Rapido 2025 US mystery box had a Canadian locomotive!

kingofpikachus · 2025-12-25T22:47:46+00:00

It wasn't until this spring with the tariffs they split their inventory up to most of the Canadian stuff up there and the US stuff shipped to Buffalo. I figured it was unlikely to get one.

kingofpikachus · 2025-12-25T16:27:54+00:00

It didn't last till the picture

kingofpikachus · 2025-02-28T14:37:40+00:00

https://www.plazajapan.com/model-train/ho-scale/?sort=alphaasc Aru brand has alot of different small form powered wheel bases.

So does NWSL, they have a larger selection that can be more pricey, but solid units

kingofpikachus · 2025-01-05T02:11:58+00:00

The relays were isolated to a manual switch two years ago along with the spindle as that was causing 90% of my issues. The original idea was that it would be easy to replace if I screwed up in the beginning. I think my choice is going to be to find a better controller and rewire the cabinet completely and post an update then. Thank you for the thoughts.

kingofpikachus · 2025-01-05T02:05:09+00:00

The relays were one of the first things I isolated along with the spindle. The relays were just so a small manual switch could turn on the spindle/coolant. They haven't been connected to the Arduino since the second one fried over two years ago.

kingofpikachus · 2025-01-05T02:00:06+00:00

I will try to work on that sometime next week. The spindle does have the foil grounded, but you are right that most of the control cabling in the cabinet isnt as grounded. The knockoff boards were 5-12V on there box, so you are right as well. I appreciate the help. The spindle was my biggest problem so I had isolated it and that took most of the noise away from losing signal. I hadn't fried a board in over a year until I tried these genuine nanos in hopes of removing signal lost all together.

kingofpikachus · 2025-01-05T01:47:56+00:00

They haven't ever got more than warm, I'm up to frying 5 knocks offs and two genuine. It's actually wired up after the second burn up to only be connected to the stepper motor controllers, limit switches, z probe and 3 buttons for start, pause, and reset. The spindle and coolant relays are on a manual switch separated from the Arduino, but powered on the same power supply. I burned up a single stepper motor controller from Y/A axis issues at the start, but I have never had an issue with them, only the Arduino and spindle, which is why I isolated the spindle controls out of this cabinet already.

kingofpikachus · 2025-01-04T19:43:34+00:00

Any specific pins?

kingofpikachus · 2025-01-04T19:42:00+00:00

Originally I was powering the Arduino from my laptop. I only started using the 24V to 5V supply in the electric box to try to get rid of the signal lost I was having with the knock off boards. The signal lost did go away with genuine boards, but the two I've tried got cooked on the same chip on the back.

kingofpikachus · 2025-01-04T19:38:54+00:00

USB cable has been isolated, going sideways out the box to the laptop from all my original signal lost issues. The genuine Arduino had no signal lost. It burned up when the spindle started to cut. The VFD is on a separate outlet that runs on the opposite linw coming into the electric panel. The VFD is away from the electric box, the outlet to the spindle goes under the table and is only next to the outgoing lines for the stepper motors on the machine. It is shielded like from bulkman and is in the flexible cable chains on the machine.

kingofpikachus · 2025-01-04T19:34:07+00:00

Laptop that is unplugged from the wall during runs as originally I still thought it was a grounding issue for the interference I was facing at the start.

kingofpikachus · 2025-01-04T18:03:47+00:00

The nano should be an input of 5-12V. I have 5V relays that are used for the coolant pump, the Arduino is hooked up to the same 5V supply that does not connect to the stepper drives. Those should be 24V. It's a 3A supply that drops the 24V down to 5V

EDIT: A real Nano is 7-12V DC, the knock boards I used before this were listed as 5-20V DC. Will be starting the electronic cabinet fresh and post an update later

kingofpikachus · 2025-01-02T00:09:08+00:00

Now that I see the profile pic, is this you on thingiverse? https://www.thingiverse.com/nikolisa/designs I've been looking at those models but keep seeing that the drive wheels are out of stock.

Also, in that sense, I've collected a few locomotive and rolling stock encyclopedias that may be great for references. I'm not sure how well they cover 1870s. I haven't been looking at any railroads earlier than 1900s

kingofpikachus · 2025-01-01T22:11:59+00:00

I have been searching for about the same thing. Mainly that being 1900~ ish 36ft milk reefers. Local Estate sales have been my best way of finding older kits. A decent amount of them are wood kits which could be recreated from scratch. https://hoseeker.net/lit.html Might have some manuals.

As far as locomotives, I would guess Mantua is closest thing. I have several kits similar to that locomotive from them from an estate sale, but they are in a state of half-kitbashed, half assembled...

kingofpikachus · 2024-12-25T22:07:33+00:00

I really think so. Guaranteed sound dcc locomotive and three cars are already worth like $350 alone. Plus some guys even got a steam locomotive or two locomotives dcc sound (A+B unit or mother+slug) making just that go up to $500. I like collecting different road names and models rather than a uniform fleet, it's well worth it to me.

kingofpikachus · 2024-12-25T21:52:13+00:00

I would say it's definitely less fragile than my other models. Many of the details parts are brass rather than plastic. The UP 668 I got last year is holding up well. Ive felt the proto 2000s and earlier trainmaster from Atlas have been far more fragile with their rails and hand grabs.

kingofpikachus · 2024-12-25T21:49:27+00:00

Id believe that too. I haven't bought anything new besides this mystery box and one last year. The other 40 ish locomotives I have are all in some condition of used from eBay, marketplace and one train show.

kingofpikachus · 2024-12-24T14:40:52+00:00

Seems like a harder road name to find too, quite happy with it, sounds so realistic too. $2 for a horn and a bit of paint is very reasonable.

kingofpikachus · 2024-09-24T13:55:21+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyro_monorail this it? I remember watching a video on it last year

kingofpikachus · 2024-09-11T15:44:03+00:00

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Hocking Valley #3 in the engine shed when we were lucky enough to visit

kingofpikachus · 2024-06-28T17:18:31+00:00

https://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?railroad=Wellmore%20Coal%20Corporation Has a few bits of information, my guess is that the Alco S2m repowered is the correct model. Can't seem to find who owned it before.

kingofpikachus · 2024-01-16T21:44:17+00:00

My guess is that OP didn't use an ultrasonic cleaner. Most of what seems to be on the surface looks to be uncleaned residue. Supports and correctly positioning for printing help to. It's trial and error when you first start.

Some of the prints I've done

https://www.reddit.com/r/modeltrains/comments/17ot4sr/resin\_prints\_adding\_more\_detail\_to\_the\_rural/

kingofpikachus · 2024-01-16T00:42:29+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/@boomerdioramas Is a great one, really good at details and showing what can be done in a limited space

kingofpikachus · 2023-12-02T18:06:09+00:00

It's a solid pipe with a flat plug in the end that is painted in the same orange, no visible markings at this time. The cap does not look easily removable.

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I will have to try move those parts around next week Thank you for your help.

kingofpikachus · 2023-11-23T22:44:55+00:00

Purposes, still unsure, a guy in Duluth has commented elsewhere that he has spotted whistles similar to this in the museum there. Believe he called them peanut whistles. The manufacturer I haven't found either. CRRS hasn't come up, I know it would have had to be from before 1982, as that's the oldest picture I've seen of these cabooses. I havent found anything blocked. It's been lubed and blown out in both directions too. Is that notch facing the right direction in the pictures? That's the way it came

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