Just received a set of Rapido Osgood-Bradley cars in New Haven Hunter green. I missed out on the first run, and it's been a long wait.
They are well painted and loaded with detail; very good looking IMHO . I plan to add figures.
Not without problems, however. These cars could not go around my passenger car-friendly 36R layout without derailments and uncoupling on grades. Several of the KD type couplers had the brake hoses at the wrong horizontal angle, and one wouldn't grab its counterpart. Most of the couplers were too low.
Worse, some of the rear trucks were hanging up on the pipelines running under them. One set of lines, valve and tank came out of the box broken off by the truck. One thicker pipe also rubbed on an inside wheel in curves to the left on two cars.
Two things have helped get the cars working for now: removing some of the rooster tails on the ends of the truck side frames, and raising the bodies with washers. I had problems like this on my Super Continentals years ago. Testing would catch this kind of stuff, but I guess nobody does it any more.
Not quite RTR, but worth a few hours work.
Hal
Hal, hang in there. Once you get those cars fine tuned, you will be a happy camper, er, modeler.
You mentioned all of the issues with the Rapido passenger cars. Here is my fix list:
1. Trucks. Get out the truck tuner and ream out those spots where the axles rest in the trucks. That is critical to good rolling performance.
2. Couplers. The couplers are too short, causing the diaphragms to rub and catch on each other. Consider alternating longer couplers with the shorter ones provided by Rapido.
3. Truck Screws. Loosening the screws that hold the trucks to the chassis helps immensely to overcome derailments.
4. Underbody Detail. The undersides of these cars is a sight to behold. Of course, no one can see the detail. The details are not always firmly glued in place and can easily catch on turnouts, road crossings, etc. Spot glue loose detail back in place.
5. Coupler Boxes. Mine are glued together making coupler replacements impossible. Jason told me that the later releases were not glued, so you may be OK there. When the couplers hang to low, either use fiber washers to shim them and/or screw the coupler boxes tighter. I also noticed that sometimes the floor of the car is not securely in place but tightening the coupler box will solve this problem.
Rich
Alton Junction
Thanks for sharing your info as it sounds like these cars will be attractive winners. Please post photos of them when you have a chance
Hmmmmmmmm......Just one thing seems to be missing. Now what was it? Oh yeah! Hello, manufacturers! We need an FL-9 (and/or EP5) to go with these cars!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alcomike/8170256922/
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