oreamnos Posted February 27, 2010 Share Posted February 27, 2010 I recently purchased a Kernow Model Rail Centre special edition Hymek in chromatic blue livery with the small yellow warning panel. It's a terrific looking model. It ran fine its first run out of the box, but the next day, the gearing in one of the bogies seemed to disengage itself from the drive and the gears sounded like they were buzzing past each other. No power was getting to the wheels on that bogie. Nothing "bad" had happened to the model between the first running and the second; after the first running, I put it carefully back in its box until I took it out to run the next day. I couldn't figure out what went wrong, but KMRC were very helpful and said they would be happy to exchange it for another Hymek in the same livery. When I received the replacement Hymek, while removing it from the foam box insert, both bogies separated from the chassis. Meaning both came completely out of the loco and dropped onto my desk. They were easy enough to re-fit because they were very loose in the chassis. The loco ran fine, but the bogies would not stay in the chassis and kept falling out. Also, the copper electrical contact strips inside the chassis upon which the copper prongs in the bogies transferred current to were out of alignment and would prevent the bogies from swivelling properly. KMRC was again very helpful and agreed to take this loco back and issue a full refund as I had had enough of this nonsense. One bad loco I could chalk up to bad luck, but two in a row? Something wasn't right. My question is this: Has anyone else had significant problems with a Dapol Hymek? I ask because I would still really like to purchase one as I think they are superb looking models, but they are expensive and unless I'm presented with evidence to the contrary (by the good folk on RMWeb!) I shall remain of the opinion that Dapol's quality control (or lack of it) is such that it isn't worth it for me to try a third time to get one that works. Many thanks, Matt Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailor Charon Posted February 27, 2010 Share Posted February 27, 2010 For what it's worth, my hymek buzzes like... a very buzzy thing - although it has got slightly better - and one or both bogies (I can't remember which way round it was on either of the two occasions) has come out. Since then, they've stayed in just fine. It's also as slow as... it's slow, ok? It won't even move at low speed settings. I forget how much running in time it's had, though I suspect this is one loco that is going to need several hours... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicester Thumper Posted February 27, 2010 Share Posted February 27, 2010 i have a serious current consumption problem with mine, i use a Gaugemaster Combi controller and i need to raise the power to 60 before the engine even moves, it goes fairly slow at high sonsumption, but the lights are bright, and since i bought it October 2008 its out of garunttee and warranty..... so i shall send it to may friend who repairs engines. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian b Posted February 27, 2010 Share Posted February 27, 2010 Hello! I bought a BR blue Hymek the day they were released and it was the smoothest, quietest loco I owned (I had it for a year or so). Only problem was when I initially bought it- there were 8 of them on the stand and I went through 6 before I found one with a straight buffer beam- all the rest pointed upwards at a strange angle! If you can get a good one they really are fantastic and hugely recommended. Ian B Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oreamnos Posted March 10, 2010 Author Share Posted March 10, 2010 I just wanted to thank the responders for the feedback posted. It sounds to me like I haven't just been unluckly but that instead there really are fundamental mechanical and assembly problems with the Dapol Hymek. That's a pity. I was really hoping I could justify trying one again, but I just can't based on these reports and my prior experience. Thanks again, Matt Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Al Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 For what it's worth, my hymek buzzes like... a very buzzy thing - although it has got slightly better - and one or both bogies (I can't remember which way round it was on either of the two occasions) has come out. Since then, they've stayed in just fine. It's also as slow as... it's slow, ok? It won't even move at low speed settings. I forget how much running in time it's had, though I suspect this is one loco that is going to need several hours... Sounds more like it's got something tight in the drivetrain - may be worth investigating (otherwise you risk overheating the motor with prolonged running and excessive current being drawn). I'm sure the motor in the Hymek is the same as in the 66s (earlier) and if so it should reach a reasonable top speed. Cheers, Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailor Charon Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 Sounds more like it's got something tight in the drivetrain - may be worth investigating (otherwise you risk overheating the motor with prolonged running and excessive current being drawn). I'm sure the motor in the Hymek is the same as in the 66s (earlier) and if so it should reach a reasonable top speed. Cheers, Alan Thanks for that. One question, what do I need to do to check it? I'm guessing I need to get the top off again, but apart from that... