DAPOL - YOUR THOUGHTS ?

[Dock Shunter]

I don't think we should be nitpicking about who brings out what and when.

I think nitpicking and suchlike has helped push manufacturers to improve. Without it I doubt we'd have what we do...

Cheers,
Alan

Constructive criticism may push manufacturers to improve.
Nitpicking.....well i don't think they take any notice of that...

[EtchedPixels]

I think it depends upon the circumstances and if its constructive.

There was a lot of nit-picking over the Dapol CAD for things like the Western and contributions of the finest rivet-counting order by people who knew every minute detail difference of every locomotive involved. It's made for a better model.

I think vendors do care. When I was talking with one of the Bachmann people about the 04 when it was just out I mentioned how impressed I was to find only one small error on it. The man concerned was most interested to know exactly what the error was - in hindsight I am sure because they were tooling up the 03 in secret at that time.

Some people have the idea that the model companies are just beancounters, marketing and people in China making things. That's far from the truth. Many of them are modellers and other railway related people. I imagine those that are not still want to produce the best product they can at the price point they are set.

Alan

[Portpatrick]

So far I have a Class66, 2 Class 67s, an M7 (converted into a Caley), and Ivatt 262T, a Brit, a 5 car Virgin voyager and a 156.  No reliability problems with any of them.  The Ivatt needed the keeper plate screws slackend by eigth of a turn to make it run nicely.  And as regards appearance, the standard of all of them is excellent.

On another thread I have expressed my preference for the Dapol magnetic coupling of the Voyager over that horrible system used by Farish (not repeated on the blue Pullman I note!!!).

I have also expressed elsewhere my strong dislike of their carden shaft connecting tenders to locos on steam engines.  They become disconnected much more easily than yhey can be reconnected!  I will not be replacing my Minitrix 9F, and my Farish A3 and A4 in part because of this.

I have been delighted with those wagons and the Geresely coaches I have bought.

But I certainly consider Dapol were rightly chastised for turning out the B! and Brit with those silly silver grey wheels when the earlier steam models had black wheels.  The A3 and A4 seem to be better in that respect.

I am not in need of HSTs, though I was tempted by a Grand Central book set at Aly Paly, but it seems thoughtless to produce power cars and short book sets without producing matching centre cars in reasonable numbers at the same time.  OK I accept that not every purchaser will want to form a full rake but most of those I know who have considered the model were thinking in terms of 2+5or6 as a minimum.  I would have though in terms of 2+6 if I had bought the Grand central version.  The Club layout would handle that.

Niggles apart they are to be congratulated on bringing another source to market.  As others rightly point out when I started in N (in 1976) we could hardly have dreamed of the quantity and quality we now have.  Dapol have been part of that.

[Elvinley]

But I certainly consider Dapol were rightly chastised for turning out the B! and Brit with those silly silver grey wheels when the earlier steam models had black wheels.  The A3 and A4 seem to be better in that respect.

And the Hall was initially produced with these Grey wheels. The new batch of Halls look a lot better with darker paint on the body and black wheels.

[johnlambert]

But I certainly consider Dapol were rightly chastised for turning out the B! and Brit with those silly silver grey wheels when the earlier steam models had black wheels.  The A3 and A4 seem to be better in that respect.

And the Hall was initially produced with these Grey wheels. The new batch of Halls look a lot better with darker paint on the body and black wheels.

Shame nearly all the new Halls I've seen have bent running plates :-(

[Elvinley]

See my thread about this: http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=16825.0

[ngaugeaidy]

 I have several Dapol models. Class 66,67,156,86. . A few minor niggles. One 66 had to go back, drew more power than fiddlers ferry power station, a mile down the road can produce.  :unimpressed:To move 3inches.
The 67 is by far the best loco, others may not think so. Mine is a superb runner just keep the track clean,to show its slow speed as at its best.

All in all they produce a good selection of items for our gauge.

But! And an issue. Hope they are not leave us out,while they work on more 00 and the rtf 0 gauge.

Anyone's thoughts?

[silly moo]

I will be very interested to see their first new loco since Dave Jones left last year, I'm looking forward to seeing what the new design and production team come up with quality wise, will it be better or worse?

[BobB]

Hi Ronnie (silly moo)

I'm looking forward to their next model as well - it should be the class 33 with NEM sockets and their super-duper slow running motor !

The running characteristics with decoders fitted combined with their magnetic couplers make a shunting layout in N a workable hands-off reality, so we no longer need to confine ourselves to mainline running !

Bob B

[Bealman]

Class 33? I like the sound of that!

[trkilliman]

I will be very interested to see their first new loco since Dave Jones left last year, I'm looking forward to seeing what the new design and production team come up with quality wise, will it be better or worse?


I'm sure many of us will be thinking along the same lines (no pun intended)
The widely held feeling is that Dave Jones was the leading light behind Dapol locos.
Personally I have had very few problems with Dapol steam locos, other than the flimsy wires between tender and loco on a Britannia ( a common problem) and the general growl most locos make compared to Farish.

The current team at Dapol will need at the very least  to produce stuff on a par to what went before them (IMHO)                    Maybe a combination of fresh skills and ideas will bring a range of improvements. .. or maybe not!
The Grange may be an indicator of things to come, as it may have improvements on the  similar Hall.   

[Dr Al]

I will be very interested to see their first new loco since Dave Jones left last year, I'm looking forward to seeing what the new design and production team come up with quality wise, will it be better or worse?

Bear in mind a lot of stuff that's still to come may well have been designed already, prior to Dave's departure. I suspect it'll be a bit of time before any notable design changes start to come in....

Cheers,
Alan

[trkilliman]

A fair point Dr Al.

[EtchedPixels]

It may also depend how much of the mechanism design for the mechanism was done in China anyway.

Alan

[silly moo]

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.