Rapido N Scale SP “3/4” Dome Lounges out now

[Mark5]

Heads up!

@lombard for one

https://lombardhobby.com/n-trains/n-rolling-stock/n-passenger-cars/

[wmcbride]

I received mine today (one SP general service and one Amtrak).

They are very nicely done and roll freely.

There is one thing I do not like and it is the lighting. When you look at the car from the side, the LED lights stick down from the ceiling so it's four distinct light bulbs in the car rather than the prototype's distributed lighting.

[C855B]

 Yeah, I could use an SP "Overland" (UP yellow and gray) on my City of Everywhere. I sent a message to my usual dealer to see if his shipment isn't over-reserved.

[Dwight in Toronto]

FWIW … I picked up my preorder from George’s Trains last week. 

The tuscany CPR “Selkirk” 3/4 dome looks nice riding just upstream of my “Sandford Fleming” theatre car, and the SP version means that my Kato Morning Daylight now consists of 13 lighted coaches.  The colour match with the Kato cars is perfect:




With the LED’s lit up:




I agree that it would have been nice if the LED’s could have been recessed, or better integrated in some way to minimize their visibility.  On the upside, it’s really nice that a) the Easy Peasy magnetic wand readily toggles the lighting effect, and b) the LED’s are track powered, rather than using button batteries … SO much better!  Also, there is no flicker whatsoever.

[wmcbride]

Yes, the track powering for the lights is a welcome change from those little batteries.

[peteski]

They finally saw the light, and ditched those leaky button-cell batteries. 
Nice that they also included anti-flicker circuit.

As far as locating the LEDs further up in the roof, that would be pretty much an impossible task with the way the windows are set up with their tops curving right in the top of the roof. In an N scale model, even using 0201 LEDs and a very thin (like 0.010") flex PC board, adding  the thickness of the the shell's plastic, those LEDs would still show up when looking at a plan view of the car.

[wmcbride]

I kind of gave up on passenger car lighting about 25 years ago when I first was tring to get flicker-free operation in my Kato smoothside passenger cars ...

So, my passenger trains are "daytime" runners and my 3/4 dome LEDs will ve turned off.

[C855B]

Yeah, I could use an SP "Overland" (UP yellow and gray) on my City of Everywhere. I sent a message to my usual dealer to see if his shipment isn't over-reserved.

Huzzah! Snagged one!   

[nkalanaga]

I'm waiting for mine from N Scale Supply, and will also turn the lights off. 

One question, though:  Did the SP use clear glass, or should it be tinted, like Budd domes?

[C855B]

... Did the SP use clear glass, or should it be tinted, like Budd domes?

Tinted. Search for "southern pacific 3/4 domes" images and there are a number of proto shots showing the tint.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Thought I’d share a minor frustration.

All of my Rapido passenger coaches have body-mount couplers, and on 12 3/8” radius Unitrack they tend to “kick out” and derail non-Rapido coaches equipped with truck-mounted couplers.  Furthermore, the problem only seems to affect, say, a Kato coach being pulled behind a Rapido car.  If the Kato product is in front of, and pulling a Rapido coach, no problem.

All permutations and combinations seem to perform flawlessly on 15” radius Unitrack.

[nickelplate759]

Thought I’d share a minor frustration.

All of my Rapido passenger coaches have body-mount couplers, and on 12 3/8” radius Unitrack they tend to “kick out” and derail non-Rapido coaches equipped with truck-mounted couplers.  Furthermore, the problem only seems to affect, say, a Kato coach being pulled behind a Rapido car.  If the Kato product is in front of, and pulling a Rapido coach, no problem.

All permutations and combinations seem to perform flawlessly on 15” radius Unitrack.

This seems pretty normal (albeit definitely frustrating) when mixing truck-mount and body-mount couplers on full-length passenger cars.

[CBQ Fan]

I got two!   Very nice addition to the layout!

[Narlie]

Got the Selkirk, nice runner( works on my crappy track) and great lighting.

[nkalanaga]

I agree on the mixed body-and truck-mounted couplers.  They don't work well on sharper curves.  I've had trouble with Kato baggage cars (truck-mounted Kato couplers) behind Kato SDP40Fs (body-mounted Kato couplers) on 18 inch radius curves.  You'd think that models made by the same company, and made to be run together (both Amtrak), would work.  Nope.

That one was fairly easy to fix, though.  I tried 1015s on the front of the baggage cars, which worked fine, but I had to be careful which end was forward.  Then I added an ounce of stick-on lead weights to the baggage car, and put the original trucks back on.  That also worked just as well.

In your case, with sharper curves, I'd suggest body-mounted 1015s, or, better, 1016s on the Kato cars.  If you tend to run the same consist regularly,  You could change the coupler only on the offending end.