That's really neat George. I've never seen anything like that, it pre-dating my start with N Scale by four years. Rapido used a different coupler back then didn't they?
Thanks for posting the ad, George. I'm sure I have one someplace because I know I have some AHC catalogs/flyers, from he same time frame, stuck away someplace. Actually, the ad was in a few MR issues, too. Dan, yes the Arnold 200 series has just plain sheet metal horizontal hooks that could move side-to-side so they could couple but they don't work very well. The cars are fairly light weight and the force necessary to get them to couple is enough to derail the cars unless you hold them down while pushing them together. Uncoupling is strictly lifting one or the other cars. When Arnold switched to the famous standard N scale coupler, they included a vertical post on the couplers that sticks up so you could couple the old 200 series cars to the new ones. They really don't stick up high enough and the 200 hooks slip off the posts! Doug
Oh, I forgot, the early what Arnold started calling "Rapido" was actually the 200 series with the new couplers and then better trucks. The carbodies were the same. Later, they redesigned the whole line to better represent the prototype. Rereading some of my previous posts, I see how many typos I made and neglected to closely examine each word and correct! I usually try to be a stickler for that but get careless. I also will have to look for some more early N scale ads. Doug
Going back farther... I believe this is the first Arnold Rapido advertisement, period. It was in both the July 1962 Model Railroader and in the 1963 Model Hobbies Annual which was also published by Kalmbach (1963 was the last one).
Not the greatest appearance for sure, but the Rapido coupler provided a functional standard that invited widespread growth of N, much as the X2F once did in HO. It's kind of weird, but I think many of us just turned a blind eye to it. Interestingly, I've read that Rapido couplers are still widely used amongst European modelers.
Yes, the standardization of the Rapido coupler was a big part of the rapid growth of N scale in the mid to late sixties. Arnold allowed all the manufacturers to use the design. gratis. I still remember when I first saw the Rapido coupler on the Atlas NS gondola. As grossly large as we think of it today, it seemed so much more realistic than the Lone Star coupler (hook and loop). Of course, when I then saw the Micro Train coupler, in 1968, I started to convert all the cars I had, except for about 10 of my original cars, right away. Those 10, or so, cars still have their Rapido couplers to this day. George, I can't read the small print on the Rapido ad you posted. Does it indicate Charles Merzbach? I know he was the very early, if not original Arnold importer/dealer. Doug
Here is an early Con-Cor ad from 1966. Note how Arnold was the only brand selling US prototype models. MRC had the model 500 (mistakenly listed as a 501) power pack but it was the HO version. The N scale version wasn't released until the next year or the year after that: Doug
Wow, I'm enjoying this thread a bunch! Ha, looking at that list of hobby shops in the ad brings back a ton of memories when I was a kid in Chicago. All-Nation on West Madison and Hobby Service and Supply on East Randolph were favorites for certain and more were to come in the suburbs within a few more years.
In other words, they were like the vegetables we had to eat, and being told they were good for us?! Which was decidedly different from being "good to eat!"
Yes, Merzbach was the original importer as I recall. I'll try for a better scan/photo at some point... I have the in-print version of the 1963 Model Hobbies Yearbook which will make things easier... once I find said magazine
It was the installation of the automatic uncouplers that was the problem. That and the engineer having to precisely position the cars so they wouldn't get lifted off the track. Doug
In April of 2009, I was in Itasca for business and stayed at the Holiday Inn. America's Best Hobby was right near there and I was able to just walk over there. Neat place and I bought a Tyco HO Red Box Santa Fe freight scheme (blue and yellow) F9, the same loco my older brother once had and was lost, over the years. I also bought the Heljan B653 N scale Coaling Tower, many, many years after I first wanted it. And, I just found out, yesterday, my daughter-in-law's mother is from Itasca. Doug
Charles Merzbach's name does not appear in the ad, but Rapido's address of 95 Fifth Avenue that shows in the ad was Charles Merzbach's address.
