O and K JHA hoppers from Dapol

[Trainfish]

Ok so even after receiving an email from my supplier which said "Dear John, I have checked them all over myself personally, I can confirm that all of them are intact and there is no damage too them at all. Regards, XXXX" guess what? 1 is clearly damaged without even taking it out of the box.

And the response today after my email explaining that I was less than pleased that a month after spending £679 I still don't have a full 20 wagon rake was "I am sorry that the wagon has arrived with problems. We can assure you that the wagons were inspected meticulously before they were dispatched, which includes them being taken out of the packaging to check the couplings and the housing to ensure there is no chance of them being damaged in transit.
I shall pass your details to my colleague in the office and get another label set out you.
We shall get a replacment throughly tested and inspected, prior to dispatch upon reciept of the faulty item."

So if they have done that to ensure they cannot be damaged in transit then what has happened to it Mr Supplier? I certainly haven't broken it so it must have been Mr Nobody who used to break stuff when I was younger. No, I think Mr Supplier is Mr Suppliar in this case because there's no way the inter wagon coupler would just break and half of it not even be in the box. If the next replacement is damaged then I may have to start getting angry and name him/them 

[Bob G]

These should not be returned wagons but wagons that buyers have sold back to Hattons rather than returned for refunds.
I didn't suggest Hattons were reselling broken goods.
Bob

[njee20]

Why would anyone be selling them back to Hatton's though?! They've not been out long enough that you could just return them under the CRA. I'll eat my hat if that's not broken ones! Very odd.

[thebrighton]

I see more appeared yesterday in their pre-owned section and all those listed say either missing detail or 'loose' coupling. I can't believe people have already sold them on (unless they don't understand that they could return them as faulty) so I would guess they are selling the returns for some reason.
Perhaps they will make money selling them as seconds rather than returning them to Dapol as some money from second hand sales is better than none. Trouble is if that is the case is it hiding the extent of the problems from Dapol who could turn around and say very few had been returned to them.

[woodbury22uk]

Or this could be Dapol saying "We know there is a problem here. Don't send them back to us as we'll just bin them. We'll send the replacements anyway and you can do whatever you want with the broken ones".

[Trainfish]

I'm up to 19 of these wagons now with hopefully the last 1 being returned on Monday and replaced to make it 20. I've also been playing around with loads and will put more details on those on my own layout thread in the next 20 minutes or so but here's my rake of 19 being hauled by a Dapol class 58 on probably around 30% full power.

And from a distance which shows the full rake in 1 shot

[Trainfish]

For those who don't follow my layout thread, and there are many reasons why that may be the case, here are a few pictures of my efforts to add a load to these wagons. The plan was to make sure that no 2 loads are the same. I think I achieved that:







And some older 50 ton Farish wagons 'filled' using the same method:

[woodbury22uk]

They look good to me. Back in the late 1980s/90s these trains were normally loaded on the move. The wagon was tare weighed, the load calculated, and distributed from a hopper onto a belt which was above the centre line of the wagon. From being in the loading control room a few times at ARC Whatley (not Yeoman's at Merehead), it was apparent that the fine tuning by the operator resulted in very similar looking loads for every wagon in the train, but noticeable differences between one operator and another. Some would have an even load along the length like yours, others would have a more peaked load at the end of the wagon loaded first and a small trough at the end loaded last. From memory the actual tare weights and the painted tares were very similar, even with box wagons, indicating the skill of the grab operator emptying a box wagon. The big shunters used on the loading tracks had very even slow speed control. An operator letting stone fall outside the hopper was not popular, even where the brake gear had a protective shedding plate. The process was quite mesmerising.

[Trainfish]

Mine are probably a little less even than they appear in the pictures. However, maybe I will create a few peaks and troughs in the next batch. Due to the shape of the wagon and the fact that I want these to be removable, I can't make them too high or I will never get them into the wagon if you see what I mean.

Thanks for the info.

[rusticged]

Hi All,
After a lot of fettling my rake now run beautifully.
Washers from my local Maxwell store fitted and a few axle holes reamed but the brakes still caused problems on corners. So, I removed all the brakes. They simply clip out of the bogie frames and the wagons run really well as a result. Now to weather them and add loads.
Cheers,
Ged.

[Trainfish]

I haven't needed to remove the brakes but will bear it in mind if I ever feel the need to. I have been making loads for mine though. Apologies if any of these pictures have appeared here before but my first attempt at a load was too flat:



The next attempt was where I realised that the ends needed to have angles filed/sanded into them underneath as the ends appeared square and there was a gap at each end (best seen in the wagon on the right):



I've been busy today and have hopefully learned from past mistakes by making a few more which are neither flat nor have square ends:



These should be ok but I won't be able to try them until next weekend or if I get home early tomorrow I may be able to fit a few and I'll post the results here 

[Skyline2uk]

Right

Well that's me arrived rather late to the party!

Got round to unboxing and fettling my 10 of these, and thanks to this forum I knew exactly what to expect.

The only thing I had in my favour was that because my model shop of choice had inspected each one before dispatch, no couplings were broken.

However, 4 steps had become detached (I admit one was my fault not understanding were to hold when removing the bogies). I managed to glue them all back on, even the one I thought the carpet monster had had, but turned up underneath a wagon body.

I also repaired 1x lashing hook.

I installed some washers (found by SWMBO in that orange DIY shop, useful) and performance is acceptable now. Certainly a Dapol 56 can manage them with no drama.



I also found I can couple the middle wagons whilst on the track. However I dislike the force needed and will invest in suitable Hunt magnetic ones if the rumoured development is indeed underway.

I love how these look, and can't wait to have a Revolution 59 on the front, but I agree these shouldn't be regarded as "beginners" wagons....

Skyline2uk

[Calnefoxile]

Good news!!!

West Hill Wagons have released their Magnetic COuplings for the Dapol O&K wagons:

https://westhillwagonworks.co.uk/hunt-couplings-c-2/hunt-couplings-elite-n-gauge-c-23/hunt-couplings-elite-coupling-pack-for-o-k-dapol-jha-hopper-wagons-n-gauge-p-454

Get your wallets out chaps & chapesses 

Regards

Neal.

[bluedepot]

thanks neal

I've ordered some

still feeling fed up with dapol about these wagons but i'll fit these couplings and then try again to fettle the wagons to improve running

got to be ready for the arrival of revolution class 59s


tim

[rusticged]

Hi Tim,
I'm about to order some as well.
My wagons now run beautifully as I have inserted thin washers in the bogies and removed all the brakes.
They simply pull out easily. They are so small I could hardly see them anyway.
Cheers,
Ged.