# Luckily these Rapido PA things are horrible



## Severn (May 13, 2016)

No don't look you'll regret it!!!


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

I actually got a well needed belly laugh there !! I think we all think you mean that we won't like the Rapido, until the comedy begins !!! 
Tanks loads !


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

I LOVE the Alco PA. Gorgeous locomotive! And in NH green and gold, livery, too!


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## Severn (May 13, 2016)

I particularly like the a/b configuration. Im not sure Mr. Wallet agrees. But then again less than my old O scale items in general.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

I too like them a lot. Much better than any F-3 or F-7 units. I had a Southern Pacific daylight scheme on my last US based layout.


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

CTValleyRR said:


> I LOVE the Alco PA. Gorgeous locomotive! And in NH green and gold, livery, too!


The PA and FA are my favorite diesel locos. I do N scale, and have two Kato sets: a D&RG (two powered A units and a dummy B by Concor), and a fully powered A-B-A in Santa Fe. As you said...Gorgeous!


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## BigGRacing (Sep 25, 2020)

Beautiful units for sure, some day I will have something similar in CN paint scheme !


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Except CN never had any PA’s, they only tested demonstrators before they decided not to buy.....


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## Severn (May 13, 2016)

I like that they are honest about the sound. I know the esu decoders support sound programming. But I wonder if with just a few CVs the factory engine sounds could be tweaked slightly so that should one have for example two of them they might sound a little different yet somehow still be prototypical... They'd have to offer these of course.

As for paint schemes. Are they selling an unpainted version? Could in theory roll your own... Lot of work though.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Severn said:


> I like that they are honest about the sound. I know the esu decoders support sound programming. But I wonder if with just a few CVs the factory engine sounds could be tweaked slightly so that should one have for example two of them they might sound a little different yet somehow still be prototypical...
> 
> As for paint schemes. Are they selling an unpainted version? Could in theory roll your own... Lot of work though.


Not a problem for me, because I don't do sound. I'd buy a DC version and add my own non-sound decoder. In my experience, Rapido releases an unpainted version about half the time. An inquiry now might nudge them in that direction.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Severn said:


> I particularly like the a/b configuration. Im not sure Mr. Wallet agrees. But then again less than my old O scale items in general.


Around here, Mr. Wallet (and SWMBO -- that's "She Who Must Be Obeyed") wishes that Rapido would burn to the ground...


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

As of this moment, there are no undecorated PA’s being offered, according to their web-site.....although one of the samples they show is undecorated......


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

Ask them to sell you one before it hits the paint shop. It shouldn't be that big of a deal.


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## Stumpy (Mar 19, 2013)

CTValleyRR said:


> I LOVE the Alco PA. Gorgeous locomotive! And in NH green and gold, livery, too!





MichaelE said:


> I too like them a lot. Much better than any F-3 or F-7 units.


Agree. Best looking cab locomotive ever built.


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

Not too bad in Rio Grande.









Better get some that smoke.








ALCO doing what ALCOs do.
Best looking locomotive ever in my opinion.

Magic


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## Severn (May 13, 2016)

I don't think these smoke but that's an interesting add on option maybe. The units appear large perhaps there's room. I'm sort of neutral on smoke. I like the effect but rarely activate it. Well that was O. I have nothing that smokes in ho unless I light it on fire.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Smoke capability would raise the price.....I vote for no smoke.....


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## Severn (May 13, 2016)

actually you can make cotton balls look more like the pics than than the fake smoke generators on engines... but they are static.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Severn said:


> actually you can make cotton balls look more like the pics than than the fake smoke generators on engines... but they are static.


People/figures on a layout are static too, and yet are quite popular.....but cotton ball smoke may be the more noticeable for being phoney.....


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## VTtrainguy (Jan 18, 2019)

My five year old steam-fanatic self experienced a diesel epiphany one day in 1952 when a gleaming ABBA set of Canadian Pacific Alco F1s pulled a Montreal-bound 100 car freight past the station in White River Junction, VT where my dad and I were standing. The late afternoon sun made those shiny diesels glisten, and that distinctive Alco rumble made the earth throb underfoot, and I decided that maybe diesels were not the devil incarnate after all. At least not all diesels, anyway.
And yet my collection still doesn't include a single FA or PA unit. Time to fix that oversight.


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

Severn said:


> actually you can make cotton balls look more like the pics than than the fake smoke generators on engines... but they are static.


*Finally !* Someone else out there who knows and/or does this too ! I've posted this trick in other forums long ago. 
~Only use a small bunch of strands (+-) as so they shimmy upward when underway..They begin to look like smoke rising (make short enough to avoid portals/overpasses)..Works great in steam engine smoke stack as well..
Teensy bit of white glue on loco first / touch cotton to it~
*Thanks* *Severn*.


