Dapol swallow 18 pin hst

[Henners84]

Hi,
Wondering if anyone can assist?
I have a swallow 18pin hst from dapol on order. Believe the ref number is 2d-019-202. I have a coupke of questions?
1. What decoder do you recommend? Do i need 1 or 2?
2. I have heard some of dapols mk3 coaches differ in paint colours depending on batch (eg different roof colours). Any advice on what coaches should match my loco set? I think i am going for a 7 car rake comprised of 2x1st, 1xbuffet, 3x2nd, 1x2nd guard.
Thanks in advance if anyone can help...?
Henry

[njee20]

You'll need two decoders, one in each power car for control of the lights. If you don't want sound then I'd get the Zimo MX618N18, they're only £20 and are great decoders.

Early mk3s did vary a bit, particularly Swallow, but they've settled down, so anything you find now should be fine. Even if not it's a quick fix with a can of paint as the prinicpal variation was to the roofs!

FWIW cross country sets were 2+7, but comprised a single TFO/buffet/4xTSO/TGS, so I'd go for that composition, rather than two TFOs.

[Henners84]

Thanks for the reply and that sounds like the decoder to go for as not interested in sound. As for the rake I know it's not prototypical but I'd like it to be indicative of the 8 car sets I don't quite have room for

[Newportnobby]

I thought this was going to be a medical question

[CaleyDave]

Regarding HST formations

As Njee20 posted,
Cross Country (or NE-SW) was
TF-TRSB-TS-TS-TS-TS-TGS

The majority of western region HST were still  2+7 when Swallow was being introduced
TF-TF-(TRFB,TRSB,TRB)-TS-TS-TS-TGS

In 1986 10 western hst's became 8 car but the rest stayed 7 car. Originally the 10 Sets with the 3 window kitchen-buffet (TRFB) car were lengthened but some lost their extra coaches which were used as spares.
It was around 1991 when all Western HST became 8 car using coaches freed up by East coast electrification.

I have used the real catering car codes but these are meaningless unless you are scratch building.
TRFB has 3 windows, first class seating a kitchen and a buffet.
TRSB has 4 windows, standard class and a buffet.
TRB has 4 windows, first class and a buffet.

Just point the seats towards the matching class based on the stripe and you will be fine 

[Henners84]

As usual you're all v helpful. Hattons suggested the Dapol Imperium2 decoder. Anyone any experience of these?

[crewearpley40]

Henners. Re the roof colour    ...https://www.dccsupplies.com/item-p-114185/mk3-roof-virgin-tgs . Maybe worth studying the photos here  https://railrevisited.blogspot.com/2019/08/info-pictorial-virgin-trains-hsts-1997-2002.html?m=1

[Steven B]

As usual you're all v helpful. Hattons suggested the Dapol Imperium2 decoder. Anyone any experience of these?

Don't bother.
The Zimo MX618N18 is within a couple of pence the same price and a much better decoder.

Steven B.

[Nigel Cliffe]

As usual you're all v helpful. Hattons suggested the Dapol Imperium2 decoder. Anyone any experience of these?

Its either the same price, or more expensive than the Zimo decoder suggested in the thread.    And the Imperium won't be as good as the Zimo.


- Nigel

[jpendle]

Agreed, go with the Zimo, Hattons don't sell Zimo so they won't recommend them.

Regards,

John P

[njee20]

Henners. Re the roof colour    ...https://www.dccsupplies.com/item-p-114185/mk3-roof-virgin-tgs . Maybe worth studying the photos here  https://railrevisited.blogspot.com/2019/08/info-pictorial-virgin-trains-hsts-1997-2002.html?m=1

Wrong livery, Chris. The OP definitely doesn't want the pale Virgin coloured roofs.

[crewearpley40]

I was looking at the 2nd one down BR executive swallow. @njee20  that was what I was looking at not the paler one

[njee20]

Yes, it shows the difference in the picture, but the link is to buy the Virgin roof. Pretty moot, the early Swallow ones were either more blue, or more brown, but they've settled right down.

Only £14 if you're a member of the Dapol Collectors' Club as well!

[Henners84]

Hi all,

Thanks again for your help. Having taken the plunge with kernow models I can now report back as follows...

The detail on the models is fantastic. Power cars look great and the lighting works really well. Running seems smooth and speeds seem sensible. There was one snag though with the dummy power car and looks like I am not alone as chandwell model railway has experienced the same here...

https://youtu.be/o5jwYn39IC4
In short, the dummy power car's wheels are not free spinning and the front bogey twists and does not run perpendicular to the rails. It's only marginal but it's enough to derail the dummy car on each curve it takes whilst being pushed (OK when being pulled) as the twisting raises the wheel flanges just above the top of the rails. On removing the body from the the dummy power car this issue goes away so it must be something to do with the fitting of the body onto the chassis plate. Perhaps overspray or something in side the bodyshell is catching and slightly twisting the chassis when fitted? Tempted to have a go at fixing myself but don't want to invalidate the warranty so may have to be returned to be fixed. Anyone else experienced this and how have you fixed? It's the dapol 18 pin version of anyone's wondering.

Other than that there were another couple of issues with some of the coaches. Overall pretty well detailed however it looks like someone sneezed whilst painting one of the orange/red door release lights on the buffet car as the normal accurate painting is just a large splodge. The final interesting point was that one of the first class coaches (no. 41157, 2p-005-220) has a darker grey roof than the other coaches and power cars in the rake I purchased. Also the red and white body stripes are differently shaped. All other coaches have the red stripe as slightly wider than the white, but this has the white slightly wider than the red. I can only assume that this coach has been made in a different factory 'batch' to the other coaches. It doesn't look wrong in isolation but looks wrong in the middle of the rake. Anyway, both coaches to be returned and swapped for cleaner examples.

Henry

[njee20]

The draggy wheels are alleviated by elongating the slot the bogie fits into. This is a problem they've introduced on the newer batches, I suspect because they've made a change to fix the ride height, which was historically too high on the power cars.