|
Rapido Newsletter Vol. 227B
©2026 Rapido Trains Inc.
| | |
Dear Rapido Customer,
Rapido Trains is proud to announce our new partnership with Home Shops!
Hey - we're not buying Home Shops! We don't do that. Chris and his team will continue to operate independently, retaining their identity, leadership, and creative direction. Rapido is just helping out with marketing and distribution.
| | An Arkansas Valley 44-Tonner looks great in the blue and white paint scheme. | |
Under this partnership:
- Products will be co-branded as Home Shops & Rapido Trains
- Home Shops will remain independently operated
- Rapido will provide manufacturing support where required
- Rapido will lead marketing, promotion, and global distribution for joint projects
- Both companies will collaborate on product development and design
Both companies share a commitment to high-quality, accurate models and to serving hobbyists at every level... from collectors to operators.
Curious about freelance? Have your own freelance railroad you want to produce? Click here for the Home Shops FAQs.
| Mike Ostertag's Farlin Terminal fits any layout! Here we see an S scale SW and boxcar. | |
A Note from Chris at Home Shops
Why freelance?
Where imagination meets operational realism.
Freelance railroading is more than creating a paint scheme or inventing a name; it’s the art of building a world. It’s the freedom to design a railroad with its own history, geography, traffic patterns, and roster decisions, all grounded in believable operations. Freelance modelers blend creativity with authenticity, crafting railroads that feel like they could exist.
Freelancing isn’t limited to pure imagination. It also includes reimagining real history: reviving fallen flags, extending abandoned lines, or exploring alternate outcomes that reshape the railroads we know. Whether you’re inventing something entirely new or rewriting a page of history, the goal is the same: to create a railroad with purpose, personality, and a story worth telling.
It’s a space where storytelling, engineering and community intersect. Some modelers build modern shortlines fighting for survival; others develop regionals with decades of lore; others explore “what if” scenarios where a favorite railroad survived into the present day. Every approach is valid, and every railroad reflects the creativity of its owner.
At Home Shops, we champion this spirit. Our products, events, and resources are built to support modelers who want to create something uniquely their own: railroads that feel authentic on the rails and personal on their layouts. Freelance railroading is a celebration of possibility, and we’re here to help bring those worlds to life.
Chris Palmieri
Shop Foreman
Home Shops LLC
| | The first Home Shops & Rapido Trains co-branded products are listed below! Order from us direct or through your preferred dealer! | | |
HO Scale CF7 Locomotive
The HO Scale CF7 Locomotive got a neat addition with TWO freelance roads: Alabama Central and Farlin Terminal. Let's take a quick look at each road.
| The CF7 Locomotive is the perfect match for the Alabama Central’s operations. As a shortline built on reclaimed trackage and rebuilt locomotives, the ACRR naturally gravitates towards economical secondhand power. The CF7 locomotives have proven their reliability and worth, running daily service out of their Prattville, Alabama base. The red and black scheme nicely adapts to the angular shape of the CF7, making this all the more believable! | |
This colorful CF7 looks great in green and is the perfect locomotive for a railroad like the Farlin Terminal. Their ability to navigate shortline trackage while handling large cuts of cars makes them the ideal motive power for this ten mile operation. The Farlin Terminal's main commodities are agricultural and manufacturing customers making for some heavy tonnage. Their CF7s routinely run through tight curves on the branches and industrial trackage, which are exactly what these locomotives are built for!
Reserve these now! We have limited quantities of these CF7s as they are in production now! You can do so from your local hobby shop or directly through us.
| | |
HO Scale GP38 Locomotive
Freelance GP38s? We got 'em! In fact, these roads stretch from the dusty Southwest and into the Southeast, but that doesn't mean you need to model these areas to get them! Both the Copper State and Natchez Trace & Orient would look right at home on your layout as leasers or runthrough power.
| The Copper State GP38s have the grit that's needed to run in the state of Arizona. CSR 328, 331, and 336 each represent a different era of the railroad’s evolution — from early Phoenix switching, to post‑independence system roaming, to the high‑elevation expansion that reshaped CSR’s identity. Together, they embody the spirit of a railroad whose purpose has always been clear: keep Arizona’s copper moving. | | |
The Natchez Trace & Orient GP38s were built for speed and precision. Operating on the Meridian Speedway, their assignments range from ducking in and out of road freights on locals to hauling tonnage at speed. They embody the vitality of a regional railroad built on industry, interchange, and the enduring rhythm of Southern railroading.
