The last time David Popp and Jason Shron, owner and CEO of Rapido Trains Inc., chatted back in May 2025, the hot topic was the impact of the tariffs implemented by the United States on the model railroad industry. Roughly eight months later, Jason provides an update, plus fun details on recent happenings with Rapido in North America and across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom.
Watch the extended video recording of this 2026 interview and product highlighting with Jason Shron of Rapido Trains on Trains.com Video
Q: We haven’t heard a lot about tariffs lately. Where do we stand on that at the moment?
A: Tariffs have settled down for now. The tariff on model trains from China is now 20%. Some manufacturers are swallowing a chunk of that. We’re only charging 9.6% when we send out goods. We’re still hoping that we’ll get an exemption at some point, or that tariffs will be removed altogether. We’re hoping because it’s an extra cost that nobody needs right now.
It was at 30%, then 55%, and then 145%. It was all over the map, and it made running a business very, very difficult. At least we have some stability now. I’d rather it be 10% or zero, but at least it’s not 30% or 50%. So, we’re coping.
I’ve noticed a real shift caused by the tariffs. Our preorders are down for most projects, and I think a lot of customers are cautious about preordering because they don’t know what the tariff is going to be when the goods arrive. They’re worried about the economy maybe heading for trouble, so they’re a little concerned about that.
But when the goods arrive, they sell out very quickly, and we end up being oversold on a lot of stuff. Our computer system is not the best. There are a lot of manual processes we’re trying to fix. We upgraded a year and a half ago, and it’s still not ironed out all the bugs. So, we’re sometimes a bit late in entering the information into the system, and then boom, we discover we’re oversold.
Orders are coming in, but right at the end, and they’re sort of right before the goods arrive or when they arrive. That’s a challenge for us because it means we’re selling out of almost everything. I’m happy to sell out of stuff, but if we only oversold by say, there’s a demand for another 300 pieces, and we can’t really do a whole new production run for 300. So, we’d much rather have people preorder.
Q: How has Rapido’s UK branch been doing?
A: They’re amazing. The UK branch is growing. We’ve got 14 people now in the UK, and we’re probably hiring a few more in the next month or two.
They’re doing great because it’s the same mentality that we have here [in North America]. It’s started by modelers, and almost all the employees are modelers, and hardcore modelers at that. The key is I’ve got three guys running it who are brilliant, and I trust them.
They’re also doing interesting things. We bought a steam engine. Rapido UK General Manager Andrew [Andy] Hardy is a driver in his spare time for the Kent & East Sussex Railway and is very involved in heritage railway preservation in the UK. So there’s this engine that he found was going out for sale. And Andy said, “We have to save this engine. It’s a Kent engine, it belongs in Kent, and I don’t want it to end up in some far-flung place.” So we managed to buy the engine, but it’s really Andy’s engine, and Rapido helped him out.
It’s exciting stuff happening in the UK. [Rapido UK] is going to be branching into some diesels, though still mostly steam. We are almost all diesel in North America, and they’re almost all steam. But we’re hoping to do more steam and them more diesels. We’re learning from each other.
Q: How is the Buffalo venture going?
A: It’s going well. We have an office and warehouse in Buffalo that we bought rather in a hurry last year. It’s coming along. It’s not perfect yet, as we still only have like 1.2 employees in the warehouse. One only works there one day a week.
It presents challenges. We need a new roof because as soon as you buy a building, you know something is going to go wrong. When we bought this building, the roof was leaky. So, we had to fix it, and it’s leaking again in more places. As soon as the snow goes away, we have to spend $100,000 to re-cover our roof. It’s like owning a boat or a vintage car. But it’s working.
Q: In addition to the warehouse and office in Buffalo, you’re also starting up a model railroad club there?
A: We have 1,200 square feet. It’s a big space, fully heated, and air conditioned. We don’t need it, so we want a model train club in there. We’ve got an agreement, and are finalizing right now with a Buffalo club. I don’t want to mention any names currently until it’s finalized. But they are going to be moving their club into the building.
The challenge for us is we have to separate off our warehouse so that club members can come in after hours. So we have to build a fence, wall, and door, as well as change the alarm system. There’s work that we have to do before, but I’m hoping by the end of the year, they’ll be firmly in place.
I want to be able to have open houses for the public to come see Rapido’s new warehouse and the club. Plus, have a meet-and-greet with a bunch of people at the office.
Q: What do you have coming along from Rapido Trains, overall?
A: We’ve got so many projects that are either in tooling or going into tooling right now.
We just recently announced the U30CG, which we thought we would never make. But actually, a customer of ours contacted us and said, “I’m 82 years old, I want to see this engine, and I will lend you the money to tool it if you can make this.” When this came up, we ended up agreeing to it as we had the blueprints, and we made the model. So that’s pretty cool.
But then we’ve got the big GE U-boats: the U33C, U36C, and U34CH (commuter version). So we’ve got all those.
We’ve also got the Alco C424s and 425s, which are just about ready to enter the mold shop. We have some competition on that model. So [Senior Product Designer Dan Darnell] decided to go insane on the detail and is tooling our trucks so they got the spinning axle bearings.
The company is being run better than it was when it was just me sort of running the behind-the-scenes. But we’ve also grown a lot, and I’ve actually just hired an executive assistant for the first time in 21 years of running this company. I’ve never had one. I blew through two important meetings in December, and my wife finally sat down and said, “You need an assistant.”
So, I’ve hired someone, and she starts around the time when this will go out. I’m pretty excited about that. We’ve also got a new COO, Aime Chan, who started in May; and a new project coordinator named Ashley. Now we’ve got these key people, along with Natasha Shaikh, who’s been our marketing manager for over two years, and is a genius and wonderful.
Q: Are there any final remarks you wish to provide?
A: We’re still having fun at Rapido. And that’s the most important thing is to have fun doing this, because there are easier ways to make a buck than being in the model train industry. I think that we, as a manufacturer, should still be having a good time, make stuff that we want, and have passion for. We just hope that our customers recognize that, and I think they do for the most part. We do have the occasional warranty failure, and I apologize for that because we’re not perfect. But we’re aiming for 100%, and we’ll get as close as we can to it.
