Model Railroading > Rapido ATSF CF7 diesels in HO scale, first impressions...

i am contemplating buying one or two of the Rapido CF-7 diesels in dererence to the also-announced Atlas models; any first impressions on the Rapido, or should I wait?

Thanks,

dan in wichita
on the ATSF Ark City subdivision
 

No reason to wait IMO if your ok with ESU or run DC. They look terrific and run smoothly. I can't speak to sound quality. If you plan on running a different brand decoder, your in for a challenging rewire if you want all the lighting and keep alive to function. Nick with Nixtrains (Decoder Buddy) is in the process of developing a more practical solution for Rapido and Scaletrains products.

Or, just get an ESU decoder and the lights and KA will work.   Some may need to be programed to work everything.   Scaletrains will sell and program a decoder to handle their products.

Richard.

A friend picked up three Rapido Santa Fe CF7's and added LokSound V5 decoders (which had been installed in his Athearn CF7's, which will be leaving his roster).  I saw the Rapido CF7's a couple of weeks ago; the models look fantastic.  He is very happy with them.  Unless Atlas is offering a road number that you want and Rapido did not offer that road number, I suggest getting a Rapido CF7.

Matthew

About the only reason I thought of to wait for the Atlas renditions is that on the DC version they might already include a speaker in the fuel tank for future use.  I believe this was the case on the U28CG?

Thanks again for everyone's input,

Dan in Wichita
on the ATSF Arkansas City Subdivision

superfleet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> About the only reason I thought of to wait for the
> Atlas renditions is that on the DC version they
> might already include a speaker in the fuel tank
> for future use.  I believe this was the case on
> the U28CG?
>
> Thanks again for everyone's input,
>
> Dan in Wichita
> on the ATSF Arkansas City Subdivision

FYI. The Rapido DC/DCC ready models also include a speaker. It sits above the rear truck and below the motherboard under the mo-power capacitors.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/26 11:47 by ChrisCampi.

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That's great to hear, then there is no reason for me to wait for the Atlas versions; the speaker was the final deciding point for me, I only do DC (too old, too many legacy locos with standard DC to convert)....

Thanks everyone, 

Dan in Wichita
on the ATSF Arkansas City Subdivision