Dear HO Scale Customers;

Rapido is thrilled to announce the APCU's (Auxiliary Power Control Units) in HO scale.

With GO’s rapid popularity and route expansions in the early 1970s, they quickly found themselves in need of additional equipment. In need of new power for their trains, GO turned to GMD for GP40-2L locomotives built largely to CN’s specifications. Despite the earlier GP40TC units being equipped with HEL, the drawback of the GP40-2WL fleet was that they lacked a HEP generator. GOs solution was to construct Auxiliary Power Control Units or APCUs from the cores of retired Ontario Northland FP7 locomotives. These had their prime movers replaced with 900 HP HEP generators to provide electricity to the growing fleet of single level cars and later the new multi-level fleet that began arriving in 1976.

The first four ex-ONR units entered service in 1974 numbered 9858-9861. The second group of 5 arrived in 76 numbered 904-908. At this time the first batch were renumbered into the 900 series. The last two units were rebuilt in 1981 from the cores of retired Milwaukee Road FP7s.

As the 1980s and early 1990s wore on, the APCU fleet was largely withdrawn as GO reequipped their entire locomotive fleet with HEP equipped F59PH diesels. The APCUs however weren’t done yet! In the wake of the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Southern California, Los Angeles’s Metrolink borrowed three GO APCUs along with a couple sets of multilevel coaches to provide relief due to the many damaged and impassible interstates in the LA region. Upon return to Ontario, these and the remaining GO APCU fleet were retired and scrapped in 1995. APCU 904 however was sold to Florida’s Tri-Rail along with a GP40-2W in 1991 as that service was starting up. The 904 was later donated to the Gold Coast Railroad Museum.

The Rapido GO Transit APCU features:

• Designed from original EMD/GMD blueprints and field measurement
• First ever accurate GO FP7 APCU — not a stand-in!
• Era-specific details applied at the factory
• Etched metal grilles
• Early or later style nose detailing
• Full cab interior
• Operational headlight
• Operating ditch lights on later era models
• Operational numberboards, class lights and backup light (DCC)
• Drive system designed for silky-smooth slow-speed operation
• Metal Macdonald-Cartier Knuckle Couplers
• DC/Silent or DC/DCC/Sound versions featuring ESU LokSound V5 decoder with accurate HEP, horn and bell sounds
• MoPower capacitor system for uninterrupted DCC power
• 18” Minimum Radius curves suggested

Order Due Date: March 16, 2026

Anticipated Delivery Date: February 2027

Looking for more Rapido Trains Inc. APCU's (Auxiliary Power Control Units)? Click here!