Reserve these now! We have limited quantities of these GP38s as they are in production now! You can do so from your local hobby shop or directly through us.
| | |
HO Scale RS-23 Locomotive
The HO Scale MLW RS-23 Locomotive features FOUR freelance schemes in this announcement. They are: Arkansas Valley, Kara Terminal, Splitrock Mining and West Falls. Each scheme has its own unique and colorful scheme. Let's take a look at each below!
| The Arkansas Valley 410 and 413 looks fresh in their blue and white paint. The RS-23s are somewhat unique to AV's roster of larger locomotives. Their advantage is their ability to work in small spaces but powerful enough to move cuts of cars around in yard work, locals and even road freights. While the AV has just the three RS-23s, they readily filled a critical operational gap at exactly the right moment, replacing aging switchers. | Kara Terminal's RS-23 Locomotives join an already eclectic roster of motive power. This industrial-heavy road has been around for over a century! Starting as an electric operation starting at the turn of the twentieth century, the KTRY eventually switched to diesel operations. By the 1980s, the road had a wild mix of Alcos and MLWs. The RS-23s are the perfect locomotives to handle the city jobs with tight curves and turnouts mixed with good sized trains. | The Splitrock Mining Company RS-23 Locomotives serve Minnesota's Vermilion Range. Everyday they take empty and loaded ore cars around the various mind loadouts, concentrators and the docks of Lake Superior. They may not be handling heavy road trains but their job is every bit as important! SRMX RS-23s also look great in their yellow and gray colors with the large billboard number on the hoods. | |
Rounding out the RS-23 freelance schemes is the very attractive West Falls Railroad. A true bridge line road built on moving traffic from the Midwest and south into New York and New England. (Move aside Guilford, we've got a better operated railroad!) While the RS-23s naturally look good, the dazzling orange and black scheme puts them over the top! It is truly believable to imagine two of these climbing through the fall landscape of New York and Vermont hauling salt and grain cars.
Reserve these now! We have limited quantities of these RS-23s as they are also in production now! Delivery is expected later this year along with all of our other RS-23s. You can order them from your local hobby shop or directly through us.
| | |
HO Scale Virginian & Ohio FA-1 and FB-1 Locomotives
Last month we announced the FA-1 and FB-1s for the renowned Virginian & Ohio. Nothing better than Allen McClelland's inspiration and vision and these FA‑1 and FB‑1 locomotives capture that spirit!
Let's take another look at these very blue locomotives.
| The FAs were delivered new in the classic deep‑blue scheme with the bow‑tie herald. These Alcos became the signature power on the V&O’s early diesel roster and became the backbone of operations — hauling coal, moving bridge‑line manifests and establishing the look and feel that made the railroad legendary. | |
For modelers who appreciate the roots of proto‑freelancing or simply want beautifully executed first‑generation Alco power, these FA‑1 and FB‑1 locomotives are the perfect answer!
These neat Alcos will ship with our current run of FAs in a few months' time. Order today from your local hobby shop or directly through us.
| | |
HO Scale PC&F 4124 cu.ft. Boxcar
The PC&F 4124 cu.ft. Boxcars are here with three colorful freelance schemes! These cars feature a modern Hydra-Cushion underframe, 100-ton roller bearing trucks, 10’ doors and DF-2 loaders. The car capacity is 4,124 cubic feet inside of a 40' frame — a modern 40' car!
While their primary purpose was copper anode service in the Southwest US, these were often seen all across the country in a wide variety of other services for these freelance roads.
| The Copper State Railway's cars were built for rugged, copper anode service. In case you needed further proof, just look at the railway’s signature metallic copper logo and the striking metallic copper anode emblem applied to the cars. This signifies that they're in dedicated smelter service. The desert blue and metallic‑copper paint scheme reflects CSR’s mining heritage. This 4124 cu.ft. Boxcar is a believable, era‑appropriate addition to any modern regional or freelance roster. | Línea Ferrocarril Golfo y Río Bravo — known across the Tamaulipas and Veracruz as La Costera del Golfo is a rugged coastal regional railroad shaped by salt air, tropical storms, sugarcane fields and the humidity of the Gulf of Mexico. From Matamoros to Altamira and south toward Tuxpan and Poza Rica, the GRB moves the commodities that define the region: sugarcane products, cement, grain, packaged agricultural goods and port‑related freight. To handle these dense, high‑volume loads, the railroad relies heavily on its fleet of 100‑ton PC&F 4124 boxcars, compact 40‑foot high‑cubes perfectly suited to older docks, tight industrial spurs, and the short‑haul, high‑frequency operating rhythm that keeps the coastal economy moving. | |
The Lost Dutchman Railroad exists in a wonderfully plausible alternate history where Southern Pacific spun off its Tempe‑area branches in 1967. This created a bridge‑line and tourist carrier with a personality all its own. Owned by an eccentric Cajun billionaire, with minority stakes held by SP and the Great Northern, the LD blends serious freight operations with a deep appreciation for heritage equipment.
In this version of history, the PC&F 4124 Boxcar fits in perfectly. The modern 40' design and rugged construction made it ideal for the LD’s mix of cotton, citrus, copper and manufactured goods. These commodities commonly were seen traversing the rails between Tempe, Mesa, Chandler and the line’s northern extension toward Hayden Mills, Eden Perdu and Two Guns.
| | |
This concludes the Home Shops series of announcements but the story doesn't stop there. In the next several newsletters you will see a freelance railroad feature going forward. These will be little writeups on the many freelance railroads Home Shops supports.
Curious about starting your own freelance road? Want to learn more about the roads NOT shown here? You can find those answers over at: Home Shop's FAQ page.
See you next time!
Bobby
| | |
USA: 382 High St, Buffalo, NY 14204, USA
Canada: 500 Alden Road, Unit 21, Markham, ON L3R 5H5
| | Subscribe to our Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube channel! | | | | |
