Chris 84B

Like you, it won't bother me so much as I have two on order, and would not be a deal breaker, strange though considering Dapol have already done it correctly on the 7mm versions.

I have had a chance to have a good look over the Engineering sample as per the pictures on the Dapol website, having done so I am sure I have spotted a couple of anomalies relating to the position of certain Door Handles and Door Grabs. Looking at a side view of the Dapol Autotrailer with the Driving end ( single door) to the left and the double luggage doors to the right hand side, the Passengers door (with the retracting steps beneath it) appears to have the door handle and grab handle placed on the left hand side, whereas photos of actual Diagram N Autotrailers have their handles on the right hand side of the door, as in fact do Dapols' own 7mm model versions! Also the luggage door handle and grab on this side appear to be reversed, with the sample having the grab handle and door handle the wrong way round. I have hopefully downloaded a couple of images that will be clearer to explain my point better than my ramblings. For reference I have used the John Lewis "GWR Autotrailers Part One" by Wild Swan Publishing and Dapols' own pictures of their 7mm version of the same thing. PS all other door handles and grabs appear to be correctly positioned as far as I can make out.

I believe it's number 38 that is at the Telford Steam Railway, I photographed it back in April 2021 during a visit there, it is in a worse state than it looks in the photo! The bodies wooden frame has been exposed to the elements for years and the roof has several sections missing destroying what little of the interior remained, if my memory serves me right the guy who let me get up close to look at it said that the underframe was badly twisted as well. As much as I appreciate the work of preservation groups, and the Telford team are brilliant, I can't really see this being restored where it is, sadly. Onto the actual model itself, I am going to presume that the 4mm version will be a simple scale down from the 7mm version, if so it should be an excellent model, my only concern is the speaker housing is very visible in the luggage compartment of the 7mm version so might be even more so in 4mm scale, hopefully for those of us not needing sound it might be removable. Chris.