Meet the Rapido Team

JASON SHRON and SIDURA LUDWIG founded Rapido Trains Inc. in 2003 and incorporated the company in November 2004. Jason is very well known in the Canadian model railroad community and author of the book TurboTrain: A Journey. Jason is the owner of the popular CanModelTrains internet discussion group. Jason is also “The Guy with the Train in his Basement” (click here for more info) and he is slowly recreating a handsome chunk of CN’s Kingston Subdivision between Toronto and Brockville in the next room. You can follow the progress at the KingstonSub Facebook Page.

 

Sidura divides her time between Rapido and fiction writing. At Rapido she is responsible for strategic and financial planning, copy editing and keeping Jason from buying a Concorde. Her first novel, Holding My Breath, was published in 2007 and she is currently working on a collection of short stories. Please Click Here to visit Sidura’s web site. Jason and Sidura have three gorgeous children: Boaz, Dalya and Isaac. With three kids to raise and a company to run, Jason and Sidura last went on a date in 2006. (Hair comment: Sidura has wonderful hair. Jason on the other hand hides his under a hat … a lot)

BILL SCHNEIDER is our product development guru. Bill has been involved in the retail, wholesale and manufacturing aspects of model railroading since 1982 and was responsible for product development at Branchline Trains since forever. Bill’s former New York, Ontario and Western double-deck layout has been featured in oodles of magazines and books and now he spends most of his modelling time working on Teesbury, his British Great Western branchline terminus. We gave up trying to convince Bill to buy a full-size passenger car so we bought one ourselves! (Hair comment: The photo at right dates from when Bill had hair, so we’re talking early 1980s…Update - we chose a more current photo.)

DAN GARCIA just started turning up at the Rapido office one day and after a while we decided to adopt him. Now fully grown he has become our full-time specialist in dealer service, sample testing, things that light up, DCC, sound, communications – heck, he does just about everything. Dan responds well to bribery provided that it is related to modern Canadian commuter operations and traction. He is secretly a bus foamer but has not admitted it yet, and we are concerned this may cause him to one day paint himself head-to-toe in the TTC’s CLRV scheme and go postal at the office. (Hair comment: We really need a new photo of Dan too. We haven’t seen his head so full of hair since 2007.)

DAN DARNELL is a popular figure in the Canadian model railroading scene. He worked at George’s Trains in Toronto and Markham for 20 years (manager for 15), so much so that everyone thought that his name was George. Dan is extremely knowledgeable about Canadian and American railroads. His slide collection makes other slide collections jealous. He is an accomplished custom painter. We would link to his custom painting web site but we don’t want him to be working on anyone else’s crap. Just ours. His main brief is product development but he also handles our growing Proto-Paint range. (Hair comment: Dan has no hair at all.)

JORDAN SMITH has been an HO modeler since age 7 and also worked for over a decade at George’s Trains in Toronto. He joined Rapido in early 2016 and has evolved into our warehouse manager, ensuring shipments get out the door in a timely manner. In addition he helps at train shows and works on the restoration of our Pullman Standard sleeper Edmundston and our Budd RDC 6133. For some reason however he never seems to have anything to do. He also won’t stop asking Jason to make an Amtrak RTL Turboliner. (Hair comment: Jordan has a racoon on his head.)

JANET GOLFMAN is Rapido’s controller, i.e. CFO. She makes sure we pay our bills and, even more importantly, she makes sure that our customers pay theirs. If you are one of our customers and you have an accounting question, she is the person for you. If you are one of our customers and you owes us lots of money, she knows where you live and she has 12 trained rottweilers. In addition to that, she can be found trying to keep Jason’s feet on the ground, wringing Jordan’s neck, sticking her nose in everyone’s business and wondering why Jason had to have a love of trains and not women’s shoes. (Hair comment: Janet’s hair is actually very nice.)

JOSH ANDERCHEK was a TTC driver for nine years, and before that he was a professional cartographer. Josh brings an encyclopedic knowledge of transit and train operations, extensive graphic design and copywriting skills, and a strong commitment to our hobby and our customers.

 

Josh has quickly become an invaluable member of our team and has already learned how to be patient with Jason. He’s so good that he’s now a project manager, but as we only hired him to buy the milk we’re getting a good deal. $10 goes far these days, and that’s what he earns a week. If you see the Rapido Bus on a weekend excursion around Toronto, chances are it’s Josh behind the wheel. (Hair comment: Josh styles his hair so carefully we don’t actually know if it is his.)

MOHAN GEORGE manages our Product Development Team and is responsible for everything DCC. He has an engineering background and has a 35+ year passion for trains – that’s longer than Mike has been alive. Mohan brings a wealth of Project Management experience to our team and is working diligently to keep everything on track.

Mohan is very active in the Toronto-area N scale community, and is currently president of the Scarborough Model Railroaders. Mike and Dave are also members of the club, and we're starting to think they might be planning a coup d'État at Rapido. (Hair comment: His hair is actually surprisingly intact for a man in his early 200s.)

CRAIG WALKER, our senior (not because of how long he's worked for us, but because of his age) sales representative for the United States. Craig has worked in the model railroad industry in some capacity (retail, wholesale and manufacturing) for over forty-five years, and isn't sure if he knows how to do anything else. Outside interests include railfanning (is that really an "outside" interest?) and reminding the rest of the Rapido staff how nice the weather is in southern California on any particular day.

