Rapido UK Newsletter No.45

©2024 Rapido Trains Ltd

Everything feels like it’s been moving swiftly for Rapido in June, and it's been a blast.

The effort at the start of the month to get the S160 over the line and out to the public on the 80th Anniversary of D-day (the very event the locos were designed to be part of) was a mammoth undertaking. In addition, our other projects have been moving along nicely, we’ve expanded our operations, and we even managed to squeeze in a day out for some of the team.

Early in the month Rapido head honcho Jason escaped the Canadian office for a few days and kindly graced us with a visit, which was a pleasure.

Jason and Corwin look at Andy's latest impulse buy - read on to find out more.

You will be pleased to hear it has not just been office moves and excursions; the factories have been working solidly to progress upcoming projects in order to get completed models in your hands and prototypes to us for review. We are sure there is something in this newsletter to keep you happy. It features updates on the N Gauge SECR wagons; the OAA Open Wagon packs; LNER/LMS 25t LOWMAC Machine Wagon; Metropolitan E Class; HR Jones Goods; NER Y7; LNWR D88; and GWR B-set.

We promised you in last month's newsletter that we would update you on Andy's visit to Canada, so we will cover that shortly, plus a rather interesting bit of news he received will sign off this month's newsletter. Read on to find out more!

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Andy Goes to Canada

Well, back in April, I finally made it to Canada for the first time. It’s been nearly four years since I joined the fledgling Rapido Trains UK. At that time, we were still in COVID restrictions, and I was working out of my spare room which meant a trip to Canada to see HQ seemed like a fantasy.

Fast forward a few years and the company has grown enormously with a very hard-working team.

The time had come to take a trip to Canada to tie-in with this year’s Great British Train Show. Every two years, a group of Canadians known as The Platelayers (including Rapido Canada’s very own Mark Stapleton) organise the show in Brampton, northwest ofToronto.

This get-together of North American modellers with an interest in British prototypes has been sponsored by Rapido Canada in the past and this time it was Rapido UK’s turn. Attending the show as a sponsor with all our latest UK samples was a must, and the opportunity to visit the Canadian HQ was too good to miss. So, we packed up a large box of bits and sent it across the pond whilst I jumped on a plane.

My first taste of Rapido Trains Inc - walking into HQ was a somewhat surreal feeling after four years.

Canada was a new stamp in the passport for me, as I’d never had the opportunity to visit before. I was met by Mohan at the airport after my flight, who took me for a quick bite to eat before I managed to get some sleep. Having not acclimatised to the time difference, I woke up early and decided to walk around the corner to HQ.

What greeted me was far from a surprise – the office and warehouse is filled with models, bits of models, lots of railwayana and rail posters, all alongside items from Doctor Who. Honestly – there is a TARDIS in the warehouse!

The team in Canada are amazing, an incredibly friendly bunch who all love what they do and are willing to share the best places for lunch. Less than two days had been scheduled to spend with the team, and during that time it was a pleasure sharing ideas and knowledge to better both companies.

Can you guess whose office this is?

All of the serious business talk was interspersed with more trains – real and model. Behind the Canadian office is a stretch of mainline railway with regular freight trains passing by. I’ll admit that I spent a fair bit of time diving out the warehouse door to watch the trains pass, usually accompanied by several members of staff.

During the visit, I also had the opportunity to visit a couple of clubs – including an operating night at the Scarborough Model Railroaders. These clubs blow my mind – the layouts are massive and like nothing I have seen in the UK. At scale speeds trains are taking over an hour to do a circuit of the layouts. I couldn’t resist taking a sample along to play with – our OO Port of Par Bagnall was dwarfed running round the layout.

Mohan shows me round part of the vast HO scale layout.

Of course, the real reason for attending was the show. Held over two days it was a great meet with a surprising number of people coming through the doors. Some people had flown in from distant lands or driven nearly 12 hours to attend. For the show we borrowed the Canadian stand which Mark, Dan, Mohan and I set up before filling it with UK samples. Once the doors were open, we hardly stopped for two straight days. It was wonderful to see a large number of people that were not only interested in our UK projects but also knew plenty about our UK operations. It’s really heart warming to know the UK’s projects are so well-received by an international market. 

All set up and ready to go. Mark poses on the Rapido stand at the GBTS - complete with Jason's pet Dalek!

After the show Mohan kindly took me to see the sights in Toronto, including a trip on the subway, dinner at the Steam Whistle Brewery (inside an old locomotive roundhouse with a few preserved items nearby), and a trip up the CN Tower to see the city skyline.