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Al Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 Thanks for that. One question, what do I need to do to check it? I'm guessing I need to get the top off again, but apart from that... If you can get the bogies off that'd be a good start - you can then run the motor without them and see what current it consumes (but buy an analogue ammeter first so you can get real current numbers). You can also see if the bogies are tight or stiff in any way when separated from the chassis. They should be very free, if not then you need to move to disassembling the bogie and finding the gear/gears that are causing it. I found on the early 66 that gears were tight on the stub shafts in the bogies (hole needed freactionally opening out) and also tight between the bogie sides. This caused the loco to draw over 300mA current (high for an N gauge loco, especially a recent one). Freeing up the gearing halved this current consumption, and gave much more reliable running straight from the box (Prior to this it took a load of time to speed up after first moving). HTH, Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold McRuss Posted March 31, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 31, 2010 A friend of mine own a green Dapol Hymek, which brought with him to an operating session. He only made a testrun an the run in where the loco run well. At the operating session he fitted a DCC chip which fits very loosly in the socket. With the DCC chip the loco didn't run anymore. So he replaced chip with the original DC chip but the loco won't start again. He then fitted his DCC chip in a Farish Warship and the Warship runs. At home he than tried again and fitted the DCC chip and then soldered the pins of the Chip to the socket and now it runs again. In my 4 years modelling british railways. I saw some Dapol locos. But only one of them did run well straight out of the box. And these is my 14xx. All the others I owned or saw at my friends are in some case faulty. Markus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicester Thumper Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 i had mine checked out last night and it seems that it consumes at max speed 0.2A but the top speed is dull compared to others. However, one thing me and my friend said was one thing to look out for on these and other Dapol engines is the lubrication, now i panicked because i thought i over oiled, but as it turned out, dapols pre-distributing grease they put on the engines cogs, conflicts and reats with the aftermarket oil used by the owner, so either you get into the engine and try and clean the white gunk out or you add a tad of oil with a needle and then scrape off as much as possible, other than that, mine had a total of four hours running in time and it hauls well but just not a great top end speed, however, after the cleanup my mate did, it runs a tad faster and a bit smoother too. in terms of other engines the class 73's are absolutely fine IMHO, my friend has four of them and has not had a single problem in one of them yet. same with 66's as well. the 14xx is a great runner, so is the terrier, Ivatt and 45xx. i'll say the M7 can be the most problematic out of all of them because no matter how little running they get, they get dirty really quickly and this is something which has been noticed on both mine and several fellow club member's models as well. the pick-ups are weak IMHO even thought there are driving wheel pickups and rear bogie ones. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvinley Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 My blue Hymek had split gears and my green one burnt out. The loco looks spot on, so getting an unmotorised version is probably the best plan. They are a great price too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armchair Modeller Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 I bought a brand new Hymek a while back from a reputable dealer. As soon as I opened the pack back home, I was suspicious, as the loco had clearly been handled a lot - lots of grot in the radiator slots etc. The dealer offered me a £10 refund, despite being very sceptical about the genuineness of my story. The loco seemed to be running fine at the time, so I agreed to the offer. After a couple of days running up and down my short test track, the loco seized up. I complained to the dealer and got the rest of my money back - though I ended up losing out on the postage. Reading what has been said on another thread, I now wonder if it was a loco Dapol repaired and sent back out again as new. The dealer certainly seemed adamant hat it was brand new off the shelf and unopened. I have also had problems with eccentric wheels on an M7, a burnt out motor on a Terrier, valve gear so loose on one side of a 9F it caught and stopped the loco, 3 73s with wobbly wheels, a Q1 with wobbly wheels, a GW prairie with wobbly wheels, 2 14xx with wobbly or eccentric wheels and an Ivatt 2-6-2T that would only crawl. All were brand new. I continue to be amazed that anyone could have a good Dapol loco after that lot. Its a shame really as the latest models do look good - maybe we should all just buy the unpowered versions of the diesels and DMUs, as suggested above, and fit Farish or American chassis to them? Having said that, I also had a brand new dummy 156 that didn't run well. When I looked at it carefully, the gears on the driving axles had been melted and squashed down on one side for some reason - and one of the blobs was catching on the bogie as the wheels went round. My mind boggles as to why they had done that! Richard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvinley Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Join the club Richard. See my post on the 67 thread. Notice the Dapol defenders replying in their droves. