe D

[reinhardtjh]

Does anyone have a part # for the WKW/LL RS2 wheelsets?
 Thank you,
 Joe D

Here's the parts sheet for the RS2.  You want #9 -- 922-581482 Geared Driver (2)


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[crrcoal]

There’s speculation that an RS11 may be in the works. People are basing that on a cryptic message in the  announcement. Perhaps Jason can shed some light?

[thomasjmdavis]

Actually, I think part of the problem here is that the FA-1 and FA-2 would not share a common chassis (the FA-2 being a couple feet longer, and also a couple more feet between truck centers).  And while (IIRC) and FA-2 and FPA-2 would have a common chassis, the FPA-4 is different.  So, unlike EMD F-2 through F-9, or GP-7,9,18 (I think), there is a lot more chassis work involved in turning out Alcos- along with a smaller number of roadnames.

And, perhaps the biggest drawback compared to doing EMD F units- there are no guaranteed sales from painting the thing silver and lettering it for ATSF or CB&Q and packing it with some passenger cars.  I would be willing to bet that even in FTs, ATSF Warbonnets outsold many of the other roadnames (even though there were only a few real units, and only for a relatively short time). For that matter, I would not be shocked if they outsold ATSF freight units.  With FAs, you just don't have that "guarantee" of sales.

That said, there obviously is demand, and it does surprise me that no one has marketed an FA-2 (or FB-2) shell with some sort of adapter to fit an existing chassis (would it fit an RS-2 with a bit of grinding to fit the nose?). Not sure what's out there that might fit an FA-1.  Ironically, in the days when FAs were available from Atlas/Roco or Walthers/Roco and Life-Like, there were a couple small companies making resin shells for the variations (with and without the "eyebrow" trim piece on FA1s or with steam generator on the FA-2 to make it an FPA-2), but haven't seen any recently. 

[thomasjmdavis]

There’s speculation that an RS11 may be in the works. People are basing that on a cryptic message in the  announcement. Perhaps Jason can shed some light?

If they did the RS11, they could do the RS18 and the RS36 at the same time (a lot of common parts between them), and that would give them the "3 new N scale locomotives" to announce before the end of this year.  Just sayin'....

[Mark5]

If they did the RS11, they could do the RS18 and the RS36 at the same time (a lot of common parts between them), and that would give them the "3 new N scale locomotives" to announce before the end of this year.  Just sayin'....

FWIW, the RS18 (and RS10) have been done:

http://www.blwnscale.com/ll-rs10-rs18.htm

Mark

[Joetrain59]

Do we need another RS11? Does the Atlas model need improvements/changes? The only thing I do is put RSD12 fuel tanks on them.

Thanks for the RS2 parts diagram. The problem is finding all my LL FA/B units. I've lost count.
 Joe D

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The only thing I do is put RSD12 fuel tanks on them.

Is there that much of a difference?

[Joetrain59]

Ed, the "air tanks"(?) above the fuel tank are much more dimensional. I'll see if I can post some pix later. Were originally posted on the A board years ago. Still have a few.
 Joe D
 RS11 and RSD12 pix from Spookshow's site. Proto photo from D&H Virtual Museum

[Mark5]

Joe,

That's pretty cool.  Looks like D&H got bigger fuel tanks than N&W did - the N&W tanks are really tucked under the sill!

http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=82431

Mark

[bbussey]

New Haven RS11 units had RSD12 fuel tanks. I swapped in the Atlas part on mine.

[Joetrain59]

Mark, I think it may be the lighting for the visual difference. The RSD12 tanks just look so much better on RS11's. Have to find pic of one I converted. Does take a little cutting/filing, but very easy and quick.
 Joe D

Found a pic of D&H 5003 I painted up, with the RSD12 tanks on it.