My only train ride in Canada - a trip on the (immaculately clean) Toronto subway.

Sadly, it all came to an end too quickly and it was back to the airport for a flight to Florida to join my family for a holiday. I really hope it is not four years until my next visit.

I must thank Jason for approving and arranging the visit alongside Mohan who acted as my chaperone, taking me to some fantastic places for food and indulging my requests to do as much railway related stuff as possible. Likewise, Mark, Dan, and the rest of the team all need mentioning for their help and hospitality at the office and the show. Thank you all – I cannot wait to visit again!

Every Rapido office needs a little white dog. Meet Snowy - Mark's pooch who seems to be right at home in the Rapido warranty department.

We Mentioned it Once, But We Think We Got Away With It All Right!

Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave (or an air raid shelter), you’ll probably have spotted that the spectacular S160 became available to pre-order earlier this month. With its ties to WW2, involvement in the D-day preparations and subsequent deployment in Europe, we felt that the 6th of June was the most appropriate date for the USATC S160 to appear on your radar and inboxes. This commemmorated the 80th Anniversary of D-day respectfully with an all-round Allied effort. 

To help you navigate the minefield of versions and options available to you, we have put together this handy video giving you a bit of history into the class, including each of its variants and where the lovely preserved engines have ended up. Spoiler: quite a few survived into preservation!

We were particularly pleased with some of the rarely-seen (or even possibly never before published) footage we managed to obtain from the Imperial War Museums archive.

If you are still debating which one(s) to pre-order, check out the full video below.

Product Updates

Our factories have been immensely busy with upcoming projects, so we thought we would give you a look at their progress in June. Along with the final bits of the buses we showed you in last month's newsletter the following projects have come on leaps and bounds:

N Gauge SECR Freight packs

No, we haven’t just taken pictures of our OO range of SECR wagons from a long way away! These are in fact the first production samples of the upcoming N Gauge SECR freight packs. Aren’t they cute?

Many of you have contacted us in the past asking if we can shrink some of our existing range down to N Gauge, coupled with off-the-cuff phrases like "it can't be that hard to just reduce the size, can it?" Let us assure you that it isn’t that simple.

We have gone to great lengths to ensure that these lovely wagons capture the look and feel of the real thing without them being too delicate or impossible to manufacture. This involves tweaking things such as the thickness of brake rigging and rails so they are more pronounced, but don’t appear unrealistic, changing rivets so they are both visible and viable to be produced and incorporating N-scale couplings and their mounts.

All of these things are impossible to achieve by simply shrinking our existing drawings by 51.49% . We hope you will agree that the additional work has been worth the effort and we are really proud of how these samples turned out. We are currently reviewing these samples in detail and are hoping for them to go into full production shortly. 

To ensure your freight packs will travel and be stored safely they will also be contained in these stylish boxes, which include pre-cut foam inserts.

Available in numerous combinations and sporting liveries covering everything from their SECR days right through to BR, these spectacularly Southern samples will bolster N Gauge collections with prototypes from an era seldom covered in ready-to-run.

We have a limited number of each of the packs available to pre-order via our website and you can pre-order these from any of our Official Retailers too.

BR Diagram 1/191 OAA Open Wagon (N Gauge)

Just before hitting send, we received an update on these and rather than make you wait another month, we thought we would drop them in. Although these painted wagon bodies are currently incomplete and lack their chassis, couplings, buffers, and wheels, it’s not too difficult to imagine a train of these delightful opens behind your modern image loco of choice. We are pleased to say we have signed these off and assembly has now started. Keep an eye on future newsletters for further updates

Metropolitan Railway E Class (OO Gauge)

This model is at the latter stages of production, and as you can see from these images progress is good. We are hoping to have the gorgeous maroon models winging their way to us shortly. Keep an eye out on our social media pages for further updates, as well as checking your emails over the coming few months for payment links if you have pre-ordered directly from us. 

If you are still keen to get your hands on one of the models we are sorry to say that we are sold out directly through our website. However, many of our Official Retailers still have limited stock available for you to pre-order, so if you don’t want to miss out we suggest you start hunting down your variant of choice before they disappear underground.

And remember, Mind the Gap!

Highland Railway ‘Jones Goods’ (OO Gauge)

Following the first colour samples being shown off at Model Rail Scotland earlier this year we requested a few revisions and then approved its production to start. We are pleased to say that they should be produced during July and August before shipping to us in September.

