In this issue of Rapido News UK:

• See our factories in action
• The Brush Class 92 in N
• Locomotionmodels.com update
• More Pendolino progress - yes, you can still order this!
• Hello Realtrack Models!
• Revolution wagons
• Another mystery announcement
• Come say "Hi!"

By the way, this newsletter was released into the wild in November just before Warley 2016. If you're reading this for the first time in 2019 after coming across a link from a forum or elsewhere, then you might want to consider subscribing to our dedicated newsletter for our UK projects. The link is at the bottom.

Jason is currently on a plane en route home from China where he has been very productive... and he has filmed three short videos to show you exactly how trains are made in China.

Making RDC Models at the Rapido Factory is a real quickie just giving you a feel of what it's like in the assembly room at Rapido's main factory. This is a teaser of what is to come.

In The New Rapido Factory , Jason takes you on a tour of the new factory that Rapido just opened about three weeks ago. I will be filming an update to this when I am in China in the spring and you can see how it (hopefully!) has grown into a thriving little business. Right now it is the very early days.

Finally, Shipping Day at the Rapido Factory takes you on a more detailed tour through the entire factory process, and you can see the assembly, printing, painting and shipping of Rapido's new RDC models. Yes, the RDC is a North American prototype but the process is the same whether we are making models for Canada, the UK, or anywhere else in the world.

New locomotive announcements are always exciting so here goes with our first one in British N Gauge! 

 

Revolution Trains has been working on the Brush Class 92 dual-voltage electric locomotive since the middle of 2015 so it's a great relief to finally be able to reveal our involvement in this fantastic project. The last main line locomotive type to be designed and built in the UK, the powerful Class 92 is also Revolution's first locomotive model and we've been tasked with their most challenging brief yet.

Built to operate freight and international sleeper services from the UK to Europe the Class 92 was introduced in 1993, just one year before the Channel Tunnel opened. Able to work on both 750V dc third rail and from 25kV ac OHLE they showed a clear design debt to the Class 60. Sadly, like too much of the stock built to traverse the "Chunnel", the fleet of 46 locomotives has been under-utilized for much of its life.

The fleet is now split between DB Cargo (previously EWS/DB Schenker), GB Railfreight and Europorte 2 (Eurotunnel's freight subsidiary) and they have proved to be more than capable performers on intermodal, steel and general freight traffic both in Britain and abroad.

Seven livery/number combinations will be produced in the first run, as follows:

92003 Beethoven in original triple-grey

92001 Victor Hugo in EWS maroon/gold

92036 Bertolt Brecht in EWS branded grey

92009 Marco Polo in DB red

92032 IMechE Railway Division in GB Railfreight

92018 in Caledonian Sleeper teal

92xxx Unnumbered original triple-grey (with decal set covering all logos)

The N Class 92 will feature:

● Injection-moulded body with separate metal and plastic details

● Detailed poseable pantographs

● Switchable lights (with day or night mode)

● All-wheel drive with a heavy, low geared chassis

● Easy to fit DCC Sound and DC options

● Etched 'Polo Mints', BR arrows and nameplates (where appropriate)

● Additional features will be revealed in due course

The price is £135 DC/Silent and £230 DCC/Sound and pre-orders are now being taken. For more details visit Revolution Trains' ordering pages for this locomotive.

 

Initial pre-orders have already been high so we have agreed with Revolution to fast-track the design and production of this model. We expect 3D design to be complete in mid-December and first samples of the Class 92 should be here in the spring. This has unfortunately meant that this model has leapfrogged the Class 320/321 EMU in the design process. We'll be showing off progress on this model early in the New Year.

With the APT-E project rapidly receding in the rear view mirror of life we're well aware of the high expectations that this has created for our other two projects with Locomotionmodels.com. We're very proud to be working with a part of the National Railway Museum and the great team based up at Shildon.

 

As recounted in past newsletters the Stirling Single has had something of a protracted development since we announced it some 20 months ago at our second scanning event at Locomotion Shildon. However, we believe that the most difficult days are now behind us and we will be very pleased to be showing off a 3D printed sample of GNR 4-2-2 No.1 at the Warley Show.

Having been a pioneer in the use of 3D laser scanning on both sides of the Atlantic, we have also made increasing use of 3D printed samples over the last couple of years. These are usually created to check the fit and operation of parts, especially on difficult design projects like our Icons of Steam CPR "Hudson" locomotive, and we very rarely show them to the public. We're really happy with the way the Single was rendered so Warley visitors are in for a real treat.

 

The next step for the Single is to go into tooling and we're cautiously optimistic that this will be finished in enough time for the first official injection moulded samples to be shown off in public at the York show next spring. Exciting times!

While the Stirling has been eating up design time this has unfortunately pushed back development of the Prototype HST power cars. Judging by the Rapido email inbox this model is high on the want lists of many modellers. The general feeling seems to be that people are happy they can cross it off their 'wish someone would announce this" list, but that it has now moved to their 'wish Rapido would get on with it" list. We feel your pain!

