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Improving the Dapol 153

justin1985

Entry posted by justin1985

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Several people have said that the Dapol 153 isn't quite as convincing as the Farish 150, for example. I'm inclined to agree, but for my plans of a layout set in East Anglia in the early-mid 1990s, a 153 in Regional Railways livery is pretty much an essential! When I was able to pick one up on eBay for about half the RRP recently, I thought I'd think about how to improve it.

 

The most obvious thing that screams "wrong" is the snowplough. It juts out far too far at the top - I have no idea why, its not as if that is needed to operate with the scharfenberg couplings. So, I attacked them with a file. Just a few minutes with a needle file, working cross-wise and following the angle of the lower edge of the plough yielded something much more acceptable. The general shape is pretty much correct, its just that the top is carried far too far forward. See before and after:

 

blogentry-3740-083575700 1286744846_thumb.jpg

 

med_gallery_3740_1179_693895.jpg

 

The next problem (certainly with my model) was that the Scharfenberg coupling was very sloppy, and seemed to like to hang out to one side at a 45 degree angle. I've not actually had the chance to play with another model equipped with a close-coupling Tomix TN coupler like this, so I don't know if this is how its designed to be, but I suspect not. The coupling housing just pulls off the bottom of the model, and while the back of it appears to have been melted together with a soldering iron, the front unclips. To tighten things up a bit I made sure that the metal spring was sitting on top of the coupling arm and that the arm's pin was between the two prongs of the spring, then used fine tweezers to really tighten them in together as much as I could. I pulled each side right across the other and bent it as much as I could so that the two prongs now rest almost touching in the middle. This retains the coupler arm much better and stops it from slopping right out, while still letting it slide forward and return naturally.

 

The last thing that really grabs me about the model is the windows. While they are reasonably well moulded and sit quite flush, the thick silver printed line around the bottom half makes it appear as if they're not, and makes the windows look under-size! What I would like to do is remove the window strip, clean off the silver printing below the "hopper", and then run a little silver pen around the inside of the window frame (rather than the window itself) to give the correct impression.

 

However, I can't seem to get the windows out! Unclipping the roof lets you get at the window moulding, but they also seem to be retained by the seat moulding from below. I can't seem to find a way to safely unclip the main bodyside moulding that would give access to this. Has anyone done this successfully?

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Steadfast

Hi Justin,

Great project - I've got a dummy to semi-permanently couple with a Farish 150, and as part of this I've been looking at a similar detailing job as well as a respray, so I'm watching yours with interest!

It's good to see that the ploughs clean up so well with a quick blast of a file. One thing I'd suggest is to narrow them down aswell while the files are out. Comparing them to the 150, and prototype pics, they seem to be 1mm or so too wide either side. I'll be interested to see how you get the glazing out, as this, and separating the body and chassis have me stumped at the mo...

The more I look, the more there seems to be to do, I'd like to remove the rain strip and flush the cab front at the small cab end for starters, but I think these are too much work to do without wrecking the model

Good luck!

jo

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justin1985

Hi Jo,

 

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

I started off thinking I would thin down the ploughs width-wise as well, but looking at prototype shots again, I was wondering if in fact the width was correct. On the prototype it does look wider than I'd expected. However looking logically, it seems like in reality it should be about half way between the width where the bottom of the cab tapers, and the full width before it tapers. On the model it is the same width as the body, so perhaps 0.5mm on each side?

 

med_gallery_3740_1179_587883.jpg

 

I'm not intending to change the livery or renumber, so I'm planning to leave the cab alone - I don't think its as noticeable as the lack of bodyside tumblehome, but then I'm not going to do anything about that either!

 

The rainstrip is on the separate roof moulding though, so I probably will thin that down before I weather the roof.

 

How are you planning to couple the 153 to the 150? Add a scharfenberg to the 150, or a rapido to the 153? Annoyingly you can't seem to get Tomix couplers for NEM sockets, or any other coupler with the Tomix close-coupler mount!

 

Cheers

Justin

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NickL2008

looks good as this is coming from a 4mm modeller :D

One thing must point out Justin and hope I dont sound like im "Nit-picking" :unsure: The couplings used on 153's are called "BSI" couplings, Scharfenburg couplings are and were used on the EPS 73/1s

 

NL

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justin1985

Hi Nick,

 

Glad you like the look of the project! Yup, on the prototype the couplings are BSI, but Dapol have used off the shelf Tomix TN couplers that are generally described as "Scharfenberg", although they actually do look more similar to the BSIs with their square character.

 

JapanModelRailways shop

 

Overview of TN couplers

 

Justin

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bcnPete
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Hi Justin - am watching with interest.

 

For me, my Dapol 153 has a very strange coloured snowplough...almost orange rather than yellow.

 

I wish I knew how to get inside the units too. When they sold out of RR 153's last year, I bought a 153 dummy set and a motorised one in another livery so I could swop the chassis over...if only I knew beforehand how inaccessible it is...some day I will be taking a scalpel to it though :O

 

Pete

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Steadfast

I started off thinking I would thin down the ploughs width-wise as well, but looking at prototype shots again, I was wondering if in fact the width was correct. On the prototype it does look wider than I'd expected. However looking logically, it seems like in reality it should be about half way between the width where the bottom of the cab tapers, and the full width before it tapers. On the model it is the same width as the body, so perhaps 0.5mm on each side?

It's a weird one, sat with mine in front of me now, I reckon the fact that the coupler gap in the middle is too wide makes the rest of the plough look too wide.

I'm not intending to change the livery or renumber, so I'm planning to leave the cab alone - I don't think its as noticeable as the lack of bodyside tumblehome, but then I'm not going to do anything about that either!

The rainstrip is on the separate roof moulding though, so I probably will thin that down before I weather the roof.

The dodgy cab front will be hidden against the 150 on mine, even with a respray I don't think it's easily correctable. Again, now the model is in my hand, I think the rain strip is fixable,I'd assumed the rivets should continue further down, and that the rain strip was a work of fiction, but a bit of file worrk will improve things.

How are you planning to couple the 153 to the 150? Add a scharfenberg to the 150, or a rapido to the 153?

I'm popping the Scharfenberg off the big cab end onto the 150, and using the Farish detailing kit (including plough probably) in it's place with a set of TPM horns. This way the Dapol ploughs are hidden inside, like the dodgy cab front

I'm not sure whether to work on the underframe or not at the moment

 

jo

 

 

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