ABOUT RAPIDO TRAINS INC.

The Rapido, Spadina Yard, 1965. Photo by Al Holtz. Image courtesy Morning
Sun Books. Click here to visit their web site.

Rapido Trains Inc. is a high-end manufacturer of model trains and accessories in both HO and N scales. Our aim is to recreate the entire rail travel experience, from fully-detailed interiors and underframe equipment on our trains to fully-wired telephone poles for your model railroad.

The name RAPIDO was introduced by CN in 1965 to headline the railway's high-speed intercity passenger services. Until the mid-1980s, RAPIDO stood for fast schedules, frequent trains, and superb service. Today, we continue the RAPIDO idea with our state-of-the-art models and attention to detail.

Like CN's RAPIDO, we aim to provide the highest quality and value. We are not related to Arnold Rapido, the European line of N-scale trains from the 1960s and 1970s.

MEET THE TEAM

JASON SHRON founded Rapido Trains Inc. in 2003 and incorporated the company in November 2004. Jason is very well known in the Canadian model railroad community and author of the book, TurboTrain: A Journey. Jason is the owner of the popular CanModelTrains internet discussion group, which you can join by clicking here, and he is currently building a piece of CN's Kingston Sub in his basement in 1:87.1 and 1:1 scales. Jason is married with three gorgeous children, Boaz, Dalya and Issac and some Daleks and Cybermen.

Jason's wife, SIDURA LUDWIG is an up-and-coming Canadian author. Her first novel, Holding My Breath, is available from Key Porter Books (Canada), Shaye Areheart (USA), Tindal Street Press (UK) and Droemer Verlag (Germany). Your wife or daughter will love the book. Please Click Here to visit Sidura's web site and please tell your wife or daughter about it. She's included here as a shameless plug for you to buy her book.

BILL SCHNEIDER is our state-of-the-art product development llama (llama? - that can't be good) who doesn't always proofread the text I send him for the web site (which clearly isn't the case, but if Jason wants to admit to living with Daleks and Cybermen - well, he owns the company). Bill has been involved in the retail, wholesale and manufacturing aspects of model railroading since 1982 and was responsible for product development at Branchline Trains since the early middle ages (the LATE Middle Ages actually, come on Jason...). Bill's New York, Ontario and Western double-deck layout has been featured in oodles of magazines and books (Well, a few...). We're still trying to convince Bill to buy a full-size passenger car (I really don't really have the room, but if you know of a wood caboose.... call me - Bill), but since we're only paying him $10 a week, it may take some time to save up.

DAN GARCIA is our full-time specialist in research and development, customer service, layout building, sample testing, communications, website design - heck, he does just about everything. Our beautiful display layout would not exist were it not for Dan's tireless efforts. Dan responds well to bribery provided that it is related to modern Canadian commuter operations and traction. If you have any problems with your Rapido products, give Dan a call. Dan's your man.

ISABEL BLAIN has been a pillar of stability at Hobbycraft Canada for 18 years. Since we moved to our new location, Isabel has also started working for Rapido. She is generally the first person you will hear when you call or the first person you see when you visit, and she can put a smile on anyone's face.

JANET GOLFMAN is Rapido's part-time bookkeeper and makes sure we pay our bills and, even more importantly, she makes sure that our customers pay theirs. If you are one of our customers and you have an accounting question, she is the person for you.

RICHARD LONGPRE (For those of you outside of Canada, that's pronounced Long-PRAY). Richard is known as Monsieur L'Expert. He has forgotten more about Canadian passenger cars than any of us will ever know. He's owned 84 different cars at various times in the last 20 years. Richard provides all of our French translation, and puts up with Jason asking for things to be translated by "last Tuesday." If you want to get in touch with Richard, send an email to our main address and we'll forward it to him.