It's finally here, the long anticipated VIA Rail Canadian by Rapido Trains Inc.Below is my revue of this exquisite model.

As an avid VIA Rail fan and modeler, I have been patiently waiting the arrival of this 10 car set since Rapido made the announcement some time ago.

Needless to say when it arrived, I was not disappointed. The detail on these passenger cars is amazing, right down to the individually numbers ends of the cars in micro numbers/letters. Each coach has working end marker lights and fully lighted interiors so you can see the unique interiors of each of the coach types.

Rapido's Domed-Observation coach, Strathcona Park 8714 passes through the wash area on my layout, the Trenton Subdivision in N Scale.

There is a working tail light on the observation car and all the coaches have highly detailed stirrups.

 All the coaches have highly detailed ends, with marker lights, vestibules, gates and micro lettering of the name/numbers of the coaches.

When the set arrived I checked all the wheel sets and of the 40 sets, only one was out of gauge. All the couplers met standards for height and trip pin.

The wheels ran freely right out of the box and my two Kato F40 engines that I scratch built in VIA colours easily pulled the 11 cars (I picked up and extra Skyline Dome) up a 2% grade.

Until know, VIA Rail modelers have had only two choices when it comes to running our favourite passenger trains. Accept the models that are passed off as VIA Rail, our scratch build our own from the poorly modelled kits. With the arrival of Rapido's Canadian, that has certainly changed!

In the past I have scratch built my own coaches. Creating my own models after hours of research, looking at photos and determining just what needs to be where. Below is a photo with my own scratch build coaches, using Con-Cor models on the right and Rapido's new coaches on the left.

 As you can see there is no comparison.

Congratulations to everyone at Rapido on the production of this wonderful set!