Rapido-TCS Sound Decoders – Coming Soon!


The article below is reproduced from Rapido Newsletter Vol. 122, released Friday, March 13. We are very excited to be working with Rapido Trains and look forward to many successful collaborations!  - Stephen

Article begins here:

Mohan and I are getting the lowdown on the first draft of the Rapido-TCS decoder installed in a Pennsy FB-2.
TCS crew are (from left): Dan Mycio, John D. Forsythe and John Forsythe.

Earlier I mentioned Rapido-TCS decoders in the HO scale M420. I'd like to tell you more about this new collaboration.

We feel it is best to have more than one decoder supplier, and we've been very impressed with the folks at Train Control Systems. Our main concern with having two suppliers is that we want our locomotives to work well together. So we have been working with TCS to create a custom Rapido-TCS decoder that is fully compatible with our ESU LokSound-equipped locomotives. We are continuing to use ESU for many of our locomotive projects, and we want you to feel confident running your different Rapido engines together.

Please note that the Rapido-TCS decoder is not a WOWSound decoder. It is a new collaborative product.

Mohan checks out the Quality Control camera at TCS headquarters. Inspecting the decoder circuit
boards manually used to take half an hour. Now it takes less than a minute.

TCS is a family business and their decoders are all made in-house in the USA. This month we visited their shop in Pennsylvania and we'll be posting a video in the next few days. The video will show the TCS operation as well as how our ESU-equipped and TCS-equipped engines can play nicely together. The vibe at TCS is almost exactly the same as the vibe at Rapido – you can tell these guys really love what they are doing.

Mohan is entranced by one of the TCS Pick And Place machines. This creates the decoders while you watch. It's really neat!

TCS now has a wi-fi compatible throttle (also made in the USA) which was a joy to use, and they have almost finished the development of a TCS Desktop Programmer which does exactly what it says on the box: it will allow you to connect your PC to your track and customize the programming of your locomotives with easy-to-use software. It's also universal and can adjust the settings of all of your DCC-equipped locomotives. The programmers should hit store shelves around the same time as our M420.

Rapido-TCS decoders will all have Keep Alive® and will incorporate many of the other proprietary TCS features as options.

- Jason Shron, Rapido Trains Inc.