Last month we also had a visit from our friend and YouTuber That Model Railway Guy. He put together a detailed look at some of our upcoming models, which included the Highland Railway ‘Jones Goods’. He took a closer look at how we have adapted the firebox flicker and sound on the loco to more accurately portray the draw of the fire inside the firebox and we think you’ll be as impressed as we were. Watch it below:

NER H Class / LNER Y7 (OO Gauge)

This cute little green 0-4-0 has been progressing nicely, and we are pleased with how striking the lovely North Eastern Railway green looks on the bodyshell. With the work the team did gathering the sound files for this, we can’t wait to see this chuffing its way around our layouts. Much like the Jones Goods, there are very limited numbers of this locomotive still available direct from us.

LNWR D88 Covered Vans (OO Gauge)

It's not just progress on pre-grouping locos, our upcoming LNWR D88 Covered Vans are well under way too. As you can see from this ever-growing stack of wagons, the factory is getting closer to getting them done. We are hoping these will be finished and on their way to us in the coming month or so. 

GWR B-Set Coaches (OO Gauge)

We have been showing off the unpainted engineering samples for the last few months and have been eagerly awaiting progress from the factory. In recent weeks the bodyshells have started the process of being painted prior to receiving their printed livery details. Keep an eye for more progress in future newsletters.

Remember, although the order books have closed for all of the models in our production update this month, some of our Official Retailers may have stock you can pre-order, so if you are considering adding these to your collection, don’t delay. 

Order Book Closing; Catch Them While You Can!

BR Diagram 1/801 Fish (later Parcels) Van (OO Gauge)

Don’t worry, nothing fishy is going on...yet! However, the order books for our new fish and parcels vans will close on the 15th July.

This month’s wagons are quite the catch and have been very popular. With the arrival of the engineering prototypes and how well they have gone down, we thought it would be sensible to close the order books on this boatload of vans. That way we can reel in the line and get them in your hands as soon as possible. Just make sure you pack your scales. You can find out more about these vans by clicking on the video below:

If you are yet to cast your net and still want to land these models, you can still pre-order them either directly through our website or from any of our Official Retailers.

(Ed: Please, please, please stop.)

You mean we didn't hook you with our fishy puns? OK, let's move on...

That Sinking Feeling - A Day Out with a U-Boat!

We love our local railways and do our best to support as many of them as we can, both as an organisation and as individual volunteers. With the 50th Anniversary of the re-opening of the Kent and East Sussex Railway and its gala celebrations approaching, we thought we had to get involved somehow.

After a couple of phone calls and nods from the relevant people we were able to confirm that we would be sponsoring SR 2-6-0 ‘U-Boat’ U Class No.31806 as a visiting loco. Currently residing at the Swanage Railway, this is the last survivor of the U Class which had previously been converted from the ill-fated SECR K Class tank locos. So its origins make it proper a Kentish engine and therefore the perfect candidate to bring to such a momentous event. It’s fair to say that adding this loco to the festivities helped enhance an already spectacular weekend for enthusiasts.

Part of the agreement to our sponsorship was that we requested a trip out for our staff behind (and at times on) No.31806. On the Monday after the 50th gala the team headed down to the railway for a ride, alongside joining in the afternoon's photo charter organised by 30742 Charters.

Andy, as a volunteer driver at K&ESR and Rapido Trains UK boss, had the luxury of choosing which loco he wanted us to sponsor, and also ended up driving throughout the day. Talk about the perks of being the boss!

We would like to thank everyone at the Kent and East Sussex Railway and Swanage Railway for making the sponsorship and day out possible, it was awesome.

We shared a few pictures of our day out on our social channels and the modellers wibble metre was off the chart. It wasn’t that long ago that we teased you for 6 months with pictures of an O1 in various newsletters. We couldn’t pull the same trick twice, could we?

The wibble-o-metre has been in the red since we announced we were sponsoring 31806. But are we making a new model? Wouldn't U like to know...

Oh, and one more thing! At the time of our visit, we didn’t realise that this day out would turn into one of the most expensive shopping trips of Andy's life. We will let Andy tell you more about this life-changing acquisition later on!

UNIT 5 is Alive!

Our plan of Staplehurst domination continues. We really need to get a sign...

This is more than a niche 80s sci-fi movie reference to keep Jason happy - we are pleased to say that Rapido Trains UK has expanded!

