Bowie

Hi Neal, At the time I had overreacted. However I was highly stressed at the time due to the following reasons. 1. At the the of my order (2 year Pre-Order), I didn't remember I had selected DPD as the courier. I usually go DHL. When I was notified that my order was awaiting picking, I requested that if it could be changed to DHL and that I was more than happy to pay any fees/extra charges. This was refused and then my order was processed. 2. Understanding the global situation, I waited over 2 weeks for updates about my parcel which had been shipped without any information. It was at this time I discovered DPD is one of the worst couriers to use internationally. I chose them at the time of pre-order on the faith that Hattons had vetted them. 3. At the time, our State Premier was announcing massive closures/travel restrictions. 4. I wasn't sure if I would be still be employed (Retail) as we were then operating on a day to day basis with conflicting information from the state & federal governments. When I finally did my parcel after 2 weeks of no updates from the courier & saw the condition it was in, My safety values lifted. At the time I had seen nothing but glowing reports from other people who had purchased the loco and I felt like I had just been unlucky and gotten the short end after all I had been through and looking like the only person at the time to have an damaged item. Also being down under makes warranty support a tad tricky & costly. I just wanted to explain the situation in more detail as all this happened within a short time period under incredibly stressful conditions.

I had the exact same problem with mine, also Hattons did a poor job on the packing of mine. I e-mailed them stating I will no longer be using them for my purchases. Please Note: I'm posting what I sent them as I can't be bothered retyping. It was close to midnight Australian time when I sent this and I was highly emotional at the time. Hello, Having finally received my parcel all I can say is whomever packed my parcel did a bloody piss poor job of it. When I picked up the parcel I heard and and felt the contents within easily slide from end to end. (100mm each end of the Dapol box of was void of packing..Not stated in E-Mail) Opening the box confirmed the first of my fears. The sides were well protected but not the ends resulting in the contents sliding and banging the ends of the box. Opening the actual Dapol box, I noticed the roof was detached which is luckily by design. Having a quick look around the loco within it's cradle there was no paintwork damage. However I noticed a long detail part loose. Following the manual of how to the remove the from the cradle the first step was easy. Removing the lower cradle screws beneath the loco cab was also easy however when I started to loosen the middle front screw the whole front keeper fell apart. Of course the other long detail part and the front driving axle fell out of the chassis which was only stopped by the coupling rods. Thankfully being a skilled modeller came to the rescue as I managed to re-insert the detail parts which were part of the motion gear. However 2 out of 3 screws which kept the front keeper in place no longer tightened and the third screws washer had spilt. Thankfully I had washers on hand and have lightly tacked the other 2 in place. After roughly 40 minutes of repair work thankfully the loco ran smoothly on first go. I have reported my experience to fellow members of my club whom were awaiting my review of the product and have cautioned them. Such poor packaging for what was clearly an overseas order has made me lose all faith of your ability to safely send my orders. I will now be conducting my business with Rails of Sheffield. Anyway she's been fitted with sound and I'm awaiting crew members before a light weathering job. However I feel the pain & disappointment due to Dapol's new fixing system. They should return to the old Ice-Cube. The fleet is now complete...

Along Warren Shepard parts have been mentioned, I found the following with more parts provided. Hope this helps those who want auto-fitted locos. http://www.peteroles.co.uk/newsite_048.htm

Had a quick look at 'A pictorial record of Great Western Engines', Peto's Register & Lewis' Auto-Trailers. The covers are post 1938 (After my pre-war period of 1934-35). So my reasoning is the covers started during the war. Maybe when Top-Feed was starting to be introduced to the class in '44 as there's a picture of 4869 in Peto's Ex-Works dated the 29th May 1946 with GWR on the tanks with the covers on. It's the only photo I could find in the war years gap after a quick search. Maybe it became standard in the re-numbering period during the 3 month's of '46. Only guessing, Anyway it'll be much easier fitting brass wires to the spot and hopefully get away without having to paint the red, also smaller too. I'll probably pick up the Heljan AEC Railcar for the WR-Era.

I think Hal was referring to the Lionheart/Dapol 64xx models missing the Boxes on the beams. Which is a shame as the locos were designed mainly for hauling Auto-Trailers. Hopefully I can mix/find the Dapol buffer beam red. The loco is going to be lightly weathered so hopefully I can be subtle enough...

This is the response I Received from Dapol on their Facebook page when asked the question.

Hi Richard, From memory the sound project that Paul did is exclusive for Minerva and not available from other sources. Also they only provide the Zimo 8-Pin MX645R, which would be a problem for Pieman if he has an Bachmann 37-Class which is 21-Pin hence my 'If you're willing' As stated on the Minerva Website 'We do not offer it for sale for use in any other manufacturers models, and using it in this way will invalidate the guarantee we offer' That's the risk I was willing to take for Paul's Project and a 8 to 21-Pin adapter made it an easy install. Regards, Bowie

Hi Pieman, If you're willing to use that Decoder for another project I would highly recommend the one by Paul Chetter for Minerva. https://www.minervamodelrailways.co.uk/product/pannier-sound-kit/ I've posted in the following, refer to Posts #103 & #121 https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/122647-Dapol-o-57xx-8750/page-5 Note: Since the first post I've used the DCC Concepts 8 to 21-Pin Adapter, also the TCS KA4 Keep-Alive was actually a tight fit but It's fantastic. Otherwise you can use the Digitrain's by Tony as I have one in my OO Branchline 64xx Pannier. It's very good but I find Paul's to be in a class of it's own. I've almost finished laying the track for my O-Scale Shunting Layout so I may post some work in progress shortly.

