My new Dapol M7s have arrived from Hattons, and they're a HUGE step forward on the old ones.
Absolute hauling power is still an issue - they don't have a hope of moving my 8-vehicle milk train - but I've got one on my LSWR suburban passenger train (3 generic Farish 57' bogies, repainted in LSWR livery and running on new wheelsets) and it starts and stops smoothly, and happily takes them around my layout with no wheel slippage issues to speak of ... so I'm a happy bunny.
There's already a thread for this model here......
https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=27140.msg798758#msg798758 (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=27140.msg798758#msg798758)