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Dapol's new Class 68 locomotives


Nobby (John)
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58 minutes ago, letterspider said:

I heard a 68 on the Chilten Line out of Marylebone for the first time this week - from the speed it was going must have been near to 2 miles away when you first hear the drone. Comparing that with the 165 and 168 DMU's it is pretty unbearable in residential areas :(

 

You never heard a Paxman HST then?

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4 hours ago, letterspider said:

I heard a 68 on the Chilten Line out of Marylebone for the first time this week - from the speed it was going must have been near to 2 miles away when you first hear the drone. Comparing that with the 165 and 168 DMU's it is pretty unbearable in residential areas :(


They aren’t that bad, I regularly stay in a hotel right next to South Ruislip station and whilst the windows there are pretty crap, you don’t notice the 68 hauled trains that much earlier than you do a 168. 
 

Roy

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6 hours ago, Roy Langridge said:


They aren’t that bad, I regularly stay in a hotel right next to South Ruislip station and whilst the windows there are pretty crap, you don’t notice the 68 hauled trains that much earlier than you do a 168. 
 

Roy

 

A lot depends on how close you are. My back fence is a railway with a 1/100 gradient so the freights are working hard. But the noise comes and goes relatively quickly.  My mate lives about 200 yards from the same line, but higher up above it and can hear the same trains, albeit a bit quieter, but for far longer than I do.

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On 06/03/2020 at 07:37, newbryford said:

 

 So much so, that the residents of Scarborough have complained..................

 

Modifications to the TPE 68 silencers are being considered

Ghee....

 

‘There is a very simple almost cost free solution.....


Send a couple of English Electrics (class37’s) at full thrash up and down the line at all hours of the day and night, and the local residents will soon request the 68’s come back!

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23 hours ago, letterspider said:

I heard a 68 on the Chilten Line out of Marylebone for the first time this week - from the speed it was going must have been near to 2 miles away when you first hear the drone. Comparing that with the 165 and 168 DMU's it is pretty unbearable in residential areas :(

I think thats the first time I've ever heard a negative comment towards the noise of loco's on here!!!

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On 07/03/2020 at 13:43, Half-full said:

I think thats the first time I've ever heard a negative comment towards the noise of loco's on here!!!

 

......and what Traction the vast majority prefer in the form of loco hauled consists. 

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On 05/03/2020 at 23:37, newbryford said:

 

 So much so, that the residents of Scarborough have complained..................

 

Modifications to the TPE 68 silencers are being considered

Railways have been in Scarborough longer than the residents.

Steam locos were far noisier, as was varying diesel classes.

 

Residents should consider the glazing on the houses they’ve bought close to the railway line.

 

maybe the silencers need fitting to the residents.

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I’ve got a whole nest of Class 68s about 100m from where I’m typing this.

I sleep with the window open but the 68s never honestly disturb me.

Got woken a couple of times when the 37s were on the Cumbrian Coast services.

I honestly get more sleep disturbance from when I have a 4/5/6 am wake up for an early shift. I never get a proper nights’ sleep due to my brain refusing to shut down as it waits for the alarm!

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22 hours ago, Mad McCann said:

I’ve got a whole nest of Class 68s about 100m from where I’m typing this.

I sleep with the window open but the 68s never honestly disturb me.

Got woken a couple of times when the 37s were on the Cumbrian Coast services.

I honestly get more sleep disturbance from when I have a 4/5/6 am wake up for an early shift. I never get a proper nights’ sleep due to my brain refusing to shut down as it waits for the alarm!

I know what you mean as I sit here typing because I can't sleep as my shift starts at 01:30

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Don't know if anybody has experienced this.... I have a 68 and I think the white LED for the front lights has packed up. I haven't had it long but I bought it at a show and don't have a receipt for it so I don't feel I'd get very far with Dapol. DCC supplies have the full set of circuit boards but this is 30 odd quid and so I don't really want to spend that for a small part of it.

 

I just wondered if there is something I may be missing? It seems to be getting voltage to the board, and I have tried a brand new decoder to check, although the top marker is working anyway.

 

Has anyone swapped this LED before? I'd have a go for what the LED would cost but don't know the values of it.

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14 minutes ago, atom3624 said:

Aren't there 'dip switches'?

 

Any chance one or more may have changed position?

 

Mine's been perfect since I received it last year.

 

Al.

 

There are but I don't think the lower forward LED is controlled independent of the top marker LED. I.e. they should both be on rather than just the top one. I will double check tomorrow though!

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On 20/03/2020 at 23:06, TomScrut said:

 

There are but I don't think the lower forward LED is controlled independent of the top marker LED. I.e. they should both be on rather than just the top one. I will double check tomorrow though!

Any look with trouble shooting the lighting problem ?

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On 20/03/2020 at 23:06, TomScrut said:

 

There are but I don't think the lower forward LED is controlled independent of the top marker LED. I.e. they should both be on rather than just the top one. I will double check tomorrow though!

I had dim lighting on one end of one of my Dapol 68s. I opened it up to investigate and found that the light guide had come adrift at the dim end - it wasn't as snug a fit as at the other end and needed some assistance to remain in place. Depending on where the LED is mounted (I can't remember now!) you might have a similar problem.