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## Severn (May 13, 2016)

I bet I got my idea from you! I've had this other idea for a long time that goes with it ... Try some colored LEDs in the strands... Cycle through them to provide an animated effect. Not sure what colors (if any) would look good. Well that's my idea .. haven't gotten to it though...

You know there's a lot of potential here. You know how good those fame candles look... I mean maybe fake cotton ball strand smoke could too.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

> And yet my collection still doesn't include a single FA or PA unit. Time to fix that oversight


Well, Rapido makes FA units, as well as the new PA units......


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

Severn said:


> I bet I got my idea from you! I've had this other idea for a long time that goes with it ... Try some colored LEDs in the strands... Cycle through them to provide an animated effect. Not sure what colors (if any) would look good. Well that's my idea .. haven't gotten to it though..
> ~ *Severn,** that's some amazing coincidence you could have gotten the idea from an old post of mine !!
> But, not sure what you mean about LEDS.. You mean in the room ceiling ?
> We were talking cotton strands over diesel exhausts and steam stacks.. Where you puttin' LEDs ?
> Under diesel shell ? You lost me there, sir.. *


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## VTtrainguy (Jan 18, 2019)

Old_Hobo said:


> Well, Rapido makes FA units, as well as the new PA units......
> 
> View attachment 557967


Yeah, but in an early 1950s color scheme?? I seem to remember grey and maroon, or something like that. Rapido's a little rich for my blood. I'd settle for an older DC unit and install the DCC and sound myself.
That modern color scheme on that vintage loco just doesn't feel right to me.


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## BigEd (Oct 28, 2014)

As a South African whose father was a fireman and driver (engineer in US talk), diesel driver and lastly an electric local train driver I find a lot of interest in US diesels - most of our diesels were made there by you. 

I have a few favourites but to me THE most American diesel is the PA, bar none! What a classic beast! 

My dad is still alive and he would tell me all these stories of hand firing a 15F on a cold winter's morning in Worcester' yard - happens to be the place I sat on his lap and pulled the regulator so fat open the loco wheel spun and the shunters almost had heart attacks. 

I have his coal shovel in my train room! A treasured family heirloom to me.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

VTtrainguy said:


> Yeah, but in an early 1950s color scheme?? I seem to remember grey and maroon, or something like that. Rapido's a little rich for my blood. I'd settle for an older DC unit and install the DCC and sound myself.
> That modern color scheme on that vintage loco just doesn't feel right to me.


So, does this one feel right.....? That’s what I get for trying to be helpful by just posting the first pic I have......


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## VTtrainguy (Jan 18, 2019)

Old_Hobo said:


> So, does this one feel right.....? That’s what I get for trying to be helpful by just posting the first pic I have......
> View attachment 557972


Ayup, that's the beast alright. Thanks, O.H.! The B&M and CP had a shared Boston - Montreal route that ran on B&M trackage up the Connecticut River to Wells River, VT, then on CP rail the rest of the way. Locos and crews alternated one for one between the two roads, so you'd see CP ALCOs one day and B&M EMD F units the next. The ALCOs were usually pretty clean looking, and the EMDs always filthy.
CP generally was generous with loco power, and their crews ran on time mostly, while B&M tended to be stingy with power units and mostly ran late.
Someday I want to incorporate Wells River or White River Junction in a layout.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

VTtrainguy said:


> Yeah, but in an early 1950s color scheme?? I seem to remember grey and maroon, or something like that. Rapido's a little rich for my blood. I'd settle for an older DC unit and install the DCC and sound myself.
> That modern color scheme on that vintage loco just doesn't feel right to me.


Well, I agree with you on the DC version, because I prefer to install my own (non-sound) decoders. But Rapido is expensive for a reason, and it isn't the DCC / sound. Their locos are incredibly smooth running, and have beautiful levels of detail. That kind of quality doesn't come cheap.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

And not just nicely detailed.....they are reproductions of the actual locomotive.....no generic substitutions merely painted to look like CP or CN locomotives.....they LIDAR scan the real thing to make their model molds.....


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

Deleted


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Old_Hobo said:


> And not just nicely detailed.....they are reproductions of the actual locomotive.....no generic substitutions merely painted to look like CP or CN locomotives.....they LIDAR scan the real thing to make their model molds.....


Very true. They are meticulous in their attention to getting the finest details correct.

Several years ago, they helped us with properly detailing a 1:1 scale NH caboose restoration, including getting the colors right. They know things about the prototype that even people who worked on the real ones don't.


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## Severn (May 13, 2016)

I would like to get an a/b set. I would not like to pre order and the $695 is a little outside my comfort range. I've also taken an oath to finish my layout in a connected sense with all my turnouts and all that before buying anything new to run in it.


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