New PCA cement wagon from Realtrack

[woodbury22uk]

The three Castle Cement wagons I ordered have now been delivered. Charming wagons with exceptionally close coupling on the straight and run smoothly round a 9 inch curve without buffer locking thanks to the elongation mechanism. Impressive amount of detail and comprehensive lettering, but the TOPs number and markings are in white and really difficult to read against the grey bodyside. There should be a black background to the numbers.

[RailGooner]

Very nice.

[njee20]

What a shame about the TOPS panels given the price, that feels like quite an omission. I still keep flirting with a rake of these, but not sure I can justify the cost of them really.

Edit: is it worth checking with them? They got it right on the Accurascale ones, and the painted samples were right (albeit they were the Heidelberg ones, not the "building a better environment" ones, and it's not just the TOPS panel - all the labels on the sole bar that are outlined should be solid - the yellow oval, the red rectangle, the yellow rectangle on the barrel and the other black ones.

[Snowwolflair]

I was about to order them, so I have emailed them to ask what is happening.

[woodbury22uk]

Aaran Aird has posted elsewhere that a transfer sheet is being produced to rectify the missing lettering. I do not know whether all liveries are affected.

[Snowwolflair]

I just got a reply as follows

"You mean the 'Substantial Mistake' of the TOPs code not having a black background colour.   We are producing a Transfer to put over this for those who don't want them Weathered in a white powder, this will correct this issue.

Charlie"

Sensible solution if a bit fiddly.

[Smiffy]

Aaran Aird has posted elsewhere that a transfer sheet is being produced to rectify the missing lettering. I do not know whether all liveries are affected.

I hope the transfer sheet provides sufficient different numbers to renumber the rake I've ordered, will save me a search if not the task of renumbering.

Regards

Iain

[Izzy]

Looks like a couple of panels on the solebars are the same but not quite so obvious. A bit of weathering might hide those but the Tops one does rather stand out as it is. Look nice otherwise, the present day quality of printing is very high.

Izzy

[njee20]

I'm not sure I call that satisfactory, unless it's accompanied by a healthy discount. These are the most expensive British n gauge 2-axle wagon AFAIK, and that's a glaring error. Dealing with the TOPS panel is half of it, but there are at least 5 erroneous labels each side, that's 10 per wagon, and i'm not sure simply expecting customers to finish them for you is good enough.

That definitely confirms my decision on them for now, which is a shame, as they look fantastic.

[Rabbitaway]

Noted that Dapol heavily discounted Mk3 coaches with livery errors. The same may have to happen here to move these considering the very high price demanded for a not perfect product. They make even Farish wagons look like value for money!

[Arran]

HI All

I've not seen a sheet break down yet but it will include the numbers on  the affected wagons, its getting produced by Railtec so i will be suggesting they have another sheet available to order with additional wagon numbers.

The sheet will be free to those that have wagons and wont to update .

Regards Arran

[StufromEGDL]

Hi Arran,

You must be disappointed that these wagons have a livery error. I have J,K and L sets of the Castle Cement and I bought set M for a friend. My 3 sets all have the error and I presume set M is the same, so I will need all 4 sets of the decals to correct the error. As I bought the sets from you at Warley, how will I get hold of these decals?

Later,
Stu from EGDL.

[Arran]

Hi All

Once we get the sets of transfers I will post up here and other places for those that want them ,  things  like this can happen it's how you deal with them in the end that counts . The fact we only noticed weeks after made me kick myself, it takes a little shine of what is one of the best detailed n gauge wagon out there. 

Regards Arran

[Roy L S]

Noted that Dapol heavily discounted Mk3 coaches with livery errors. The same may have to happen here to move these considering the very high price demanded for a not perfect product. They make even Farish wagons look like value for money!

I wouldn't hold my breath personally. At the end of the day these are lovely looking wagons and they will not have been cheap to produce. The "expectation" of big discounts because of a small printing error seems to ignore the fact that someone somewhere has to pay and if they are sold at a loss is that going to encourage further N models?

Not my era, and that's the only reason I wouldn't buy, I'll just have to wait patiently for my RevolutioN Cemflos..

Roy

[StufromEGDL]

Hi All

Once we get the sets of transfers I will post up here and other places for those that want them ,  things  like this can happen it's how you deal with them in the end that counts . The fact we only noticed weeks after made me kick myself, it takes a little shine of what is one of the best detailed n gauge wagon out there. 

Regards Arran

Thanks Arran,

No problem in waiting for the decals. FWIW, I agree with Roy's comments that it is a tad unfair to expect these to be heavily discounted. A lot of work has gone into them and they have missed a single pass on the print run. It doesn't make them any cheaper to produce, and the fact a decal set is being made to correct them is nice to hear. And as a smaller manufacturer, any discounting must be considered suicidal...and the wagons are a lovely looking product in all other respects.

Regards,
Stu from EGDL.