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nharding99 Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Hi Markus, I have bought 4 Dapol Hymeks... #1 ran like a dream (1st batch 2007). Fitted a Zimo decoder. #2 purchased early 2010, sent it back twice for replacement due to poor running, very noisy gears, very juddery running which did not settle down after running in. The 2nd replacement was fine. Fitted with a Lenz Silver Mini decoder, later fitted with a Digitrax DZ125IN which has run fine. #3 A Kernow green special edition, purchased Nov 2010. Sent it back due to decoder not working, even though it ran very smoothly on DC. The replacement ran well and for a while on DCC but then seemed to just not work under DCC. Resetting the decoder (a Digitrax DZ125IN) to factory settings sometimes resolved the problem but it seemed a bit hit & miss. I tried several other DZ125IN decoders and experienced the same problem. I tried a Zimo and a Lenz Silver Mini and these worked fine. My experience is that this loco may be sensitive to certain types of decoders. #4 A Kernow chromatic blue special edition. Sounded very rough on first run but to be fair after running in it smoothed out and now runs well. I fitted a DZ125IN and again had some cut out problems, have fitted a Lenz Silver mini and it has been fine ever since. As an observation there were huge amounts of grease on the bogie gear towers, most of which I cleaned off. These 2 Kernow special editions have probably been stored in boxes for a couple of years before they were tried out, #4 was definitely over-lubricated by the factory. Hope this helps give you some ideas & perspective... Nigel H. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 I've had 4. The first (a very early one) runs fine, and has done so since day 1 The second - weathered from the milk train set, runs fine as well The third, a Kernow variant, was bought at Warley in November, was being run in on the club layout at the exhibition, and dropped dead after about 15 minutes. The fourth, supplied by Kernow as a replacement without a quibble, ran fine, and although it hasn't had much use yet still does so. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWJP Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 I've go one Hymek, which I bought as soon as it hit the shops, probably one of the first available, and it's a lovely little runner. One of the best Dapol locos i've bought, without a doubt. Nice and quiet, very good on slow speed settings, and a fair enough top speed (although not insanely fast). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave flint Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Hi Markus, I have bought 4 Dapol Hymeks... #1 ran like a dream (1st batch 2007). Fitted a Zimo decoder. #2 purchased early 2010, sent it back twice for replacement due to poor running, very noisy gears, very juddery running which did not settle down after running in. The 2nd replacement was fine. Fitted with a Lenz Silver Mini decoder, later fitted with a Digitrax DZ125IN which has run fine. #3 A Kernow green special edition, purchased Nov 2010. Sent it back due to decoder not working, even though it ran very smoothly on DC. The replacement ran well and for a while on DCC but then seemed to just not work under DCC. Resetting the decoder (a Digitrax DZ125IN) to factory settings sometimes resolved the problem but it seemed a bit hit & miss. I tried several other DZ125IN decoders and experienced the same problem. I tried a Zimo and a Lenz Silver Mini and these worked fine. My experience is that this loco may be sensitive to certain types of decoders. #4 A Kernow chromatic blue special edition. Sounded very rough on first run but to be fair after running in it smoothed out and now runs well. I fitted a DZ125IN and again had some cut out problems, have fitted a Lenz Silver mini and it has been fine ever since. As an observation there were huge amounts of grease on the bogie gear towers, most of which I cleaned off. These 2 Kernow special editions have probably been stored in boxes for a couple of years before they were tried out, #4 was definitely over-lubricated by the factory. Hope this helps give you some ideas & perspective... Nigel H. I think the problem lies with the decoder - I had a batch of DZ125's. Of six, three worked fine, one worked after some jiggling, and two were dead - in Dapol and farish stock. The pins on the dead chips were about half the length of the others, and I have returned them to a (sceptical) supplier. My 66s have the tiny ct elektonic ct75 chip, as any other chip menat the body wouldn't go back on. I will fit the lenz silver mini where space permits from now on. I have a Dapol 156, 153, 2x 66 and 2 x 67 and 1 x 86 and 221.. I've not run them much, but no problems during testing on dc or dcc. Does that make me a "Dapol defender" ?! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicester Thumper Posted April 19, 2011 Share Posted April 19, 2011 i'm not a true Dapol defender, but i have used mine over the winter a lot whilst not being around much elsewhere and mine still seems ok... must be a batch thing then/? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
D826 Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Hello there. Has anyone any experience of the latest batch of Dapol Hymeks? Mine, about 9 years old - D7099 from the weathered milk tanker set, always sounded a bit like a coffee grinder - more running in one direction than another. This was only ever partially resolved by a replacement gear set from BR Lines. Wondering if tolerances between gear towers and the worms on the cardan driveshafts have been tightened on this latest batch. It's a cracking looking model and I seem to recall reading elsewhere in the Dapol thread that this will be the last batch produced. I model Cornwall circa 69 to 76 so it's a bit of a rule 1 applies model anyway (though I've read Hymeks regularly appeared at St Austell on a motorrail service train till about 66/67). Interested what people's experience is before purchase -it may be wiser to spend it on a Dapol 1000 or 6300, both of which run like a Swiss watch by comparison. Regards Matt Wood Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71 Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Mornin' all, All of the above experiences echo the misadventures with the Dapol Westerns. Their products should carry a warning of your percentage chances of getting a model in a condition close to what you have every right to expect. Many would then think twice about putting their hand into their pocket in the first instance. Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benn Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 Those of you who have seen my layout Barton Road will have noticed that we don't run any Hymeks, despite the fact that they are personally my favourite hydraulic, and they were very prominent in the area, and period that the layout is set. I am yet to get my hands on one of these from the latest batch of locos, to see if there have been any improvements on the mech/gearing. I spoke to Andy at TINGS, and he said they'd improved the and quality of circuitry, and the plastic bearings which may help with the drive gear disengaging from the top cog on the bogie(This was caused by the plastic bearing wearing to an oval shape apparently), so that might make some improvements.Any further info from those who have bought them would be most appreciated, especially those who run them on DCC, as that's where I found that most of the problems occured. We put it down to the slack in the gear chain playing havoc with the chip, and the poor quality of the circuit boards, the motor itself was fine. We spent hours reprogramming the chip's settings (Zimo 621N) to try and counter the slack in the bogies, but to no avail. I'm hoping very much that this batch will work OK, as I also think the appearance of the loco is excellent and they are very much missed!Cheers,Benn. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 Mornin' all, All of the above experiences echo the misadventures with the Dapol Westerns. Their products should carry a warning of your percentage chances of getting a model in a condition close to what you have every right to expect. Many would then think twice about putting their hand into their pocket in the first instance. Dave I'll quite happily settle for my 91.6% success rate with Dapol diesels...... Les ...........and maybe even for my 85.7% success rate with Farish diesels. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benn Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 Probably a little off topic, but I'm going to throw this out there anyway; I think a 'success rate' of any kind is highly circumstancial, and very much so depends on how you personally judge a loco to run properly, what sort of a set up you're running, and how you propose to run it once you've bought it... From my experience, my standards of what makes a loco a good runner are very high, almost too high; when I'm buying a loco, I average going through around 4-5 before finding one that I'm happy with, where as anybody who wants to just put the loco on the track and run it round at a scale 40-60mph would probably be more than happy with the first or second one they pick up. Slow speed is important to me as I always run at prototypical speeds, and use my locos for a lot of shunting. They must acelerate evenly, and steadily, and not learch, lock up or show any hesitation when going from a stand to approx 20mph. If I'm testing it on DCC, it must move steadily when set at the lowest speed step using speed steps 128, and I'm not really interested in it's top speed, as it'll never get above 50mph on Barton Road. If it doesn't meet these standards almost immediately out of the box, it tends to never get much better, so I'll go for another.Some modellers and manufacturers would say that was unreasonable of me to expect that, but there's no point in me buying it otherwise as I wouldn't be able to use it, and with locos at nearly a ton a throw these days, I can't afford to have stuff sitting in the stock box all weekend at an exhibition. Plus, it brings the standard of the layout down when stuff doesn't run properly, and saps a lot of the enjoyment from operating when a loco doesn't perform!Anyway, back to Hymeks.*Awaits backlash*... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71 Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 ....the number of locos involved is probably more important than the percentage of reliability too. Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padishar Creel Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 Probably a little off topic, but I'm going to throw this out there anyway; I think a 'success rate' of any kind is highly circumstancial, and very much so depends on how you personally judge a loco to run properly, what sort of a set up you're running, and how you propose to run it once you've bought it... From my experience, my standards of what makes a loco a good runner are very high, almost too high; when I'm buying a loco, I average going through around 4-5 before finding one that I'm happy with, where as anybody who wants to just put the loco on the track and run it round at a scale 40-60mph would probably be more than happy with the first or second one they pick up. Slow speed is important to me as I always run at prototypical speeds, and use my locos for a lot of shunting. They must acelerate evenly, and steadily, and not learch, lock up or show any hesitation when going from a stand to approx 20mph. If I'm testing it on DCC, it must move steadily when set at the lowest speed step using speed steps 128, and I'm not really interested in it's top speed, as it'll never get above 50mph on Barton Road. If it doesn't meet these standards almost immediately out of the box, it tends to never get much better, so I'll go for another. Some modellers and manufacturers would say that was unreasonable of me to expect that, but there's no point in me buying it otherwise as I wouldn't be able to use it, and with locos at nearly a ton a throw these days, I can't afford to have stuff sitting in the stock box all weekend at an exhibition. Plus, it brings the standard of the layout down when stuff doesn't run properly, and saps a lot of the enjoyment from operating when a loco doesn't perform! Anyway, back to Hymeks. *Awaits backlash*... Hallo, no backlash from me, that is how a loco should run, should it not? Or am I missing something very basic? es grüßt PC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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