Rapido’s N scale Canadian & FP9A’s - Problems
I acquired Rapido’s 10-car “The Canadian” set earlier this year (2021), and just purchased two full-sound FP9A’s to haul it two weeks ago. I chose the early maroon colour scheme.
The coaches and the locos are nothing short of beautiful, gem-like, museum-quality specimens that are truly wondrous to behold. Appearance-wise, they are far and away top of class. Performance-wise, not so much.
The coaches had worse “rollability” than ANYTHING I had ever purchased in the last 15 years. My best-running Kato 6-axle heavy hauler was spinning it’s wheels with the 10-car line. I deduced the main problem right away (wheel sets rubbing against undercarriage structural members) and returned the set to Rapido, who machined two “divets” into the frame to provide clearance above each bogie (ie - four divets per coach). But it turns out that there were other friction points as well - see the Rapido web site for troubleshooting details. They did all the corrections for me (I live less than 10 miles from their facility here in the Toronto area), but there was still one car that wouldn’t roll. This one I corrected myself (one wheel would rub against a tiny underbody detail piece on certain turns … enough to lock up the wheel … I ground off the wee plastic thingy and the problem disappeared).
The coach lighting is so-so … too much flicker. And the red markers at the rear of the observation car are configured as normally off, meaning that you have to wave the magic wand thingy over the rear of the car to switch them on. This would be ok if they stayed on, but like all the other cars they frequently flicker, and when they flicker off, well, they stay off … they’re a flicking pain in the nuts!
The point is, at this price point, shoddy oversights of this nature are inexcusable. Even after all the “make right” repair work, my Rapido “The Canadian” 10-car set still only rolls half as nicely, and not nearly as reliably, as my Kato “Morning Daylight” 12-car set, but the Rapido cost was three times higher.
Now, on to the two FP9A locomotives. As mentioned, stunningly beautiful renditions. Great sounds. One of the two units seems to frequently jitter, sputter and die, needing a wee kick in the ass to get moving again, but eventually gets it together … hoping it’s just break-in pains (but I’m not holding my breath). Individually they run well … consisting was another story.
Don’t get me wrong- they were very nicely speed-matched right out of the box, and my NCE system did the back-to-back consist setup in short order. The problem was that the prime mover sounds disappeared as soon as the consist was formed … toggling F8 did nothing. Endless hours of fiddling with cv’s, royally screwing up some cv’s, getting things back to original etc never did resolve the problem; Rapido never answered emails; I gave up and regrettably accepted that I would never have engine sounds in consist mode.
Long story short - while breaking in the locos in consist mode the other night, I noticed in the Rapido instruction sheet that F4 is for “Steam Generator”, so, out of curiosity, I turned it on. Nothing happened, but I left it on anyway. Forty seconds later, both locos were suddenly emanating the prime mover sounds! In the end, I serendipitously discovered that the only way to get engine sounds in a consist is to turn on F4 first, then toggle F8. F4 can be turned off thereafter, and the engines will sound until F8 is pressed again. To fire them back up, push F4 and then F8 again, and so on. WHY this is so, is beyond me.
For a long time, I have tried really hard to really like Rapido Trains. I like their sense of humour, I love their attention to detail, and I have the utmost admiration and regard for Jason Schron and the wonderful business he has fostered and grown. But I had a bad experience with their N scale Turbo train two years ago (it was the only thing that never once completed a circuit of my layout without constantly derailing or stalling - I had no choice but to return it). And now The Canadian and it’s locos have already caused me all kinds of grief - the old “once bitten twice shy” thing.
I’ve concluded that at Rapido, appearance and detail are everything, with functionality, durability and reliability taking a back seat. It’s too bad, because at the higher-than-average prices they command, customer expectations are, and rightfully so, equally higher than average. But in my experience, they are falling somewhat short.
Apologies that my first contribution to this board was such a long one, but sheesh, I do feel better getting some of that off my chest!