Dapol (re)announce HST Protype train - open for pre-orders

[GWR-Kris]

Can anyone confirm of the coaches are correct as they have Intercity on the same end of the coach. I would of thought they would be opposite

Hi Kris,
That was the first thing I noticed this morning, completely spoils the set for me, Power Cars are excellent, the buffet's are correct although they do use the existing model for these as the CDL is still present and they did mention the buffet's were not a retooled version, I've notified Dapol of this as at £120 per saloon pack it's an unforgivable oversight 
Regards,
Steve.

Hi Steve keep me posted on that, be interested what the outcome is. Especially at the price they charged

[SteveS1967]

Will do Kris

[JBQFC]

phoned dapol up this morning about the power car mix up and ended up buying another set instead of returning them ho well i now have something else to pull my RCT stock

John

[CaleyDave]

Can anyone confirm of the coaches are correct as they have Intercity on the same end of the coach. I would of thought they would be opposite

Hi Kris,
That was the first thing I noticed this morning, completely spoils the set for me, Power Cars are excellent, the buffet's are correct although they do use the existing model for these as the CDL is still present and they did mention the buffet's were not a retooled version, I've notified Dapol of this as at £120 per saloon pack it's an unforgivable oversight 
Regards,
Steve.

Hi Steve keep me posted on that, be interested what the outcome is. Especially at the price they charged

With regards to the seated coaches, Dapol is correct.
The numbers were all at one end of the coach and "Inter-City" at the other.
For example:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffytank/3246995579/

Where Dapol have got it wrong is the Buffet cars where, on the TRUK Restaurant-Buffet (Struggling to find a good picture of the TRSB "Buffet" as apparently it is camera shy) where the "Restaurant-Buffet"  Branding should be at the seated end on both sides.
EDIT: See post below for Buffet car!

The White-on-Gray livery makes it a pain to see especially on old photos (But I doubt British Railways will reply if I complained)

[CaleyDave]

With regards to the seated coaches, Dapol is correct.
The numbers were all at one end of the coach and "Inter-City" at the other.
For example:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffytank/3246995579/

Where Dapol have got it wrong is the Buffet cars where, on the TRUK Restaurant-Buffet (Struggling to find a good picture of the TRSB "Buffet" as apparently it is camera shy) where the "Restaurant-Buffet"  Branding should be at the seated end on both sides.

The White-on-Gray livery makes it a pain to see especially on old photos (But I doubt British Railways will reply if I complained)

I wanted to expand on the above:
The E 10100 TRUK Restaurant car should have the "restaurant" Branding at the end of the coach with seats where as the E10000 TRSB Buffet car should have the "Buffet" branding at the kitchen end of the coach. The seating on both coaches always point towards the centre of the train so by having the branding at the appropriate end it matches the coaches when the right way around.
The reason the Restaurant/Kitchen car seating is at the second class end is so second class passengers could walk to the coach to get a sit down meal and the seats would be unreserved for use by restaurant users (table service as there was no counter). First class would get meals at their seats served from the kitchen end and would not be required to walk down the train.
The on the Buffet coach the counter is at the kitchen end and by putting the kitchen facing away from the middle the counter is closer to the middle of the second class portion of the train and there for people have less to walk to pick something up.

7 car rake
TF-TF-*TRUK-TS-TRSB*-TS-TS

8 car rake
TF-TF-TF-*TRUK-TS-TRSB*-TS-TS

I have used a * to indicate the kitchen end of the Catering car.
I have used the HST designations below where:
TRSB = 10000 (I have seen this listed as TRUB/Unclassified) = Trailer Restaurant Standard Buffet (Red stripe above Kitchen)
TRUK = 10100 = Trailer Restaurant Unclassified Kitchen (Full Red Stripe)
TF = 1100x = Trailer First
TS = 1200x = Trailer Second

---

I would suggest that the following improvements could be made to the Buffet cars using paint and transfers alone.
For a full accurate conversion you would need to rework both the toilet/kitchen windows and rework the roof. I can provide more details of this if any one is interested.

