DAPOL - YOUR THOUGHTS ?

[Newportnobby]

Having just locked a diatribe against Dapol we're watching this.
Fair criticism is perfectly acceptable but at least give them a chance to help before jumping on them please.

[Pete @ EGLM]

I don't wish to upset one of our moderators, but I'd hardly consider my remarks a diatribe.  Please note, I did apologise to Dapol in my last post.

Pete @ EGLM

[NinOz]

I don't wish to upset one of our moderators, but I'd hardly consider my remarks a diatribe.  Please note, I did apologise to Dapol in my last post.

Pete @ EGLM

Humble pie is best when eaten cold but always has an unpleasant taste.  Very few are brave enough to do so in public.
I commend the correction and your apology.

[Chris Morris]

I'm looking forward to the West Country whenever it will be. Oh, and a re-run of the pacers this time with the Western Region chocolate and cream livery. This is slightly our of my era but I think will just about look ok sharing the stage with a blue TOPS 50 and an original livery HST.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Newcastle_upon_Tyne._-_geograph.org.uk_-_68592.jpg

[Chris Morris]

All I can say is that my Dapol locos work hard and run turn and turn about with my Farish locos (although I have more Dapol than Farish).  In my experience there is little to put between them. My best pulling steamies are Dapol but the cardan shaft does require careful handling and is a minor pain to put back together. The tender to loco electric wires take a bit of maintenance; the Farish electrical connection between loco and tender is far superior. The two brands of diesels are indistinguishable in terms of performance and reliability. In short I love my Dapol locos.

Almost pure Dapol



Working turn and turn about with Farish



Spot the Dapol locos!



The Western fleet



The Grange can easily pull this load up the bank by itself but I like the double header.

[Bealman]

Great pics, too. I love this layout. 

[crewearpley40]

well awesome selection of hydraulics. Are D1000 And D1015 visible in those interesting paint schemes ?

[njee20]

Aside from Dapol locos being generally lighter than Farish and thus consistently inferior in haulage capability I have no issues with them. Indeed the 68 and the 50 are absolutely stunning locos aesthetically, and seem very good mechanically.

I'm appreciative the price of their wagons has remained more grounded than Farish too!

[Chris Morris]

Aside from Dapol locos being generally lighter than Farish and thus consistently inferior in haulage capability I have no issues with them. Indeed the 68 and the 50 are absolutely stunning locos aesthetically, and seem very good mechanically.

I'm appreciative the price of their wagons has remained more grounded than Farish too!

I have found the Dapol diesels to have perfectly adequate to very good pulling power (although I don't own a class 66). My Westerns seem to be every bit as good as my Brush 4 while the Farish Warships can pull more than my Dapol Hymeks which feels about right. I am perfectly happy with the Hymek's ability to haul quite heavy freight trains up an incline. The Dapol steam locos with traction tyres I find are great and superior to Farish albeit getting spare tyres is an issue for Dapol (I have successfully used used Farish WD 2-8-0 tyres on my Dapol 28xxs). My two most disappointing locos in terms of haulage capacity are the Dapol 9F and the Farish Castle and they are both equally disappointing but as my new project doesn't have any inclines this will no longer be a problem.  My Dapol 28xxs and Grange are fantastic pullers.

[Bealman]

This haulage problem with the Dapol 9F is well documented.

It's a lovely looking spaceship, but I have no experience with it.

I do, however own two Minitrix 9Fs, which don't have such problems 

[Newportnobby]

I don't wish to upset one of our moderators, but I'd hardly consider my remarks a diatribe.  Please note, I did apologise to Dapol in my last post.

Pete @ EGLM

@Pete @ EGLM
My post amended to reflect that, Pete.

[Roy L S]

This haulage problem with the Dapol 9F is well documented.

It's a lovely looking spaceship, but I have no experience with it.

I do, however own two Minitrix 9Fs, which don't have such problems 

I had two Dapol 9Fs (one since sold) from the original production run. For sure they are quite pretty, but chassis and mechanicals are (and were even at the time of launch IMHO) cheap and nasty, certainly not warranting the "platinum" branding. Slow running is not especially good and haulage very un 9F like so the remaining loco stays in it's box and is never run.

I understand that while the basic design never changed, later production runs were an improvement, and for sure the weathered one looked (to me anyway) quite well done.

All the above said, the model has been out of production for years, and I feel a new loco-drive state of the art 9F would be very well received indeed (although some may not like the price!).

As to the Minitrix ones, well for me the positives are the very solid continental mechanism and haulage capacity but that's about it, the best that can be said of the model cosmetically is that it is a rough approximation of a 9F from a distance, but even now some people remain happy with them and that's what is important I guess.

Roy

[Snowwolflair]

My Dapol locos all run well, however its not that simple.  I rarely buy new and most I buy on eBay have a problem.  You will note I don't say fault as in almost all cases (except soldering) the problem was owner generated and always able to be fixed.

There are certain classes of damage I encounter.

On steam, there was a historic bad soldering and insulation of the first generation of DCC sockets, but not since the HALL.  In a lot of cases valve gear had been pressed in when the loco is picked up and on at least two instances as it was taken from the box new.  Also being pushed along the track destroys the traction tyres.  Where the motor is in the tender driving the wheels in the loco, the loco has been lifted up by the tender or the body only miss aligning the drive shaft which then fouls the tender body, falls out, or induces growl in the motor, not to mention damaging the power coupling between the tender and loco.  Rule of thumb if your drive shaft has come out chances are something has been damaged.  The Schools had a front bogie adjustment problem, but a turn of the screw fixed this.

On the non steam the older models had a set of historic faults relating to bad soldering and parts not being snapped or screwed into position properly, but not on models produced in the last ten years and there have been instances of parts not glued properly (class 68 handrails etc.), however recent models are very well built and is reflected in the fact that I'm not seeing many casualties up for sale.

One general point I concluded some time ago.  Dapol models are fragile by design and they are easily damaged.  However I prefer the scale lightness of the designs to over scale rugged details and I for one would not change this.  In other words built properly and handled gently they are very good models.

[NeMo]

@Roy L S -- I think that's a very fair summary.

I have two of the weathered 9F, one of which was a birthday present from my wife, so unlikely to be sold on! But I agree, they do tend to sit in their boxes, and while their haulage isn't terrible (they can handle a dozen or so wagons without any problems) it's more "train set" standard than realistic.

They are also terrifyingly fragile. The wires between the cab and tender are extremely thin and held in place with tiny bits of solder. There are also many tiny detailing parts that are held on with sub-mm spots of glue or plastic.

Yet: I don't think anyone can really consider the Minitrix model an alternative. It's an approximation of a 9F so far as bodywork goes, and the valve gear is completely off. It's not like the Peco 'Jubilee' that is accurate if imprecise, having the right proportions but lacking in details; the Minitrix 9F is inaccurate as well as imprecise, lacking not just details but also the fundamental shapes and proportions.

Cheers, NeMo

[Chris Morris]

My 9F, mentioned above, would like to make this comment about its haulage capability.

Rather like the Farish castle, it is fine on level track.