$325 for a single RDC? Nope, I don't need passenger service THAT badly. I'll stick to a couple P2K units if I can find them. Heck, I don't even have the Outer Station or Franklin Street built into my track plan, so I really have no need for them anyway. I suppose I'll stick to freight only...

tomjacobs wrote:
Well there are two options with this...either 1) build OS or FS, or 2) park the RDC's in staging and pretend it's one of the two!

Just seen Rapido's latest news release.They will offering their RDC's in RDG Co. paint.Phase 2 I believe with 4 available numbers and un-numbered. DC 225.00 All the bells and whistles 325.00

I don't see any of these in my future.

Just checked the webpage and saw they are offering several road numbers, which is surprising. Either they’re going to produce that many or just base it on the number of preorders. I don’t see one of these models in my future either, well, not at those prices. Maybe I’ll buy a DC version if they end up getting heavily discounted. Base on the reaction here, those Reading units might be sitting around for a while. I can wait!

Mark

Have contacted Rapido about their RDC decoder with sound and also if there be a model without sand fill hatches. As to the decoder, they will offer it as a separate item. Soundtraxx makes an RDC sound decoder but it falls short of the sound I recall when they pulled away from Franklin St. and the Outer Station platforms. The sand fill hatch issue was sent to them a few minutes ago. Noted that all of their artwork, including the Reading Co. have fill hatches, while the prototype for that phase on the Reading did not. Check the Reading Modeler's RDC photos for the sand hatches. Life-Like Proto1000 cars had the hatches, and while not to nasty a chore removing them, painting has not occurred yet. With the thought of repainting all of the Proto1000 cars for a uniform appearance, testing ALCLAD II over gloss black and gloss med. gray on two streamlined car shells yielded less than desirable results.

I have reserved two of the Reading Co. models and hope this model will get enough reservations to be produced. If not, hope to buy enough decoders to rework the Proto cars. Has anyone done likewise and gotten a good match for the stock Proto1000 paint? Or a repaint to match the prototypes' appearance. B&O enchantment blue looks good to me for the underbody details and trucks.

I would love to do a Reading Crusader and Wall street in its later days, but the price is scary.

The DC cars cost almost as much as the sound equipped Metroliners! While I do have a fleet of those, I also saved up several years in advanced for them, and I mode the NEC so it makes sense.

I MIGHT go for a few of the coaches, since this style RDC can't really be had any other way, but it will hurt.

Fortunately, You don't need huge fleets of RDCs like you do Metroliners, Silverliners, or Blue liners. Two will cover it!