I used the 7mm ones and used 4 minute epoxy, I had used CA but found it (Twice) could creep through the coupling hook hole in the buffer beam and make the Latch* (Less than 5 minutes to make replacement) Loops** ( in taking the most time to assemble) stuck.

Used this fantastic project in my Dapol 57xx. I set CV267=180 to get chuffs for 4 per wheel rotation as I was getting only 3 with default settings. Note the Minerva project is on a 8-Pin Decoder, I'll recommend the DCC Concepts 8-Pin to 21-Pin Adopter board. On a side note I'm having trouble with the Firebox Flicker but am not too concerned about it at this moment in time. Here are some videos of the work in progress (please excuse the mess on the workbench *Cough abandoned OO Layout Cough* The last video has some notes on the findings from the experimentation Also the Digitrains Zimo 57xx Pannier is pretty good as well. Got it in my Bachmann 64xx

I was thinking about it, most of the model is press fit and I could force it. But I decided the possibly splitting/damaging the cab wasn't worth the risk. Plus the paint does tone it down. Even more if I had done another coat. Its a compromise I'm willing to take, after all that period of the loco should have the cab step hole filled in and have double brake shoes. The art of compromise...I cheated with the lamps next to the toolbox as the lamp irons are missing from the model haha

The following is being posted from my mobile so please forgive the formatting also the photos are unedited mobile ones. I've been a bit quiet in regards to the 57xx. First I was going to get the DC one and then I saw the sound clip on the Dapol website so I changed my pre-order. Then when I heard about the wiring issue/delay I just went back to the DC one. As some may recall I wasn't overly happy with the pipes in the cab. I had a bit of fun attaching them as: 1. I had forgotten about the length of the pipes and the floor as the backhead nicely slides in as a press fit. When I put the backhead back into place and fitted the cab back on everything fall off due to the over pressure in trying to get it to fit. 2. Was also trying to trim the ones that were still attached with a 52tpi saw and well...snap/pop it came. So after 3 attempts with CA and patching with copper and flat black paint I just went to using 4 minute epoxy. The following is still in progress as I'm slowly adding and removing weathering powders (AIM) the fake coal will be replaced with the real thing later. Also painted the glazing with GWR Loco Green. Plus I added a crude hydrostatic lubricator and handles for injectors. Before After Still got to add buckets, fireirons and leaning out of cab warning sign on firemans side. Buckets (Minerva), Fireirons (Ixion) on order. Sign will be copied from the net and put on some scrap brass. I realised that the fold down seats are too wide however thats asking for possible more fun with the pipes so another compromise. Even added some crude sanding levers in the cab, forgot the damper levers but maybe at an later date. Figures are the excellent Modelu figures for the Minerva pannier. The driver was fun to fit due to the arm and lever positioning and also the reverser is in the way...a very tight fit. Also added some Modelu GWR Lamps. Putting together the Dingham couplers. Now for the sound installation. Using the excellent sound project for Minerva by Paul Chetter presented a few moments of fun. As their project is on a 8-Pin harness and Dapol is 21-Pin. Not wanting to hardwire a decoder permanently I got a TCS 21-Pin adapter board and soldered the wires to it. The reason being I was afraid of height restrictions from the speaker replacement. Which actually turned out to be okay. If I used a DCC Concepts board it would have be too fine. Now you may be asking why not hardwire? Well I am of the belief it a decoder blows or I want to fit it in another loco its just a simple refitting of the blanking plug. So in regards to the speaker. I'm of the opinion that cube speakers are in some cases superior to round speakers for certain sizes. So as provided by Dapol you get the enclosure for a 31mm Round speaker. Well...also note I had to shave a tiny bit into the screw mountings. And a perfect fit Zimo 4ohm 2watt 55x20x9 speaker. The speaker has be tacked around. Next where the pcb board screws are located I added a small piece of Evergreen #255 7.9 x 7.9 (5/16") about 6mm wide and then drilled a hole in it. Then I got the mounting screw (Which are self-taping) and screwed it in to to if it would hold..it did. I had tried a solid piece but it was difficult to get the screw in even with drilling. So I cut another piece of tube and repeated the above steps. Then I screwed the pcb to the tubes. I then got a piece of Evergreen #159 1.5 x 6.3mm stripe and put it across the screw mounts on the bottom and a bit off center towards the speaker so I could have a bit of more comfort space of sliding the pcb board towards the front of the loco. This provides plenty of room to put a TCS KA4 Stay-Alive between the motor and the speaker. I then glued the the tube pieces attached the pcb to the stripe across the bottom screw mounting. I should have taken more photos to explain this better but in effect it creates a step for the pcb to be mounted above the speaker so it doesn't touch anything and allows the sound to flow freely inside the body while using the original pcb board. This arrangement can used for the normal 21-Pin if you want to fit large cubes. Anyway it sounds brilliant and I'll upload some videos of it running on a test track on youtube later.

Digitrains do one for both ESU/Zimo by Tony Molyneux. I've used his Pannier one for my P4 Panniers...6 Panniers so far and still got 45xx by 2 and 14xx by 2 to go. Along I used the Zimo Projects the ESU one should be the same. His project is fantastic in my opinion, however I do have the Minerva Pannier sound project awaiting my Dapol 57xx. http://www.digitrains.co.uk/ecommerce/search/ds028-ds028-prairie-soundfile-loksou.aspx

Tower Models have just posted an update. They stated that Dapol will hopefully supply their shipment by about Tuesday 27th this month.

I've pre-ordered mine from Hattons and used DHL so hopefully I can post something not too long after you gents get them in the UK...I'm a sick puppy from Australia.