Model Railroading > Rapido New Announcements in HO Scale

The surprising non-Canadian announcement of the C30-7. GE's answer to the SD40-2 sold well enough in the late 70's and early 80's, but there are few operating exmaples today. They were the coal haulers in the early days of the Powder River Coal Boom. BN really liked them in that service and kept them going into the early 2000's. UP's C30-7's roamed more freely after the Dash-8's arrived. Conrail was also a big buyer of the GE locomotives.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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The roadnames. More info can be found here;

https://rapidotrains.com/ho-scale/diesel-locomotives/c30-7.html

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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The other HO announcement was very Canadian, the CN Rebuilt GP9RM and Slugs. I've been on one of these rebuilt GP9's at Western Rail Inc and CN did a good job rebuilding it. Looks like Rapido is making a very worthy model of them.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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The paint schemes. More info here;

https://rapidotrains.com/ho-scale/diesel-locomotives/gp9rm.html

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Rapido is going to sell boatloads of the C30-7's

WrongWayMurphy Wrote:
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> Rapido is going to sell boatloads of the C30-7's

I would think so. Just wish they would make the similar MP/UP C36-7's with the dynamic brake box. Now that is a model I would really like to have!

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

funnelfan Wrote:
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> The surprising non-Canadian announcement of the
> C30-7. GE's answer to the SD40-2 sold well enough
> in the late 70's and early 80's, but there are few
> operating exmaples today. They were the coal
> haulers in the early days of the Powder River Coal
> Boom. BN really liked them in that service and
> kept them going into the early 2000's. UP's
> C30-7's roamed more freely after the Dash-8's
> arrived. Conrail was also a big buyer of the GE
> locomotives.

Conrail was indeed a big buyer of GE's but only 10 C30-7's. That having been said, it would be great if they did the unique to Conrail C30-7A's (50 built in 1984) and C36-7's (25 built in 1985). The later"C-Boats" had a few unique features that are hard to model (such as the short nose access door).

Great news - a great addition!

Posted from Android

When I started reading the news letter I saw the Geep/slug and dismissed it, thinking well that should make Canadian fans pleased. After all it is Rapido, I expect to see stuff thats Canadian with a US cross over. And then I saw the C30 dash 7, never saw that coming. You never see the traction motor detail but what a great addition. I hope this is a massive success for Rapido. Now I have to decide if i want 3 BN or 3 UP units. Yes Jason, I know what you would say....Get all 6!

Its a shame Rapido skirted around the units leased to Western Pacific in 1979. UP 2400, 2401, 2417, 2450.
Doesn't mean these others weren't visitors in tbe 70s to the Canyon.
Interesting that the photo they use on their poster is the 2417, just without the battery box numbers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/22 18:41 by TomG.

Awesome, We need a good C30-7.
I wonder if/how this will affect Aurora Miniatures C36-7/C30-7 projects? 

Tim
Hanesworth

Those geep handrails look familiar...

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sixaxlecentury Wrote:
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> Those geep handrails look familiar...

I think they are using wire handrails with plastic stanchions like Bowser. Those seem to work best IMHO.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Alright!  Perfect timing, I've just about got the BN I was building from an Atlas unit done. 

Those Santa Fe units got around in the 90's after they'd been traded into GE. I know I've seen shots of them on BN, SP and CSX. Probably other roads too. 

Nathan Beauheim 
Loveland, CO

sixaxlecentury Wrote:
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> Those geep handrails look familiar...


Nice try but no. The one's in the drawing have a channel for the upright. But some here just seem to love to bash Rapido...

PHall Wrote:
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> sixaxlecentury Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Those geep handrails look familiar...
>
>
> Nice try but no. The one's in the drawing have a
> channel for the upright. But some here just seem
> to love to bash Rapido...

Its called sarcasm.  

Either way, those handrails look like crap.  The plastic injected around a metal rail, is a good idea, but does not look good at all, nor do they hold up well.  



 

sixaxlecentury Wrote:
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> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > sixaxlecentury Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Those geep handrails look familiar...
> >
> >
> > Nice try but no. The one's in the drawing have
> a
> > channel for the upright. But some here just
> seem
> > to love to bash Rapido...
>
> Its called sarcasm.  
>
> Either way, those handrails look like crap.  The
> plastic injected around a metal rail, is a good
> idea, but does not look good at all, nor do they
> hold up well.  
>
>
>
>  

Well if you have a better way to do it why not send it to Rapido?

I think the C30-7 is going to be a huge hit.  Great first series of paint jobs, too, with plenty of room for future runs with more modern repaints at CR, BN, UP, along with earlier ones for Seaboard System and Family Lines among others. 

And if this does well, my hope is that there would be a possibility of the Conrail-only C30-7A, of which 50 were made.  They were based in Selkirk NY for years but also ran through across the continent.  

Exciting times in the hobby!

~Dave
https://onondagacutoff.blogspot.com/

For a decade or more, most trains on Conrail's Boston Line (former Boston and Albany) were three unit sets of 6600 series GEs. If I modeled that era, I would be excited about this announcement. 

Instead, I sigh, and order 2 D&H PAs, also coming from Rapido. 

so many models, so little time. 

NYSWSD70M Wrote:
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> Conrail was indeed a big buyer of GE's but only 10
> C30-7's. That having been said, it would be great
> if they did the unique to Conrail C30-7A's (50
> built in 1984) and C36-7's (25 built in 1985).
> The later"C-Boats" had a few unique features that
> are hard to model (such as the short nose access
> door).
>

The big eastern buyers of C30-7s were N&W and Family Lines. I believe each railroad had about 100 of them, and of course they progressed to Norfolk Southern and Seaboard System/CSX, although for the latter I don't know how many got Seaboard System paint. For a while in the early 1990s a bunch of the Santa Fe ones were leased to CSX, and after that I believe a few of them got blue paint "dips" when Conrail acquired them for its putative lease fleet. I remember visiting Barstow in March 1992 when there was a storage line of dozens of Santa Fe C30-7s on the south side of the yard there.
 

Perhaps they could swap out colors on one of the N&W models and do a tuscan red one.

Michael