 

Unfortunately we don't have anything new to show you at Warley. However, now that the Stirling is heading towards tooling, the HSDT has become a priority and we hope to get this scanned early in the New Year and the CAD finished by the summer. Anything less than running samples by Warley 2017 would be considered a pretty poor show on our part so feel free to hold us to that. (I'm going to regret writing that, aren't I?)

The Revolution Trains Virgin Class 390 Pendolino is another model that has overstayed its welcome on the current projects list. For Rapido Trains in its formative years, a 30-month development cycle was not uncommon. Ask any Canadian modellers you know about the LRC (cough! - eight years - cough!).

 

In recent years we've been able to shrink the development time from idea to delivery down to around 18 months to two years for many projects. It's easy to get used to this as the "new normal" so having the Pendolino take much longer has come as a shock, even though the project is even more complicated than the now infamously difficult APT-E. By complete co-incidence, in Guangdong province the word APT-E is apparently now actually a swear word that people use to describe awesomely wonderful things that nearly killed them.

 

At the Warley Show, we hope that Ben and Mike will be showing off the latest sample of the Pendolino. I say "we hope" because the samples are en route from China now, and when we tried tracking them last night the expected delivery date had been pushed from "Friday" to "Not a chance, bucko." I'm now planning on camping out at the DHL distribution centre in Sutton Coldfield and run in front of the truck when it arrives. Whether or not we have it at the show, this model will be used to approve the drivetrain and lighting as well as the fit and finish of the parts. Painted bodies for approval will come when production commences.

An 11-car Pendolino with full interior lights is quite a challenging model to make work around all kinds of track, including 2nd radius curves, "S" curves and inclines, and the factory is happy that it has resolved any issues to its satisfaction. While in China, Jason tested the model extensively and gave it the thumbs up. We think the way the Pendo moves, especially around curves, is sublime and the new electrical connection couplers are a work of art. We'd be interested in your comments on the model too so please come take a look and tell us what you think.

 

The final sample of a model is another milestone that is always worth celebrating and the Pendolino has a production slot in our factory's schedule for next February. As production is only starting after Chinese New Year (January 28), we are keeping the order desk open until Monday 30 January 2017. While this has been one of the more "fluid" order deadlines in Rapido's history, Monday 30 January is the FINAL FINAL order deadline. The guys at Revolution need to give me and Jason their numbers that week, and we're not making an extra tonne of trains for you to buy at 40% off later. If you're ordering a Pendolino from outside of the UK and Europe you can pre-order here. If you're purchasing within the EU then please order direct from Revolution Trains.

 

I don't want to kick a dead horse, but please keep in mind that APT-E models were fetching more than double the retail price not long after release. When we say we don't make inventory, we really don't make inventory. So please reserve your Pendo by the 30th.

 

Amazingly, despite the price increases in almost every commodity, we are NOT increasing the price of the Pendo. We are holding to the originally-announced prices. Don't ask me how we can afford to do this (we can't). But you've been kicked in the wallet enough over the last few months.

The second announcement is not as far down the development path but Realtrack Models were keen to put a marker down to produce the first high-quality version of this much requested 1980s DMU. This is currently in design and we will be showing off the first CAD images early in the New Year. Something to look forward to on those cold and damp winter nights.

 

Both models are strictly limited edition releases and Realtrack will be taking pre-orders either at the Warley Show or on their website, which will go live with the ordering information over the weekend. You can visit their website here.

Since our last newsletter we've delivered the N VTG TEA bogie tankers to Revolution Trains and we've been very pleased by the response from Ben and Mike and their customers. We've been just as happy with the reviews in the notoriously tough British model railway magazines. It's not an exaggeration to say that assembly and intricate printing on this model tested our factory to the limit and we've enjoyed showing our colleagues in China the positive feedback.

At the Warley Show Revolution will be showing the latest progress on the OO version of the VTG TEA and - should the box of samples arrive on time (see Pendolino comment) - there will be a total of four samples on display illustrating a range of variations that are available on these models. This was ground breaking stuff on the well received N Gauge models and we are very happy to help Ben and Mike bring that same level of detail to their first OO models. By the way, if you happen to work at DHL and you can convince the Brummies to let the samples out of their distribution centre before Warley as opposed to after Warley, please give me a shout...

The new wagon will be initially produced in N gauge and modellers will be able to place pre-orders for it at the show or online. Revolution Trains will also be taking expressions of interest for the same wagon in OO Gauge so if it is something that interests you then please put your name down.

The new announcements don't end there. The Warley Show will see a fourth Rapido designed and manufactured locomotive revealed with a mystery partner. We won't say too much about this except to exclaim that we're surprised that this has never been produced as a ready-to-run model before, well at least not in the usual way!

 

Our partner will be taking expressions of interest for this model at Warley. We think this locomotive is a "slam dunk" and that we will certainly have to expand our new factory to be able to make the production run to a reasonable schedule. We'll be very interested to see what the response is over the weekend.