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It's definitely the LED not lighting up as I have been troubleshooting with the body off.

 

I haven't really got any further with it at the moment, I decided to change CV29 bit 1 to 1 and put that end up to the carriages until I could be bothered to look again! (I changed CV29 because I like it running clockwise round the layout due to how the station works)

 

I might have a better look tonight. I love how easy it is to get the body off these locos, other manufacturers should take note. Even though my Hornby 60 and 153 are clip on they are (were in the case of the 153) a bit awkward, although still way better than the flat headed screws they also use on the 31, 43 and 67

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hopefully taking delivery of my first of these beasts this week.

Is there a cure for the light bleed through the blue body work of the DRS models (cab sides and cab roof)?

Would black paint on the inside of the body-shell be a solution? or Blu-tak around the lighting units to prevent spill?

Any tips of successfull solutions?

 

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25 minutes ago, G-BOAF said:

Is there a cure for the light bleed through the blue body work of the DRS models (cab sides and cab roof)?

Would black paint on the inside of the body-shell be a solution? or Blu-tak around the lighting units to prevent spill?

Any tips of successfull solutions?


All of the above! Blu-Tack is most useful where a gap exists, for example between a light guide and the chassis (more thinking Bachmann models here), whereas for 'general' light bleed which is what I’d call it on the 68, black paint, black permanent marker (aka Sharpie) or black insulation tape have all worked for me. Often for cab lights, which will always be against the roof, painting the LED black completely then rubbing it off the face pointing downwards into the cab works a treat.

 

On DCC you could try reducing brightness through CVs too if it persists.

 

HTH,

Jack.

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Something I am going to try on one of my 68s before long is to improve the lighting. As I understand it the lights should be as follows:

 

Halos and top light are markers

Main headlights have a full and dim mode

 

But the Dapol model has:

Main headlights with top light

Halos on their own

 

My thinking is if I swap the main light and the halo wires then halos will come on as markers. Then I have have a bright and dim mode for my headlights as my decoders have two brightness settings for those outputs

 

Does this make sense and am I right with my thoughts about the prototype?

 

Cheers!

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27 minutes ago, TomScrut said:

My thinking is if I swap the main light and the halo wires then halos will come on as markers. Then I have have a bright and dim mode for my headlights as my decoders have two brightness settings for those outputs

 

Does this make sense and am I right with my thoughts about the prototype?


AFAIK, both Halos and 'headlights' (below cab window) should be operated with the top light. See both photos:

 

68 016 on freight 6X27 in Kingmoor Yard. Something Missing

(Both from Flickr, click to link)

 

I did find a picture of a class 68 light switch in the cab, and it’s safe to say you can’t choose whether the top light comes on or not. So as far as I can see, it should be on with any forward light setup.

 

This clearly presents a difficulty with the model, as you’d either need a diode pair linking both headlight and halo feed to the top light, or you’d need to give the top light it’s own function output and make it work in the function mapping of the decoder.

 

Personally I gave up with Dapol's lighting efforts on this model...I couldn’t get the halo to look anything like prototypical, so I ripped it all out, milled the chassis and added my own light boards and decoder setup. It’s a bit extreme but works looks 'right' to me.

 

I'll have a look for the photo I found of the light switch when I can, but maybe someone more knowledgeable could confirm.

 

Jack.

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13 minutes ago, Jack374 said:

This clearly presents a difficulty with the model, as you’d either need a diode pair linking both headlight and halo feed to the top light, or you’d need to give the top light it’s own function output and make it work in the function mapping of the decoder.

 

Cheers!

 

But do the halos and top light not work all the time like markers on most locos?

 

I thought the halos worked like markers, then the "main beam" had two brightness settings, one day and one night. As per the configurations illustrated on this page: http://s374444733.websitehome.co.uk/class-68/index.htm

 

So my thinking was I'd have halo and top on F0, with directional tail. Then a separate function to switch main beam on, and another function to alternative between brightness of main beam.

 

I aren't bothering with the cab lighting for now.

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32 minutes ago, TomScrut said:

But do the halos and top light not work all the time like markers on most locos?

 

I thought the halos worked like markers, then the "main beam" had two brightness settings, one day and one night. As per the configurations illustrated on this page: http://s374444733.websitehome.co.uk/class-68/index.htm

 

So my thinking was I'd have halo and top on F0, with directional tail. Then a separate function to switch main beam on, and another function to alternative between brightness of main beam.


Hmm I’ll be perfectly honest I don’t know. Looking at Martin's excellent site you’ve linked to, it would seem he’s used the halos to compensate for the tiny factory-supplied headlights - part of the reason I replaced mine. What I think happens on the real locos is the 'marker' Halos are only on when selected. See the pic below:

 

For How Much Longer?

 

There is clearly a middle LED and 8 others around it. Compare this to the Halos in the Kingmoor shot in the previous post, or the photo below (which clearly shows all the LEDs on the RHS) and I think there’s a separate ring of smaller LEDs:

 

Bi-Mode Bonus

(I know it’s an 88...sorry!)

 

The crux of all this, does anyone care? I won’t lose sleep over it...

 

So in short, unless we get a definitive answer the solution Martin and yourself have chosen seems the easiest and most reasonable. I might have a play around with mine if I can be bothered....

 

Jack.

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