And yet, with Rapido reaching the ripe old age of 20, it's really past time in that the plastic is hitting the molds! Long past time, actually. I mean, those in this pastime can order obscure US prototypes like Chicago subway cars (see them on the inside cover Rapido ad in the current Model Railroader magazine), US Department of Defence flat cars and everything but pickle cars already made by Rapido. Actually, they announced Halliburton cement cars at the same time - obdurately obscure! Rapido artwork:
"These two models are virtually identical from the frame up. In fact, they both used the same MLW-style switcher body and underframe of the previous S-11 and S-12 designs. Under the hood both used an ALCO 251c prime mover which generated 1,000hp. The major difference between the two versions was the S-13 rode on Canadian “switching style” AAR trucks while the RS-23 utilized road trucks in either standard or lightweight versions.
- British Columbia (formerly PGE) received the first S-13s with an order of 3, delivered in January 1959.
- Canadian National was the largest owner of S-13, rostering 49 units with the first also arriving in 1959. Some of their duties found them working in Spadina, switching out passenger consists, local freight service and general yard operations. A number of S-13s would continue earning their keep well in the 1990s! Some would later be sold off to Canadian and American shortlines.
- Canadian Pacific was the largest owner of the RS-23 locomotives with a total of 34. These were classified as “Diesel Road Switcher, 1,000hp” (DRS-10c) and Initially assigned to Ontario. Many RS-23s were reassigned to the Atlantic Region and Saskatchewan and it was not uncommon to see them working in sets of four or five units on branchline freights. As road switchers, CP’s RS-23s often ran in multiple with larger 4-axle and 6-axle freight locomotives."
I don't use the term super-nova lightly. Or even all that brightly.
And no, I'm not referring to the Chevy concept car of the 1960s.
It's this deafening definition: "the last evolutionary stages of a massive star".
Let's rewind a little...
Just before this product announcement, in a bit of non-Flaherty flattery, Bob and Doug Faux-kenzie appeared in a Great White North video based on the inimitable SCTV non-Levy levity of the running sketch featuring Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis. The long-and-the-[Martin]-short of the video was to show that hey, Rapido is still a Canadian company and hey, anyone that says we just produce American products is like, a hoser, so take off, eh? In the video, several models are cleared off the [normally stubby-laden] coffee table while non-Ramis rambling reference is made to an upcoming all-Canadian locomotive announcement and images of an RS-23 and S-13 are flashed on the screen for 23 milliseconds and 13 milliseconds respectively. Surreptitiously subliminal. Oh! O'Hara! Before throwing my TV off my thirteen-storey high-rise balcony, I Zaprudered the video down to individual frames and the two units were plainly visible around the 7:00 mark. Screenshots from the YouTube video (top photo and below):
This post is not only celebratory in nature, it's also somewhat forensic. I don't plan to plumb the depths of Rapido history, dissecting various live videos in which this project is discussed, denied, postponed, minimized and maddeningly mused about, with the resulting lighting-up of the Comments section promoting their production! Here are some obsolete posts from the old-fangled discussion boards formerly known as yahoo groups, now known as groups io - as always, click for a larger image. These posts prove just how long these models have wandered in the pre-production desert!
An October, 2011 yahoo groups post by Bob Morrison:
It appears to your humble blogger and very occasional Rapido product purchaser that the above S-13 sentiment has since become a self-fulfilling prophecy - synchronicity.
In a bit of synchronized synergism, Rapido recently held a team-building event at Waterloo Central Railway, with the inimitable Bob Fallowfield at the throttle - and in this video not only enjoy their S-13 in action via drone video (no, not VIA!), but also watch it transmogrifyingly translate into multiple units through some computer wizardry! An also-Zaprudered screenshot:
Saturning back to my prediction of the Super-nova. (Hey, that has a ring to it. Seven, actually.) This announcement may mark the final Canadian prototype model that Rapido produces. Stay with me on this...with its evolutionary, revolutionary shift into the American orbit, there is apparently much more to be made by making American models. And the plethora of Canadian models that Rapido has already produced has perhaps left little that is do-able and profitable.
In the GWN video, the Faux-kenzie brothers actually complain that American modellers are ordering more Canadian products than Canadians are (the CP Rail GP9u given as one example), and that if you Canadians don't support this announcement, well....you're not supporting the Canadian economy. And then, we overtly observe that Rapido's balloon-top coaches - operated by CN and then VIA at Spadina and elsewhere - are actually being out-ordered in the opaquely obscure Cape Cod Central and not the Canadian schemes! International intrigue and demographic derring-do!
There are already the old reliable reliquary of reflexive responses in response to the RS-23/S-13 announcement as there are to any reported Rapido roll-out:
- are you making it in [N/O/G/HOn2 1/2/TT] scale?
- when are you making the [U33CS/CN GP-7/other obscure locomotive]?
