Rapido N Scale Budd RDC

[OldEastRR]

Where did you get the air whistle parts?

[BCR 570]

The Rapido Budd RDC-1s are now shipping; looking forward to seeing the first Phase II model in N scale.

Tim

[delamaize]

Yup, I got the payment request for mine a few days ago!

The Rapido Budd RDC-1s are now shipping; looking forward to seeing the first Phase II model in N scale.

Tim

[BCR 570]

My friend Mike stopped by last night with his Rapido Trains Budd RDC cars, and we took them for a test run.  Here they are passing through Tremblay (on Atlas Code 55 track):




and crossing the Kiskatinaw River (on Micro Engineering Code 40 track):




I was pleased to see that they look and sound great, and run very well.  The lighting is not too bright, and the onboard capacitance keeps the lighting very steady.

Looking forward to receiving my unit!


Tim

[Stolen Moment]

That's a really nice bridge mockup!  I look forward to the model.

Dennis

[BCR 570]

I have taken delivery of my Rapido Budd RDC-1.  I am very pleased to finally have a Phase II Budd car in N Scale.  This model will be detailed and completed in the British Columbia Railway's two tone green paint scheme:




The model runs smoothly over Atlas Code 55 and ME Code 40 flex track and sounds good.  The lighting is at an appropriate level and is flicker-free thanks to the onboard capacitance.  I performed a short test run:

Thanks for looking,

Tim

[brokemoto]

Mine showed up to-day.  The box is so large that I thought that it was HO scale.  The vendors can mail these and not worry about damage unless a mail truck runs over them.  I got a B&O no sound or decoder.  It is an early phase RDC, which the B&O's were, even those that it bought used from ATSF.  As you can see from the posts by the gentleman from Canada, they are available in later phase, as well

The cars come without numbers.  There is a decal sheet for the numbers and number boards.  There are also some heralds and logos.  For you B&O modellers, there is no Daylight Speedliner name plate.  To do that train properly, you do need an RDC-2, though.  The throttle response on the Kato is much defferent, so on DC, they can not be run together.  The DC users probably could bash a C-C RDC-2 and run it as a dummy......more on that later.  Had I known that the cars came without numbers, I would have bought two.

The detail bag comes with whatever-that-antenna is, two gyralites, four diaphragms, two end doors without chains and a traction tired wheelset.  The diaphragms have pins on them but there are no holes in the car body to accept them,  The instruction sheet does not tell you how to add them.  It does tell you how to change the end doors.

 Unless they were afraid that the things would not be able to get out of their own way on a steeper grade, I do not understand why the traction tired wheelset.  Just as the prototype, the instruction sheet tells you not to pull anything with these things or you will void the warranty.  This means that you CRI&P modellers are out of luck.  M&StL modellers need not worry as Rapido has not issued RDC-4s yet.  I do not understand the reason for the stricture against pulling anything with them, as there is no hydraulic transmission to overheat.  I guess that this means that the C-C dummy RDC-2 is out.  You can run it in MU with other powered RDCs, according to the instruction sheet.

Mine ran well out of the box.  It is mostly done with the break-in.  It is running well over a combinaiton of Kato UNITRAK, Atlas flex on cork and B-mann E-Z TRAK  The instruction sheet advises against additional lubrication.  it does not say this, but the factory overlubricated it.  I had to wipe excess oil off the bottom of the trucks.  Both trucks are powered.  I did try  it up the two-point-two per-cent grade on one section of my pike.  The grade runs for about three feet.  It was an accident but I decided to leave it.  it ran up it with no visible slipping.  Technically, I have voided the warranty, as I did couple a dummy C-C RDC-2 to it for two laps in each direction.  It ran far more smoothly without the dummy RDC-2 than it did with it.  i also tried it up that grade.  There was one momentary slip but it regained traction almost before I had noticed it.  it got up the hill.  I took off the dummy and have no plans to put it back onto the car. 

Overall, I am happy with mine, so far.  I would recommend its purchase to anyone.

[learmoia]

I noticed it was lacking from all the artwork but I believe it's too obvious a detail for Rapido to overlook, I'm sure we will see it on the production run. If not it should be easy to replace them like I did on my Kato ones.

They might even offer them as optional parts as the air whistles were installed some time after the railroad bought them, and I believe they were delivered with regular air horns.

