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Dapol Announce N gauge Mk.3 Sleepers


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On 07/06/2020 at 16:55, John M Upton said:

The CDL lights are still there on the blue/grey artwork... :nono:

 

Aren’t the blue/grey ones the only livery variant which didn’t have CDL lights? If so, it’s probably asking a bit much for a separate tooling just for that one version. It’s not going to stop me getting some as the lights are only going to be about 1mm square and a fraction of that in depth. 

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On 05/06/2020 at 11:54, Lukas G. said:

I’m unsure about those myself but I would believe they would be for departmental/charter use. It’s actually Fastline instead of Serco. Doesn’t make much sense to me to offer those as they are very obscure wagons (To the point of people not knowing about their existence) and to offer those instead of a livery like Caledonian Sleeper green is an interesting decision.

 

It's a staff canteen and mess coach.

It's certainly a strange choice, especially as it's the same prototype but with different branding.  

More details can be found here:

http://www.departmentals.com/departmental/977989

 

It carried Jarvis branding first then Fastline, it's currently on the Wensleydale Railway at Leeming Bar.

 

Cheers,

 

Keith.

 

 

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They only listed the O Gauge bubble cars and OO hoppers as being stuck on the Evergiven. 
 

Possibly a good thing, depending where abouts on the ship it was I can’t imagine being sat in a metal container in the baking Egyptian heat for so long does model railway products much good
 

Tom. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Good Evening All, 

 

We have received samples of the MK3 Caledonian Sleeper Twin Packs we are exclusively doing with Dapol. See images below.

 

We now expect our packs to be delivered between Q3 and Q4 of this year. 

 

We have commisioned 4 Packs in Total: 

 

KMS 1 - Stag Twin 

 

KMS 2 - First Caledonian White Stripe

 

KMS 3 - First Caledonian Gold Band and No Band

 

KMS 4 - De-Branded White Stripe 

 

Priced at £58 per twin pack and available to order here: https://www.kmsrailtech.co.uk/334-mk3-sleeper

2P-006-KMS1 - Side 1.png

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It looks like Dapol have done an ok job on the deco, but the end details of the coach don't look sleeper derived. A shame. From memory, high detail CAD images were never shared with the press or the community. Here's what it should look like. The upper recesses on the model should have circular tail lamps in them, and the lower recesses shouldn't exist. The tanking pipes are integrated with the handrails. This picture off Flickr illustrates the point.

160909 Mk3_SLEP

 Looks like the end doors have the small windows of the day stock, too.

 

Jo

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So three years after announcing, we finally get to see something tangible, albeit inaccurate.... I guess Dapol were too busy doing ‘other things’ over the past three years to get the mk3 sleeper correct.... 
 

I’d be curious to know how many iterations of CAD they had and how closely they scrutinised it, because even a cursory glance (as detailed above) shows errors - I can’t help but feel they started with existing CAD from day stock and just amended the window arrangement....

 

Moreover, speaking as someone who has experience of CAD QC-ing, either their CAD assessment routine isn’t rigorous enough (resulting in errors), or they’re not too fussed about accuracy - sadly, one of these scenarios must be true....

 

Anyway, that aside, I’ll have them battering along at full tilt behind my Revolution 92, so I guess they’ll be travelling too fast to notice the errors.... :O

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2 minutes ago, JR_P said:

So three years after announcing, we finally get to see something tangible, albeit inaccurate.... I guess Dapol were too busy doing ‘other things’ over the past three years to get the mk3 sleeper correct.... 

 

To be completely fair, Dapol had never actually promised those modifications to the tooling.

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4 minutes ago, frobisher said:

 

To be completely fair, Dapol had never actually promised those modifications to the tooling.

True,  the model was seen as a quick win  for the range, prompted by works on the 252 project. Clearly in the modern day getting a new tooling rather than changing a slide is quite expensive and would not see a twin pack for circa £60.  £60 each maybe. My 10 pence worth was that the ends would be against a loco of day stock so the omission was going to give some angst but was acceptable in the bigger picture.  With a care given the variation of day stock on the Fort William an accurate train is possible but I too would love to see a BUO and RLO to match. 

Robert       

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The GWR sleeper always runs with the sleepers London end, so in the down direction direction the tail lights are very visible as they are lit. Ok no need to make them lit or even a separate part, but at least if they're moulded (and tampo printed red perhaps) the willing could drill and fit LEDs.

 

I wasn't expecting the shape error of the roof and ends on the Dapol mk3s to be corrected, as then the sleeper would stand out mixed in and couldn't share tooling, but in 2021 the mix of detail on a new tooling does seem a touch disappointing.

 

Admittedly the ends do look to be shared with the MK3 buffet Dapol produced a few years back, but they're not exactly accurate for the Mk3a style they appear to depict. Not sure why it needs 4 water fillers on each end - was this a model from the era of Dapol with the person we don't mention any more?

Pic of Mk3a, which Dapol appear to have been aiming for, linked from Flickr:

Mk3a RFM TJH01 Norwich Thorpe 26th April 1998 Copyright Tim Horn

Dapol buffet:

IMG_20210814_134859-238.jpg.8ee869c9d0d2c6d74fdac692568ad940.jpg

 

Maybe someone will 3D print some drop in ends?

 

Jo

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