 

Craig works with American retailers from his base in California, partly because he prefers baseball (Go Angels!) to hockey (Go Ducks!) and partly because he considers poutine to be "exotic foreign food." He has never been to a Tim Horton's, but he has seen both Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot in concert. (Hair comment: Craig has the same hair as his grandson, although the grandson's hair is growing in ... which makes Craig a little envious.)

JOHN SHERIDAN has worked for various model railroad manufacturers designing artwork and providing technical assistance for various projects. He likes to tell people that they have at least one piece of his work on their layout at any given time.

 

John is a huge fan of the New Haven railroad. He has worked very hard to get manufacturers to produce more New Haven Railroad locomotives & rolling stock.

 

Noticing that Jason seemed to have a soft spot for the New Haven, John hatched a nefarious plot to insert himself deep into Rapido. His goal: make sure that Rapido New Haven Railroad projects keep flowing indefinitely. So far, his plot has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. If no one notices the Ceti Eel John implanted in Jason’s ear (Thanks Kahn!), he can keep this going for a very long time.

ROBERT ALLARD may be recognized by some of our intrepid readers from working in the industry before more recently joining the Rapido family. (Hint hint... If you like modern commuter models, chances are you may own one of the projects he’s worked on.) Upon joining the Rapido team, it only took him 20 minutes to be in a video and less than two months to star in his own video (Whisk not included). He also goes by Bobby - or Robby, or Dobby, or Zobby, depending on how everyone else in the office is feeling that particular day.

 

Currently (as of June 2020) Bobby is working in product design and advertising remotely, long before it became fashionable. He claims that his commute to work is the easiest that he's ever had.

 

Although Robby grew up on the state-side, he’s always had an interest in Canadian railroading. Believe it or not, this guy from New Jersey is a big fan of BC Rail. According to him, everything needs more corner lights! We're not sure why, but you BC guys will get that reference. He also has an interest in the Clinchfield, Metra and anything ALCo and MLW. He also claims that despite not growing up in the True North, he did watch Red Green, play hockey - Go Penguins (ed. note: Really? I mean, Mario Lemieux was pretty fantastic, but other than Jaromir Jagr can you name anyone else on those teams?) - and enjoys anything doused in maple syrup. Oh, and he got his interest in Gordon Lightfoot through his father. Maybe Zobby's secretly a hose-head?

 

Hair Comment: When Lobby lets it grow out he is reminded that it should be cut short.

MARK STAPLETON showed up at the door of Rapido's Head Office one day claiming he "wanted to be a lion tamer". Since Janet already held that title, we suggested the become a Model Train Surgeon instead, and he grudgingly obliged. The title was fitting - it seems that Mark had learned at an early age how to take things apart, and now, many decades later, how to put those things back together again. So we kept him.

 

A train enthusiast all of his life, and growing up in Montreal, Mark would regularly bicycle down to Westmount Station to watch the activity in CP's Glen Yard and watch the commuter trains, RDC units and even "The Canadian" roll by. Despite (ed. note: or maybe because?) this, Mark is a dedicated U.K. modeller and has exhibited his ProtoFour layout "Upper Leaside" at the Great British Train Show many times.

 

Mark is also very handy with a soldering iron (4th degree black belt!), is wise, very polite and still has a full head of hair - although frequently under a baseball cap or bicycle helmet to keep it protected.

Jeremy Fleming came to us after having spent 23 years working in.....well, another industry of some sort. We’re not really sure and he won’t talk about it. But he can open an RS-18 and knows how to press buttons, so he’ll do. When not toiling away in the warranty department, he can often be found behind the video camera as well as occasionally making a fool of himself in front of it. Although mostly neck, Jeremy technically qualifies as Rapido’s tallest employee. While this is handy for reaching parts of the office that we didn’t even know we had, it makes him more susceptible to solder fumes. All-in-all, he’s a really useful engine. Jeremy models in S-Scale for some reason.

 

Hair comment: Jeremy’s hair attempted to tender its resignation in the late 90s, but it was not accepted. He finally fired it with cause in 2003. He is now 38% more aerodynamic.

RICHARD LONGPRE (For those of you outside of Canada, that’s pronounced Long-PRAY). Richard is known as Monsieur l’Expert. He has forgotten more about Canadian passenger cars than any of us will ever know. He’s owned 84 different real passenger cars at various times in the last 20 years. Richard provides all of our French translation, and puts up with Jason asking for things to be translated by “last Tuesday.” (Hair comment: Not an accurate representation of Richard's hair - this photo is nine years old.)

CHRIS FOX is our mechanic, carman, locomotive engineer, and general, all-round hosehead. When he’s not rebuilding sleeping cars or RDCs, he can be found driving GO trains or building a full-size wheelset sculpture on his driveway. We actually think he’s secretly building a 1:1 RSC-24 in his shed. This guy does not understand the concept of “rest.” Without Chris, we would have no full-size trains to speak of. In fact, without Chris we would all be mangoes. (Hair comment: See Richard.)

MIKE McGRATTAN, the well-known N scale modeller from Peterborough, Ontario, was a key member of the Rapido team until he sadly passed away in May 2016. Mike’s N scale Puddington Valley layout is a fictional Canadian Pacific subdivision set in the BC interior in 1973 and was featured in N Scale Magazine and Canadian Railway Modeller. Mike was into N scale for almost 30 years and to commemorate his contribution to our great hobby and to help his family out, we manufactured an N Scale Mike McGrattan Memorial Gondola decorated in the CP-inspired paint scheme of the Puddington Valley Lines.