DAPOL - YOUR THOUGHTS ?

[Bealman]

Honestly, folks, I stick with my mindset at the moment. If you have cut yerself on the old British Poole stuff, today is like model railway Heaven.

I have acquired 6 locos (not including the Blue Pullman) since the Poole overhaul - both Farish and Dapol - perhaps I've been lucky, but all work well, and, as I have said in other posts, are streets ahead of anything I ever bought during the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Oh.... that's 30 years.... where'd they go. 

[shandy]

I'm hoping they will improve quality control but as that would push the price up, I can't really see it happening. At least they have the two year guarantee.

Check the small print on your 2 year "no quibble" guarantee. I've just been told by DCC Supplies that the second year is only activated after 12 month service (chargeable - £15 per loco, I think).

[silly moo]

The guarantee is not much use to me and most probably others living overseas as added to the extra year extension fee, will be postage and in my case the chance the loco will not reach Dapol or come back due to our dreadful postal system.

It's not Dapol's fault we have such a bad postal system but it does mean that if something does go wrong with my locos, I will be trying to fix them myself.

When Dapol Dave was at Dapol he was very helpful and gave me advice regarding a minor problem with a Q1. The people at Bachmann are usually very helpful too and I'm lucky to have the kind folks on this forum who are great.

At least we have nice weather here 

[EtchedPixels]

Good designed in quality often drives cost down
The 5% return rate on N gauge locos is dire enough for that to be true for some parts.

IMHO the big problem is that the old locos are designed to be serviced so can be repaired easily and a bit of tinkering isny a big job. The current models manage to be crap mechanically, poorly designed, badly quality controlled and unserviceable.

My guess is most of the older locos will outlive the current stuff.

The more crap gets sent back and the more people assert their rights the better for the hobby.

Alan

[shandy]

Good designed in quality often drives cost down
The 5% return rate on N gauge locos is dire enough for that to be true for some parts.

IMHO the big problem is that the old locos are designed to be serviced so can be repaired easily and a bit of tinkering isny a big job. The current models manage to be crap mechanically, poorly designed, badly quality controlled and unserviceable.

My guess is most of the older locos will outlive the current stuff.

The more crap gets sent back and the more people assert their rights the better for the hobby.

Alan

I completely agree.

I've spent most of the last 20 years of my working life trying to get this point across in 1/1th scale engineering. Quality Quality Quality, engineer it in and drive down the lifetime cost

Arghh I'm not back to work until tomorrow and I promised I wash't going to think about it over the break….

[silly moo]

I agree with EP about bad design, the new locos look beautiful but are very difficult to service, just one look at all the detail parts liable to break off is enough to discourage me.

I did have a go at adjusting Farish pick ups recently and even with the exploded diagram they provide it was a tricky job.

Dapol give no exploded diagrams so I've never attempted to work on their locos.

Is it possible to produce a fully detailed scale steam loco that is easy to service? Do the Continental and Japanese locos fall into that category?

You can say what you like about the old Poole Farish and Minitrix locos but they are easy to work on and in their own way, well made and robust (with the exception of the plastic gears.)

[EtchedPixels]

I agree with EP about bad design, the new locos look beautiful but are very difficult to service, just one look at all the detail parts liable to break off is enough to discourage me.

I did have a go at adjusting Farish pick ups recently and even with the exploded diagram they provide it was a tricky job.

Dapol give no exploded diagrams so I've never attempted to work on their locos.

Is it possible to produce a fully detailed scale steam loco that is easy to service? Do the Continental and Japanese locos fall into that category?

You can say what you like about the old Poole Farish and Minitrix locos but they are easy to work on and in their own way, well made and robust (with the exception of the plastic gears.)

A lot of the Japanese chassis are very easy to service and with great parts catalogues, the same is true of many US chassis including a lot of US Bachmann diesels. Bachmann offer real warranties on their US stock, parts and the like. It's just the UK they take for a ride it seems.

[gc4946]

Yesterday I unpacked and ran my Dapol Voyager for the first time in ages.

It's quietened down now and I really like the inter-unit magnetic couplers, it's a hassle free job coupling up the carriages in the correct order, quite why they didn't use the idea for other units beside the Voyagers.

