Whoop! Rapido 8600s!

[Point353]

Yuck!

Would you rather it was called h0gtrainz?

[peteski]

Would you rather it was called h0gtrainz?

I see what you do did there - very cute.
BTW, that is H0gtrainz.     

[bbussey]

FORGOT TO ADD — The windows are a press-fit into the body and are locked in place by the interior!  Nothing is glued!  So, very easy to disassemble and assemble! 

[Angus Shops]

Whoop! Whooooop!
Never thought I would see the day..just been waiting 50years for these N scale models. Can't wait for mine to arrive down under.

Jim   NHRTIA #L082
Modelling the NH down under

It warms my heart to see a fellow modeller so happy to be rewarded after such a long wait. Now only if the Canadian company would do The Canadian in N scale...

Those are great looking cars.
Geoff

[peteski]

FORGOT TO ADD — The windows are a press-fit into the body and are locked in place by the interior!  Nothing is glued!  So, very easy to disassemble and assemble! 

Awesome!  Hopefully more companies are learning to be more like Kato - no glue, snap together assemblies.

[rapidotrains]

Cool!  Thanks! So I won't have to custom-paint them.  Somehow I totally missed these (I uses to look at the BLW site for new product announcements. I don't like to be on mailing lists or on Facebook.

But are these out or not?  The Rapido preorders are closed - will my "local" online dealer (like MBK) have them available?

They were shipped from Rapido last week.

We have some extras available, so if your hobby shop sells out you can ask them to contact us.

-Jason

[peteski]

They were shipped from Rapido last week.
We have some extras available, so if your hobby shop sells out you can ask them to contact us.

-Jason

Thanks for the info Jason.

[thomasjmdavis]

Awesome!  Hopefully more companies are learning to be more like Kato - no glue, snap together assemblies.

Credit where it is due- Rowa introduced that feature almost 50 years ago on the C&O cars marketed by MRC and later Con-Cor.

Is that a change for Rapido?  The very fact that I don't know that is a tribute to the quality of the Rapido products- I have 9 or 10 of their CN and Erie cars, and have never needed to take one apart to fix something, beyond maybe adjusting a coupler.

Note to self- paint interiors....

[bbussey]

Did the Rowa cars come with windows?  I don't remember them coming with windows.  Certainly not flush windows.  I could be wrong, as they are from decades ago.

The windows on previous Rapido cars were glued in place.

[Angus Shops]

Bryan, I'm fairly certain the Rowa cars had flush windows, although I seem to remember that the slumbercoach did not for some reason. Those cars were so far ahead of their time back in the day. I think they'd hold up well in today's market.
Geoff

[Point353]

Did the Rowa cars come with windows?  I don't remember them coming with windows.  Certainly not flush windows.  I could be wrong, as they are from decades ago.

The original Rowa cars had flush windows.
The bottom of the car and the sides were molded as one piece, with a separate casting for the underframe detail.
The flush side windows were a pair of car-length strips (one for each side), which were held in place by the interior detail piece.
The roof had latches that snapped onto tabs at the top of the window strips.

[Mark5]

Bryan, I'm fairly certain the Rowa cars had flush windows,

Yes, they did.

[peteski]

Credit where it is due- Rowa introduced that feature almost 50 years ago on the C&O cars marketed by MRC and later Con-Cor.

Is that a change for Rapido?  The very fact that I don't know that is a tribute to the quality of the Rapido products- I have 9 or 10 of their CN and Erie cars, and have never needed to take one apart to fix something, beyond maybe adjusting a coupler.

You are of course correct. German-made N scale ROWA passenger cars were quite advanced.  Even their packaging was unlike anything else at that time (and even now).


As you mentioned, the cars had an open-top body shell with a separately-molded interior, press-fit windows inserts, separate under-frame, and a snap-fit roof.  No glue was used for installing the interior and the side window inserts, but sometimes glue was used on the end-door windows. While the roof was press fit, the roof latch was a separate piece which was glued to the underside of the roof. In several examples so much liquid cement was used to glue that piece that it softened the roof enough to cause slight indentation visible on the roof's surface.  And since the roof latches are in the center section, it often has a tendency to curl up at the ends.

The under-frame was usually glued to the body, so it had to masked for painting.

The side windows were very well executed. Not only they had hot-foil-stamped frames, some had close-to-scale venetian blinds molded partially closed.  That was a nice touch!  I don't think I have ever seen that feature replicated again.

Some of the later reissues of these models (by Con-Cor, sold in cardboard boxes as kits) did not have the foil-stampled window frames.  They eliminated that production step.

So yes, I agree that those ROWA American prototype cars were very advanced as far as American prototypes go, but other European manufacturers (like Arnold and Minitrix) were also using very similar designs for the models of European-prototype passenger cars. I have several examples in my collections.

But the point being made was that other manufacturers of American prototype models (passenger and freight cars and locomotives) utilize glue for most assemblies.

Kato is the only manufacturer I'm aware of which does not use glue on any of their models - everything precisely snap-fits together, like a fine puzzle.  Cars and locomotives. There might be an exception, but I can't think of one.  That was the point I was making in my original post - Kato=glue-free model.

[bbussey]

It's been many decades since I owned any of the Rowa cars.  I'd forgotten about the glass and the Venetian blinds detail.

[thomasjmdavis]

The MT heavyweights have also adopted "no glue" construction- I assemble-disassemble those cars frequently as I do a lot of painting and re-painting.  But as heavyweights, they don't need the flush glass, so not quite as sophisticated as the Rapido or Kato construction.

Sorry, I inadvertently took this thread off course.

Glad to see that Rapido has adopted "best practice" in terms of their construction, very happy with the Rapido cars I have, and glad that our NH friends have a car they have wanted for a long time. Hopefully, we will hear about the "in an upcoming newsletter" N scale passenger car release soon- and (editorial comment) also hoping it is something I can use on my planned "Dearborn station 1956" layout.