Restaurant E10100
- Window frames picked out in silver*.
- Branding should just be "Restaurant" at the passenger end of the coach (both sides)**.
- Corridor side Toilet window Should have bar across with the top half of it painted out white (As per seated coaches).
- Corridor side small half height windows painted white***.
- Kitchen side Half height kitchen windows should be painted white.
- Kitchen side kitchen small full height window should have a bar across it (Like toilet windows) Lower half should be painted white.

Buffet E10000
-Window frames picked out in silver*.
- "Buffet" Branding should be at the kitchen end of the coach (Both sides)**.
- Corridor side Toilet window Should have bar across with the top half of it painted out white (As per seated coaches)
- Kitchen side half height windows should be painted white
- kitchen side small full height window should have a bar across it with lower half painted white


Notes
* The Catering Cars were the first MK3's fitted with window frames as per the production MK3's. In colour photographs they appear to be unpainted and stand out from the rest of the livery.
** This is because of the orientation of the two catering cars where the seating always point towards the centre of the train.
***On the Kitchen Car it would not be expected for passengers to use the corridor as it divided first and second class so the windows are whited out.

[SteveS1967]

To add insult to injury added the 18 Pin decoders try to program it... shorts out!!

Also further to above Dapol are doing the Inter7City set in conjunction with another company (I forget  which) BUT with "Slam Door MK3's"

[Adam1701D]

It could still look OK with some clever livery printing but properly tooled refurbished bodies would be an improvement. Hornby have just released theirs and they have sold like hot-cakes.

[nobby]

with dapol going to the effort to retool mk3s for the the prototype set , i would have thought that redoing them for the power slide doors would have been a sound investment. with scotrail ,great western and crosscountry already using them and no doubt other operators using them in the future. and these have sold well for hornby as stated already

[njee20]

They've not retooled them for the prototype set. They said they would, but haven't. Just new roofs.

[Bob G]

They've not retooled them for the prototype set. They said they would, but haven't. Just new roofs.

Sorry can you explain to me please.
My coaches have arrived but I'm not allowed to have them until mid September for birthday present.
I thought they had retooled the bodies of the coaches but not the buffet car. That seemed a sensible approach. How can they change the spec and not tell customers?
They still haven't sent my replacement power cars and Joel has not replied to my email to him either.
Very disappointed with Dapol at moment.
Bob

[nobby]

i was under the impression the same as bob that the coaches were retooled because of the windows and the ends but the buffets were not , i havent got a set yet is this not the case then , in that they have just painted over the standard mk3s that they have been selling for the last 10 years plus , i see the roofs have been redone as you have said,

[CaleyDave]

They’ve not retooled them for the prototype set. They said they would, but haven’t. Just new roofs.

Sorry can you explain to me please.
My coaches have arrived but I’m not allowed to have them until mid September for birthday present.
I thought they had retooled the bodies of the coaches but not the buffet car. That seemed a sensible approach. How can they change the spec and not tell customers?
They still haven’t sent my replacement power cars and Joel has not replied to my email to him either.
Very disappointed with Dapol at moment.
Bob

They have been retooled.

In Addition to the roof (which I can confirm is compatible with exciting coaches as I swapped one with a loco hauled coach.)
The coach bodies have been molded with;
-doors with recessed Handel's
-no CDL lights
-no window frame surrounds
All mounted on the correct buffered loco hauled chassis.

It was suggested on the digest that the body would be further retooled further potentially as a open without CDL light with the prototype being a limited run.
If that happens is yet to be seen.

It is unlikely we will see a power door tools coach any time soon as both gaugemaster (GWR castle) and KMS (ScotRail Inter7city) (not Dapol) have commissioned exclusives using only painted doors which, whilst welcome, will have killed the idea of new tooling dead for the foreseeable.

[njee20]

Yes, sorry, I need to eat my words! It was of course the buffets, which still have CDL lights, window frames etc, mea culpa!

[Bob G]

Yes, sorry, I need to eat my words! It was of course the buffets, which still have CDL lights, window frames etc, mea culpa!

Phew.
Happy now. Only droopy couplings to worry about now! Are Mk 3 coach rakes better with the Dapol buckeyes?
Bob

[Snowwolflair]

I gave up and have ordered Hunt Magnetic Couplings the ELITE version.  Should be with me by mid week.  They do an HST set but you will need two extra coaches worth for a full HST-P.