[BobB]

My experience mirrors Bealman's. Since returning to N of all the locomotives, I've had trouble with just one (a Farish dmu). All the Dapol and the other Farish stuff has worked well out of the box and continues to do so. Having said that, it's all modern image, no steamers so no outside connecting rods to bend or quartering to go wrong; and split gears are probably less likely with short trains and slow speeds to limit the torque in the transmissions.

I think both Dapol and Farish are now streets ahead and my purchases seem to work (except if I muck it up but that doesn't count). As related in a different thread on this forum, I think Dapol are better but this is because of their coupling system (NEM sockets and easy-shunt magnetic couplings). This forum exposes problems that Dapol models have but without going back and working out the figures my impression is that most relate to steam outline.

[shandy]

I think both Dapol and Farish are now streets ahead and my purchases seem to work (except if I muck it up but that doesn't count). As related in a different thread on this forum, I think Dapol are better but this is because of their coupling system (NEM sockets and easy-shunt magnetic couplings). This forum exposes problems that Dapol models have but without going back and working out the figures my impression is that most relate to steam outline.

I agree, generally, the manufacturers do produce better products than even ten years ago, however, IMHO I wish that as much thought and effort had gone into improving product running consistency as goes into the physical detailing. Plus more attention to general quality control.(especially with the challenge of shifting manufacturing to the far side of the world).

I'm with EP on the quality thing; over the last few days we've had comments on the forum that show huge variation in product quality - while my J39 is excellent, another member reports his as a poor runner, so its not just Dapol that have problems.

The problems do seem to be more acute with steam models - by their nature, as BobB says, the manufacturing process is more of a challenge, maybe its as simple as buying the right model with a proven mechanism? Is the variability less? How do you know? Do/Will the manufacturers publish the return/failure rates

One school of thought is that if we want high quality products we will have to pay more, and that is a part, but only part of the equation, there is a point at which poor product quality, (variability in quality is almost as bad as consistently poor quality), makes people less inclined to buy a product - no matter if that product is a bottle of wine, an expensive car or a model train.

IMHO the big problem is that the old locos are designed to be serviced so can be repaired easily and a bit of tinkering isny a big job. The current models manage to be crap mechanically, poorly designed, badly quality controlled and unserviceable.

Alan

I could put up with an old Land-Rover Defender being a bit iffy 'cos I can get under the bonnet to fix it or change a diff etc but an unreliable 2014 Range Rover would be unacceptable, for me, on two main counts - cost of the thing (if wasn't reliable) and I have neither the equipment or expertise to fix it. It's the combination of a product's characteristics that are important, if it's dodgy make it easy to fix, otherwise get the quality sorted.

I think my Dapol Class 22 is great (so far)   my Dapol Panniers? jury is still out.

Oh, I don't drive an LR product 

Steve

[Pete @ EGLM]

Dapol have excelled themselves again.  I bought a Colas Rail liveried Class 67 from the Kernow shop in Guildford today (excellent customer service btw). I got it home and noticed that Dapol have not printed the "Charlotte" nameplate on the loco or supplied any nameplates.  Nothing unusual for Dapol, but the label on the end of the box even has Charlotte written on the description!
Has anybody else got one, and got a set of plates in the box, or are Dapol laying themselves open for wrongly describing an item?

Pete @ EGLM

[chrism]

Dapol have excelled themselves again.  I bought a Colas Rail liveried Class 67 from the Kernow shop in Guildford today (excellent customer service btw). I got it home and noticed that Dapol have not printed the "Charlotte" nameplate on the loco or supplied any nameplates.  Nothing unusual for Dapol, but the label on the end of the box even has Charlotte written on the description!
Has anybody else got one, and got a set of plates in the box, or are Dapol laying themselves open for wrongly describing an item?

Or simply laying themselves open for receiving a polite email/letter advising them of the missing nameplates and requesting that they provide them?

[hsthero]

On my class 67 Charlotte plates were in the detailing bag. They are small and hard to spot.

[Pete @ EGLM]

I'll have a look and prepare to eat humble pie for dinner, instead of turkey curry......

Pete @ EGLM

[Pete @ EGLM]

Thanks hsthero, they're there!  I'll still have the turkey curry as I bought the lager to wash it down with

And apologies to Dapol of course...

Pete @ EGLM