- there goes my [bank account/credit limit/life savings/Aunt Andrea's inheritance/seven years' grocery money/kids' braces/operation for the dog/macrame cord allowance/beer money/non-indexed pension/sizeable speeding fine payments and thereby ever renewing my Ontario driver's licence]
- the Rapido Effect kicks in, so "Anybody want to buy a Kaslo?"
To buy or not to buy? List price is $449. (And it's not clear whether that's for DC or DCC with Sound.) Add tax and shipping (and tariffs in there somewhere) and it's half-a-thousand dollars, or for any Romans reading this, a C-liner (or five C-notes). Like many other current offerings, the list price is just too far above my price-point, just like the Hawker-Siddeley caboose ($150) and book on the Cars of VIA ($125). (Dealers may sell for less. Professional driver on closed course. Do not attempt. Taxes and freight extra. With approved credit. Plus dealer-installed options. Owner loyalty rebate. [That's something Rapido won't offer. You can own a whole basement-full of Rapido products and the exhortation is to BUY MORE!!] All renders shown are based on our actual design files and artwork. Details are subject to revisions and refinements before production. [That last one is real!])
The unfortunate thing about a non-purchase is that in the late 1970's I was standing trackside, feet firmly planted in the CP Rail era, as a CP RS-23 actually operated into Kingston, and I have good memories of watching CN S-13's smokily switching Spadina! There are even some scintillating scenes taken by other photographers such as 'Diesel' Don McQueen showing script and block-lettered CP RS-23's along Kingston's waterfront in my modelled era. My humble Proto S-3's might have to suffice!
The shimmering stainless-steel silver-lining of all this is that Rapido CEO and Spadina-supporter Jason Shron now has a year or so to finish Spadina yard on his home layout. Then, when these switchers are produced and put into those sea cans to cross the sea from China, he'll have a yard full of cars ready for them to switch!
I'm sure that he and all of Rapido's senior management (OK that's just him. With the reported deportation of fellow Faux-Kenzie brother and faux-CEO Jordan to Buffalo, or at least that's what I herd) will approve of the sentiment of this post due to the three words in Rapido's motto:
Quality. Style. Spirit.
No, no, no that should read:
Irreverence. Humour. Free publicity!
EPILOGUE
I took the chance today to sit on the front step and read through some accumulated June-published articles with a cool beverage in hand:
- Railroad Model Craftsman June, 2023 Diverging Routes article by Jason 'Where Did It Start, Part 2'
- same issue's Perspective article by Jim Martin 'Souvenirs from the Past'
- Winnipeg Free Press June 7, 2025 Passages article by John Longhurst 'Powered by Passion'
- CN Keeping Track June, 1968 article on CN's new Tempo trains kindly sent by faithful Trackside Treasure reader Bill Staiger
I realized that all of these articles had one thing in common - beginnings and endings. Jason mentioning a trip to 2011 to Quebec City, reminding me of the first time we met on a similar trip in 2008. Jim leading off his article, "How many of us 'experienced' modellers can remember the special thrill we felt when we started on this vast, creative hobby we call model railroading?" John's subtitled 'Model train enthusiast changed the landscape for Canadian railroading fans' sensitively describing the successes and challenges faced by his friend and colleague the late Morgan Turney in life and when he started Canadian Railway Modeller magazine. The article Bill sent is an original photo-essay on the then-new revolutionary CN trains and it made me think how I wouldn't even be hearing from a fellow VIAphile from the US were it not for this blog that began in 2008.
It's OK for things to start and for things to end. This Sunday, Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for everything - a time to plant and a time to uproot, for instance. A time to be born and a time to die. And a time for things to morph and a time for things to change.
I need to publish a post on the undeniable influence Morgan had on Canadian railway modellers. Morgan emailed me the year CRM ceased publication: "Hi Eric: I just wanted to thank you for recognizing Canadian Railway Modeller magazine in your list of '150 Great Things'. Very well done, Eric, and well worth your time and effort in putting it together."
And I need to publish a post on the Tempo because translated to English ... it's time.
Running extra...
Fifty years ago on July 5, 1975 while operating as the third unit on a westbound CP freight, CP 4062 caught fire and was uncoupled from the train about two miles east of Franz, ON. A Ministry of Natural Resources forest-fire suppression crew, including the photographer, was dispatched from Wawa to the scene to prevent the fire from spreading into the adjacent forest. Photo by David Carroll, posted to social media by Debbie Carroll. Not the famous frame published in TRAINS magazine!
First past the post...
CN and OSR hogger Steve Lucas wrote this this week on whether only professional railroaders know what they're talking about: "Just one person of many putting the lie to the notion that only professional railway people are qualified to opine on the industry is retired laboratory technologist Eric Gagnon of Kingston, Ontario. Eric's blog and other prose flowing from his fingertips shows some thought and understanding of the railway. His latest piece on Via's Venture Vicissitudes [and then Steve linked to my most recent post. Extra positivity from me for the alliteration there!
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