It would appear that Rapido think that the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when so many people lost their lives to rid the world of tyranny, is a wonderful way to promote their products. Just stumbled across their marketing on Twitter.

Seriously disgusted with them.

Quote"The Yanks are coming, don't panic!"
Tomorrow is D-Day and we have an important announcement to make at 12:00.
Make sure you stay tuned to the Rapido Trains UK social media channels and subscribe to our newsletter to find out!
https://rapidotrains.co.uk/newsletter/

Probably not in the best of taste but no worse than Dapol's D-Day branded wagons.

Steven B

Dapol are donating to The British Legion for each wagon sold. Remains to be seen what Rapido will be doing

Hmm, I am certain there would have been no intention to be insensitive or offend anyone, but agreed, the way the promotion has been worded doesn't seem in the best of taste given the terrible loss of life involved.

Roy

Quote from: Steven B on June 06, 2024, 09:11:54 AM

Quote"The Yanks are coming, don't panic!"
Tomorrow is D-Day and we have an important announcement to make at 12:00.
Make sure you stay tuned to the Rapido Trains UK social media channels and subscribe to our newsletter to find out!
https://rapidotrains.co.uk/newsletter/

Probably not in the best of taste but no worse than Dapol's D-Day branded wagons.

Steven B

Dapol are donating to the British Legion.

Persoanlly I find all their marketing intensely irritating. This does seem in rather poor taste.

Turns out to be an American loco by the designation S160 in 00 gauge, so of absolutely no interest whatsoever if you don't dabble in such

I have asked a question of Rapido on Twitter & email & received no response.

Maybe @ahardy can help.

I asked the following:

As you seem to think it's appropriate to use the 80th D-Day ann. to promote your products, a day when thousands died to help rid the world of tyranny, can I ask how much you'll be donating to UK/US veterans charities in return for using their sacrifice to sell your products?

I look forward to ANY reply.

Good luck with that. I asked a question of Rapido in their section of the forum on March 2nd and still have heard nothing

Quote from: Newportnobby on March 02, 2024, 04:32:03 AM@ahardy Can I ask when the SECR range of wagons & packs (announced mid 2022) are likely to be here please?

Going a bit off topic, it seems to me that the OO manufacturers are increasingly turning to more esoteric locos to make, rather than the commonplace.

The S160s were built in large numbers in the US for the USATC to use in Europe after D-Day. Some were loaned to, at least, the GWR and LNER prior to shipping to Europe. But they were only used in the UK from about Feb 1943 to Sept 1944, a short time frame, and one which I suspect is not widely modelled.

Notably in the UK, it was an S160 which was badly damaged in the Soham disaster when part of its train of bombs exploded, killing and injuring railway staff; and a number had various boiler problems, often caused by low water levels due to misleading boiler sight glass levels

I appreciate that at least one is preserved in the UK, of which I have no knowledge.

Martyn

Quote from: martyn on June 06, 2024, 02:55:31 PMI appreciate that at least one is preserved in the UK, of which I have no knowledge.

Half a dozen, plus two acquired for parts to restore one of the half dozen. They appear to have come from Poland (2), China (1), Hungary (2 plus the ones for parts) and Greece (1). Five have been restored and used whilst the sixth has yet to be restored.

When I was a volunteer at the Watercress Line, we "repatriated"
the one from Greece along with two WD 2-10-0s, all three of which were restored and used. According to Wikipedia the S160 is under overhaul at the Churnet Valley Railway and the WDs are at the North Yorkshire Moors and North Norfolk railways.

Quote from: emjaybee on June 06, 2024, 01:36:05 PMI have asked a question of Rapido on Twitter & email & received no response.

Maybe @ahardy can help.

I asked the following:

As you seem to think it's appropriate to use the 80th D-Day ann. to promote your products, a day when thousands died to help rid the world of tyranny, can I ask how much you'll be donating to UK/US veterans charities in return for using their sacrifice to sell your products?

I look forward to ANY reply.

You forgot to mention Canadian veterans

This must be a cultural difference but as an American it seems perfectly innocent to me. Then again it's tradition during Memorial Day, a holiday to honor the casualties of war, for retail stores to have big promotions and sales. 

Quote from: joe cassidy on June 06, 2024, 04:06:51 PM

Quote from: emjaybee on June 06, 2024, 01:36:05 PMI have asked a question of Rapido on Twitter & email & received no response.

Maybe @ahardy can help.

I asked the following:

As you seem to think it's appropriate to use the 80th D-Day ann. to promote your products, a day when thousands died to help rid the world of tyranny, can I ask how much you'll be donating to UK/US veterans charities in return for using their sacrifice to sell your products?

I look forward to ANY reply.

You forgot to mention Canadian veterans

Haven't forgotten them at all, but unfortunately there's a character limit on Twitter.

Quote from: joe cassidy on June 06, 2024, 04:06:51 PMYou forgot to mention Canadian veterans

Yes,

Canadians were responsible for the assault on one out of the five beaches on D-Day and were involved in one hell of a lot of the subsequent fighting and dying around Caen. They were a lot more than insignificant participants in this enterprise.

I think the Rapido S160 is a pretty cool looking locomotive and I didn't find Rapido's little video to be at all offensive as this was a war locomotive after all. The trouble is that this loco type was mostly scrapped not very many years after WW2. So, it would not be representative of more than a limited time period in OO or N gauge modelling unfortunately.

Webbo.