Class 50, Class 59, prototype HST, Battle of Britain will be shelved for now

[ODRAILS]

........................What gets my back up personally is the time its taken to get - or should I say not get - to this stage.
Trawling the internet just now I find a post by Karhedron (it was on another Forum - but I won't mention that here.....your secret is safe with me!) in Feb 13 showing CAD images from dapol for the 50's.
So there has been over FOUR YEARS of press releases, general hype and jam tomorrow statements around creating interest and expectation.............................................

Dapol announced the Bulleid Pacifics in 2011 see the RMWEB post:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/45793-dapol-october-annoucements-no-longer-secret
So we've waited nearly SIX YEARS for this....

[Sprintex]

Joel has admitted in his statement they "over announced" and apologised for it, and also stated that it won't happen in the future. Not sure where complaining about that aspect is really going?


Paul

[Roy L S]

Joel has admitted in his statement they "over announced" and apologised for it, and also stated that it won't happen in the future. Not sure where complaining about that aspect is really going?


Paul

Hi Paul

Possibly because it has taken years to admit to it prior to which there had been no suggestion that these models were not progressing towards production.

I am not interested in the models affected personally but had I pre-ordered and been patiently waiting I would have been an unhappy bunny too.

Regards

Roy

[Newportnobby]

Joel has admitted in his statement they "over announced" and apologised for it, and also stated that it won't happen in the future. Not sure where complaining about that aspect is really going?


Paul

Hi Paul

Possibly because it has taken years to admit to it prior to which there had been no suggestion that these models were not progressing towards production.

I am not interested in the models affected personally but had I pre-ordered and been patiently waiting I would have been an unhappy bunny too.

Regards

Roy

Precisely. When the light pacifics were announced I placed a pre order as soon as that facility became available and have since been disappointed time and again by a plethora of delays. I joined the Dapol 'Digest' forum in the hope of getting more regular updates than their own website but it struck me even Dapol themselves couldn't be bothered/weren't able to provide updates and that 'Digest' has pretty much been a waste of time for me.
Never having been a great fan of theirs apart from them making Farish sit up, take notice, and improve their products, my opinion at present is not really going to escape the Mods.

[ChrisWV10]

I'm just miffed that so long after announcing the 50, 59, BoB etc that they've only now admitted they haven't got any further than producing CADs, if that, when another manufacturer could have released them by this time. This landgrabbing of classes then sitting on your hands is poor. I wish Dapol success as I wouldn't want them to go down (and I like their coaches, which seem to be short supply) but they should have come clean on their lack of progress much sooner. 

C.

[njee20]

They won't go down (yet), but I wouldn't be surprised if they never did any new tooled items in N and/or eventually withdrew. we've got HIA and MJA hoppers that are way overdue with no feedback, the 68 which I know is at EP. The Pacer which is about 47 years late. I reckon we may see those, and that'll be it

[koyli55002]

Speaking personally, I feel I would be wary of putting my money into any "crowdfunding" for any of the classes in question. At the back of my mind would always be the worry that Dapol would dust off the relevant model and shove it into production, thereby sinking the crowdfunded version in mid-channel.....
Like many others, I feel that they would have been better concentrating on one or two projects rather than "landgrabbing so many and then sitting on their hands" (an excellent analogy by the way, and reminiscent of a certain supermarket chain ?) - perhaps we would have seen some definitive progress then ?
I'm still hoping the Pacer makes it - and preferably before the real thing is taken off the rails !

[Chetcombe]

Just took a look on the Dapol website and found no mention of the news. The link in the first post in this thread returns a 'page not found'. However, if you look at the Product Development N gauge section, the only product now listed is the Class 68. How odd...

[austinbob]

I hope they're not going to ditch the collectors club class 66 Evening Star.
There's been no further news on availability and it was originally promised around Easter time.
   

[koyli55002]

I hope they're not going to ditch the collectors club class 66 Evening Star.
There's been no further news on availability and it was originally promised around Easter time.
   

Wouldn't be surprised - especially since it's now on Bachmann's "to do"list ?

[austinbob]

There are loads of collectors club members who've sent undated cheques to reserve their Evening Star class 66. Probably a bit premature to write it off yet. I hope.

[njee20]

So people are wary of crowdfunding, but some will send undated cheques to a company with a history of hideous delays?! Madness.

[leachsprite4]

Still upset, started writing four messages today in replies but none positive so I've scrapped them all.
The West Countries and BoBs were a big part of my layout plans, so truly disappointed.
That said worse things happen and money now saved for other projects away from model railways.
Thanks dapol for the injection in the market and good luck with the business I hope the extra maunsells turn up.
Graham 

[austinbob]

So people are wary of crowdfunding, but some will send undated cheques to a company with a history of hideous delays?! Madness.

Bit of an over reaction - the 66 is already in production and Evening Star is just a re-livery. So not a big risk at first sight. However, the latest news about 'cancellations' makes it less certain that Evening star will actually happen.

[Karhedron]

I agree. Reruns of existing models are more likely as they will want to maximise their profits which will probably entail sweating their existing assets as much as possible.