As much as we would like to be the biggest model railway company in the UK, we are more than happy to settle for the gradual domination of the industrial estate where we are based in Kent.

For many years we have called Unit 3 our home, however not so long ago the unit only two doors down became vacant, so we jumped at the opportunity to nab it while we had the chance. With more and more people joining the team, we had begun to get under each other's feet.

The new warranty workshop. Andy is very pleased at how tidy it is...

This new-found space has given our Warranty Engineers an awesome new workshop to call home and our leadership team their own office space away from the sporadic shrieks, squeaks and belches that come from the design team's office.

We take great pride in our customer service and warranty and feel this additional space will give us the breathing room we need to focus and continue upholding our high expectations for quality.



We can't wait to make Units 3 and 5 work in harmony. All that’s left is to install a dog flap in both units so nobody will miss Ernie.

JASON: And remember we have to decorate the outside of Andy's office to look like the Doctor's lab in UNIT HQ circa 1972. I'll bring a TARDIS and a Gel Guard!

ANDY: Umm... Yeah.

Thought of The Month - Dream big because dreams do happen.

By Andy H

We have all been there and bought a locomotive on an impulse buy, haven’t we? Well, our latest one is slightly different. Meet Marcia, a 101-year-old 1287 class built by Peckett & Sons.

One of the smallest operational standard gauge engines - Marcia stands at Tenterden Town. Courtesy Phil Edwards.

Regular readers will know that I spend my free time working on the K&ESR driving steam locomotives. Ever since I was a young lad, I wanted to be a driver but the thought of owning my own locomotive was firmly placed in the ‘dream’ category. That was until earlier this month.

Since becoming a steam driver in 2018, I have had the pleasure to work on the footplate of many locomotives, all of which have been a privilege, although a few notable examples stand out. One of which was Marcia’s Peckett cousin Teddy. This very similar saddle tank was at the National Railway Museum while I worked there, and we had great fun operating it over a number of years. Its small wheels and free steaming boiler gave it some real go, and it was always fun to drive and shunt with. When I joined the K&ESR in 2014 Marcia was an engine I really looked forward to experiencing and it's fair to say I was not disappointed. 

Teddy: a Peckett 'Yorktown' class and a close relative of Marcia.

Fast forward to 2023 and sadly Marcia’s previous owner of over 50 years, Dick Beckett, passed away. The engine was originally offered for auction in 2024 but a high reserve meant the engine didn’t sell. The engine subsequently left the railway earlier this year and went to Berrybrook Steam and Classics near Exeter and was once again offered for sale, this time at a more reasonable price.

The thought of purchasing Marcia slipped into my head (in much the same way as I imagine the thoughts of buying buses or taxis slip into Jason’s head) and frankly I couldn’t get it out. It was keeping me awake at night. A purchase was financially possible, but with family commitments and the current economic climate it might not be the best idea right now.

A little engine and a little train. Courtesy Alan Crotty.

However , I have learned a lot of things in my nearly four years at Rapido (mostly Doctor Who-related). The biggest things have been to follow my gut and also to dream big. Jason is to blame for both of these; his personal guidance has made me see that anything is possible.

So, I shared my dream with Jason. Jason’s view was simple – why don’t I just do it? Talking through the issues helped but still it seemed a little too much like a risk. However, to my eternal gratitude, we came up with an idea – a joint purchase with Rapido Trains UK. We could secure the loco, bring her home to Kent and give me some time to buy out Rapido’s share over a couple of years to ease the risk. A grin appeared on my face – frankly it’s still there now.

Marcia arrives home on the K&ESR - with a very happy Andy.

Over the last two weeks, numerous phone calls and emails have taken place to secure the locomotive and agree that it can return home to the K&ESR. The Rapido UK family have all got behind my mad adventure with staff helping to create the engine a new website, edit photos, create artwork and carry out other bits or research for the future - all on their own time. Check out their work at www.peckett1631.co.uk

For those of you that are still reading and interested – we will follow up with a little more on the locomotive itself but until then I need to extend my heartfelt thanks to a number of people. Thank you to my family for their support with my ongoing railway adventures, Jason for his support and guidance, and my friends here at Rapido Trains UK for their enthusiasm and help – I cannot wait for you all to come and have a play with Marcia.

With that I would like to finish this newsletter by saying – go follow your dream. Be it a new layout or model, lifestyle change, business decision, or a personal treat – life is too short, and we should all dream big. 

Even Marcia is dreaming big and wants to be an express engine. Courtesy Phil Edwards.