Have just purchased Dapol Britannia "Oliver Cromwell" having read Dapol's own and others' descriptions of same. Despite some purists' views regarding tight radius points/curves, many of us have to use them to accommodate layouts of sufficient complexity in tight spaces. My layout has over thirty tight radius points as well as half a dozen medium ones. Locos that cannot tackle the former are no use to me. All my Farish stock is excellent in this respect. My two Dapol "Q 1s" are broadly OK, the more recent (BR) one significantly the better of the two. The claim from Dapol that the Britannia would cope is just about true, which surprised me given the close coupling of engine and tender. For the less fussy a margin of safety can be achieved by carefully amputating the front steps, allowing an extra degree of bogie swing for tight situations. For those with 9in. radius points I would recommend this measure although they may not find it necessary. Nowadays Farish supply front steps as an optional add-on which I always ignore. There has to be some compromise between authenticity and functionality unless one is blessed with the space to have gentle curves and points everywhere. The Britannia performs well and has excellent haulage qualities thanks to the traction tyres, a feature I dislike but accept may increasingly be needed, especially where gradients are concerned. I prefer the Dapol shaft driven loco drive to the Farish freewheeling engines with tender drive that have come out more recently and seem to me a bit dodgy in concept.. The ideal, whenever possible, is to have the motor housed in the loco body with additional tender pick up. The Britannia's creep capability is remarkable and most realistic. The verdict on this engine after one day's extensive trial is excellent on looks and excellent on performance. It has to be said, however, that the older Farish die-cast bodied locos, for all their aesthetic shortcomings, are excellent performers without the need for any traction aids, and tender pickup conversion kits overcome the tendency to stall on insulfrogs, crossovers etc. even at slow speeds.