Dapol swallow 18 pin hst

[N_GaugeModeller]

Or The draggy wheels are alleviated by sending it back for Dapol to sort their own mess out, why should anyone have to spend that sort of money them have to take a file to it to sort out a defect the maker should be fixing for free.

NGM

[njee20]

Yep, totally valid. But when they don't have stock and/or it's a universal issue the other option is to not have one.

[N_GaugeModeller]

Is that a valid reason to accept  a poorly made product, the makers of model railway items must love this I don't care how bad it is, its better than nothing mentality.

Personally I would rather not own one if that was the only option

Thats why I don't own a number of Dapol or Farish Locos.

That's my opinion only I understand, but its an opinion I am still allowed to have one , even on here 

NGM

[njee20]

Bizarre comment, of course you're entitled to your opinion.

Only you can decide what is and isn't a valid reason for return an item, and whether you're happier modifying something or simply foregoing it. Production runs are small and manual, so you can get issues. No point getting too worked up about it IMO.

[Henners84]

I think it's not on by the manufacturer to sell an item with a known issue that comes up on many items. Why was the product not recalled and modified for example? I think the fact the dummy car derails on any curve I have is sufficient enough to warrant a recall.

Anyway, what's done is done. It doesn't work properly and it needs to get fixed. Still waiting on a reply from kernow models to the email I sent yesterday on this. There is a warranty so should get fixed, just a lot of faff. Tempted to try and fix myself, just don't want to void the warranty. Will ask kernow about self fixing and impact on warranty when they get back to me

[njee20]

For whatever reason it's not something which is occurring on every single model, but I've seen a few reports of it. Clearly not prolific enough to justify a recall. You're totally right that you shouldn't have to accept it, and I'm sure Kernow will see you right - expect to have to return it to DCC Supplies.

If every unit derailed on every curve then I suspect yes, they would be recalled (or rather they'd not have been released), but it's not that prolific, possibly because they're hand assembled, so they're all on a scale from "faultless" to "utterly useless"!

[N_GaugeModeller]

I must admit I do find this aspect of our hobby to be rather bizarre, what other aspect of our life do we accept that a manufacturer charging good money for their product only then to produce faulty or badly designed goods only for the customers to say that ok, I can fix the problems for you and not even charge you for the work.

To me it's just bizarre.

Not for one moment saying all their goods are rubbish or badly designed but they do produce some doozies at times.

For those who are happy to repair their items, is it like that with everything you buy or just railway items.

Ok I admit I have even repaired the odd fault, like loose wires or screws, but if it's got a design fault or a dead motor it's going back asap even if I could fix it.

Ok no more comments on this from me.

Bye

[njee20]

Like so many things I think the answer here is "it depends". Personally I don't mind a little bit of tweaking to get things working just right, but if it's so fundamentally broken as to not work (like the OP's HST) I'd probably return it if nothing obvious. I would check for obvious things first, but there's no reason you should.

I bought my son a bike last week, when it turned up 'ready to ride', it most certainly wasn't, there were a couple of issues in how it had been assembled. Fixing a bike is part and parcel of ownership, so I was happy to tweak it. Similarly I quite enjoy fettling stock, so I'd not return something if it wasn't perfect out of the box. Indeed I spent quite a while yesterday adjusting about half my Dapol silver bullets to get them to stop derailing. My last 3D printer had a seized motor on delivery, and needed some tweaking to get it working, and the last TV I bought needed a firmware update in order to find our Wi-fi and access any of the smart features.

Obviously will all of these I could have demanded replacements, refunds, compensation, whatever. But what would that achieve? As I said, however, if that problem had extended to the TV not turning on then I'd have asked for a replacement. I wouldn't have welded the bike if the frame was broken.

I don't think it's a willingness to accept shoddy workmanship, just a fact that our hobby is a practical one, so within reason I'll apply those skills here needed. It's also a faff having to return stuff, even if you can get replacements.

[Henners84]

I agree, it's a faff trying to return stuff. Also, if returned it could come back with another problem. Eg the video I showed a link to, the guy there returned his model and the issue was fixed but, somehow in the fixing process, the dummy power cars lights came back a lot less bright vs before.

I'm happy to do the work because it then removes that faff. Also, no point going to the time and expense of returning if an easy fix I can do at home. Guess my reluctance currently is that I am slightly scared I might botch the repair not having too much knowledge of what to do. My fear is that I try and fix it, make a mistake, and then I have a product that I can't return or get money back on.

Going back to a point from earlier... It's not right that with our hobby sometimes we have to accept sub standard products. But then, who else makes an alternative product if I want an hst? I can buy an older Graham farish version but the detail is a step down. I suppose at the back of my head that if I buy from a reputable retailer and there is a fundamental issue with the product (eg derails when run) I should be able to return it for a it to be fixed. So the logic I suppose is (I) I want an hst and there really is one manufacturer that makes it and then (ii) it'll work and that's great or it'll not work in which case I should be able to have it fixed under warranty.

[njee20]

But that is the reality. You can return it under warranty. Dapol have a 2 year "no quibble warranty". The problem comes with items that are no longer available. I imagine the HST chassis parts are probably available, so I'm sure it'll be sorted. You're totally right in that it shouldn't happen, but again this isn't universal failure. I don't know how many Dapol HSTs are out there, but it's going to be thousands. I've read about this problem, to a greater or lesser degree, from about 5 people. It's frustrating, but you're going through the channels to get it sorted.

[43095]

Hi Henry

Just read your post now, about the first class coach looking different to the others (vehicle no 41157, item 2P-005-220) - having a darker grey roof and having the wider white stripe and narrower red stripe.

This model is from an earlier batch released in 2014 - some retailers still have a few of this batch in stock. Dapol released several batches of InterCity Swallow and Executive livery coaches with the red and white bands the incorrect width (broad white band when it should be narrow, and narrow red band when it should be broad!). The batch released in 2018 finally got the width of the red and white bands correct but I have noticed that the light grey at the bottom of the coach ("Exective Light Grey") is more yellow in the 2018 batch than previous releases. I think the light grey was actually correct in the earlier batches.

Dapol only released one Trailer First in InterCity Swallow in the 2018 batch - 41057, item no 2P-005-223 - so if you want two first class trailers in the rake which all match, you'll have to have two with the same numbers.

Hope that helps.

Tom.

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