Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

Todd, you are not the only one with this problem with the M420 M420 derais
Charlie

Great find, Charlie!  Both of those responses were from 2021, and they were hoping that Rapido would fix the issue "in the future".  Here we are 5 years later...   

I agree with the posters, it's a great model (at least from the aesthetic, weight and power perspectives).  I don't think my problems have as much to do with the amount of truck pitch (front to back) that was mentioned in the two posts, but more about the lack of roll of the trucks from side to side.  I do agree that the lack of truck mobility does result in a failure of the wheels to remain in contact with the rails.  I checked my manual, and it says my model is a 2023 manufactured unit, so maybe the earlier units were a) even worse or b) no changes were made.  Crossing fingers that my track alterations do the trick.  If they do, I'll join canmodeltrains and post to that same bulletin board as well as give Rapido some feedback on the efforts put forth to make it run on my layout.  

I laid one of the four track sections last night and I'm hoping to get #2 in tonight before heading to bed.  It's hard to show the amount of superelevation, but here's a shot on the installed section where I tried to keep the camera fairly level - if you look at the loco, you can see a cant toward the inside rail, and that's about 2 mm of difference between the two rails.  As the curve transitioned back to the straightaway I reduced the amount of superelevation until the track was flat again.  As a bonus, it is a more prototypical installation, but I never thought about superelevation when I laid the rails back in 2005.  Some things you just have to learn the hard way sometimes.