With the deadline now approaching for ordering our TEA tankers, Rapido have sent us some images from the factory in China showing ongoing work as they prepare running samples of our upcoming Pendolino.
The tooled bodyshells have to be checked against the corresponding CAD images, and the factory will need to be careful to ensure they assemble the right combination of roof details, skirts and interiors for each of the various cars.
Here various unpainted bodyshells and interior power car weight blocks are waiting to be test assembled.
First, Shop and Standard interiors can be seen in this shot, along with floors, coupler pockets and on the left two of the cab car bodyshells.
We are expecting a complete running sample fairly soon, and we will give it a thorough de-bugging before approving for production.