Crisis averted..


And I presume the Amtraks are ex New Haven.

[nscaler711]

I probably would have bought the ATSF units had they gotten the later repaints.

Maybe the Amtrak ones will have to do while Im on this Early Amtrak kick. 

[jagged ben]

My SP 10 came with the doors without the chains installed, because (according the instructions) there's a pretty herald herald on the door.  Well, being the kind of person who would rather see chains than a herald when chains are protoypical, I was interested to follow their instructions to 'simply remove the shell' to replace the doors from the inside.  Rather cruel not include tips on removing the shell, which requires removing the couplers (a bit tricky,  I pulled them through towards the inside), and about 8 toothpicks to find and release the clips ... (Is that 'simply' these days?)....but mission accomplished.

And then I appreciated how thoughtfully designed this model is.
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I'd been a bit worried about the wires I'd spied, but as you can see all the lights and the board are contained to the mech and shell removal doesn't interfere with any of the internals.  All the smart parts are up under the roof.  Also see those capacitors?  Once those are fully charged this thing has perhaps more than 8 seconds of keep alive for lights, and as much as 6 seconds for lights and sound.   Okay, lights sound and movement is a fraction of a second, but I'm still impressed, never seen anything like that in an N scale loco. 

If you're the sort to replace the doors, they don't warn you to be aware that the steps at the bottom are attached, don't lose them like I almost did when they come loose from the doors.  I used a very tiny bit of white glue to encourage mine to stay in place.  But all's well that ends well.  This is really a beautiful model, looking forward to seeing how it runs at the club. 

[learmoia]

My SP 10 came with the doors without the chains installed, because (according the instructions) there's a pretty herald herald on the door.  Well, being the kind of person who would rather see chains than a herald when chains are protoypical, I was interested to follow their instructions to 'simply remove the shell' to replace the doors from the inside.  Rather cruel not include tips on removing the shell, which requires removing the couplers (a bit tricky,  I pulled them through towards the inside), and about 8 toothpicks to find and release the clips ... (Is that 'simply' these days?)....but mission accomplished. 

They did the same thing with ATSF and MTA...

FWIW, I'm finding plenty of RDCs in the wild without the chains on the door.

[brokemoto]

0ne thing that I am noticing during the break-in is that if you stop it and start it and, start it at slow speed, it will run a bit herky-jerky for about six to eighteen inches.  It then smooths out.  It is not a major herky-jerky but it is noticeable.  This happens both if you stop it and reverse direction or stop it and start it in the same direction.

I am wondering if this is die to something delicate in the drive train which is why the manufacturer is telling you not to pull or push anything with them.

[dem34]

Well they did say they sold relatively well. So I'm kinda hedging on  them doing the schemes I need next run.

[turbowhiz]

Every single example of these cars should be re-equipped with NP couplers, given the fact that they state that you're not supposed to pull anything with them or the warranty is void. (Why they come with a traction tire wheelset!?)

The factory couplers lead to unfortunate coupled distances....


That's better!


The NP equipped cars will STILL go around 9 3/4" corners! RDC's look awfully goofy on corners that tight though.

Unlike some others experience here, I found my DC example to be very well matched to the Kato units running on DC, no issues running those together at all, at least at the speeds I'd want to run them at (i.e. prototypical). I found my DC example to run extremely well out of the box, no jerkiness at least on casual inspection.

You can see how much better the factory Kato couplers are then the Rapido here:



The Kato's are also a trivial NP conversion with the forthcoming box line; Even topless the Kato is a hint low, but not enough to be a problem:




I'm going to comment on the one part of these Rapido cars I really find not so great, and that's the treatment of the fans and radiators:



There is a phase 1 car vs phase 2 difference, but I think it makes the point. The Kato car has a quick wash. I pulled the factory etchings to see what was going on underneath... The rad's are there, but the etching isn't up to par to make it useful. Its a case where probably an injection molded grill is just going to lead to better results; The fans are an easy 3D printed replacement, the radiators are going to be a bit trickier.

If I wanted a phase 1 car, I'd be looking at how I could swap the Kato shell onto the Rapido mech maybe....

[bbussey]

I relented and ordered a pair of NH units. I like that they come equipped with Hancocks. But I will be upgrading the bulky number plates as well as swapping in MTL True Scale couplers.