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Dapol Class 56 - Photo Review


Andy Y
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I see the Colas 56 is now in at various stockists, and is listed as 56094 both at stockists and in the current catalogue.

 

This was changed in March 2013 to 56105 and I specified it as such with the Chinese.

Anyone interested in one might want to check which number as 094 has a high intensity headlight that stands proud, where as 105 has the original sealed beam and is more in keeping with the model.

 

HTH

Dave

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just got 56070 in blue and the number is on the wrong end on one side how do you get something so simple wrong

 

The BR arrows aren't in the right place either. They should be above the fuel tanks, not the brake cylinders.

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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Hi Steven or any 56 experts out there,

Can you confirm whether 56006 (Dapol's first Romanian 56) is correctly liveried? I'm hoping to use this as a pattern to correct my 56070. Side-on views seem to be rare.

TIA.

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  • 6 years later...

I hope its ok to re-use this thread but Id really like Dapol to do another run of these, its a nice model but you cant find some common and should be popular versions of it anywhere, e.g. large logo BR blue or grey?

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2 hours ago, davebem said:

I hope its ok to re-use this thread but Id really like Dapol to do another run of these, its a nice model but you cant find some common and should be popular versions of it anywhere, e.g. large logo BR blue or grey?

It looks good and pulls well but the top speed is pitiful. Dapol do seem to have intended this as they advertise it as such:

"5 pole Super creep motor with huge pulling power and incredible slow running speed."

Mine is permanently attached to a collection of bullet wagons so I refer to it as 'Big Bertha and the Bullet Train' :)

 

I also had to remove the rear buffers from mine because they fouled the (Rapido) couplings. I've had to do the same thing with two class 68s I've bought recently. You'd think they could design/manufacture locomotives with buffers that didn't foul their own couplings :-/

Edited by AndrueC
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I’ve not had that problem with any of my 56s or 68s, although I know some have issues with the buffer beam detailing on the 68s and the tendency to foul the rotation of the bogie. Why would you want a 56 to have a high top speed? The real thing only did 80mph. I’ve never thought mine fall short of that. 
 

2 hours ago, davebem said:

I hope its ok to re-use this thread but Id really like Dapol to do another run of these, its a nice model but you cant find some common and should be popular versions of it anywhere, e.g. large logo BR blue or grey?

Large logo was extremely popular, and they only did one run in 2014. They frequently sell for £200+ when they come up on eBay. Blue are far more common, they’ve done 3 different ones. Keep an eye on eBay. They’re a bit green though!

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16 hours ago, njee20 said:

I’ve not had that problem with any of my 56s or 68s, although I know some have issues with the buffer beam detailing on the 68s and the tendency to foul the rotation of the bogie. Why would you want a 56 to have a high top speed? The real thing only did 80mph. I’ve never thought mine fall short of that. 

Yes, my two 68s just wouldn't go around until I'd removed their rear buffers. What they foul though are the couplers rather than the bogies. The 56 was mostly okay but sometimes had a problem so I pulled them off to be on the safe side.

 

The only reason I'd like her to be faster is that she's so much slower than the rest of my stock. Also she only seems to have three speeds 'crawl', 'walk' and 'walk a bit faster'.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4meY4NJBvbsWWCLRA

 

That shows her running at full speed with a comment about how she's 'pernickety' because at that point I hadn't removed her buffers.

Edited by AndrueC
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3 hours ago, AndrueC said:

Yes, my two 68s just wouldn't go around until I'd removed their rear buffers. What they foul though are the couplers rather than the bogies. The 56 was mostly okay but sometimes had a problem so I pulled them off to be on the safe side.

 

The only reason I'd like her to be faster is that she's so much slower than the rest of my stock. Also she only seems to have three speeds 'crawl', 'walk' and 'walk a bit faster'.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4meY4NJBvbsWWCLRA

 

That shows her running at full speed with a comment about how she's 'pernickety' because at that point I hadn't removed her buffers.


I’ve just watched a bit of your video (until I felt seasick from the camera work :bo_mini:) and as far as I could tell the top speed looked ok to me. Train speeds in N gauge often look too slow from a distance but if you try filming the train passing a fixed point from ground level (as if you were standing trackside in real life and watching the train approaching) you’ll get a much better idea of its speed. In real life, the 56s spent most of their time on class 6 and 7 trains and so rarely exceeded 60mph* anyway.

*light engine moves, Freightliners, domestic refuse trains and rescuing failed passenger trains being the main exceptions.

Edited by Western Aviator
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I don’t see a rerelease for these anytime soon as they seem to be redesigning all diesel chassis for Next18 sockets, controllable lights and better reliability on the rereleases that have done since the Class 68 - I don’t think anything 6 pin has been released since?

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They’re also quite quick at changing them though; they’ve upgraded the western, 86, 66 and 67 already. No current batches of 56s announced, but the fact they’re upgrading the chassis shouldn’t be a blocker. 
 

That said, the 56s seem to fall into two camps; sell really quickly and have high resale values (Colas, red stripe, large logo) or hang around and ended up being sold for £60 (EWS, construction)

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1 hour ago, njee20 said:

They’re also quite quick at changing them though; they’ve upgraded the western, 86, 66 and 67 already. No current batches of 56s announced, but the fact they’re upgrading the chassis shouldn’t be a blocker. 
 

That said, the 56s seem to fall into two camps; sell really quickly and have high resale values (Colas, red stripe, large logo) or hang around and ended up being sold for £60 (EWS, construction)


Ah, I hadn’t realised the westerns and 67s had been done; sorry. In fairness with the 33s done too they are rattling through the back catalogue (I think HSTs remain 6 pin though).
 

The triple grey liveries were Dapols weird greeny-grey and were shifted cheap on their newsletter for a while that’s true.

Edited by jonas
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17 minutes ago, jonas said:

Ah, I hadn’t realised the westerns and 67s had been done; sorry. In fairness with the 33s done too they are rattling through the back catalogue (I think HSTs remain 6 pin though).

Nope. My HST (Miss Behaviour) is Next18. Bought that last November.

 

Back on the subject of the speed of the 56s, I accept your point about scale and speed but that doesn't seem like it applies when comparing models of different locos at the same scale. My 53s and my 43 (the HST) go so fast that I'm almost scared to run them at full speed in case they fly off my 2nd radius curves (they don't, thankfully). My 68s aren't quite so fast but still complete a circuit in considerably less time than the 56.

Edited by AndrueC
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Yep, latest HSTs are Next 18, and the 26s. Farish are taking forever over it, as they're also adding plug and play sound functionality, whilst Dapol are doing a halfway house - there are spaces on the new PCBs to solder a speaker, but no concessions for where you might actually put it inside the loco! I think as you say they're doing each item as they release it, so I assume the 153 has been done too, and the Voyager for the forthcoming release. That only really leaves a handful of things; 22, Hymek, 156, 56. Not that much room in the 56, so it'll be interesting to see how they achieve the additional clearance.

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Yeah, my Big Bertha (construction grey) looks pretty good pulling her bullet train and it's not the most inspiring of liveries. She does convey the impression of having plenty of power. It's just a bit incongruous that her top speed seems to be half that of everything else.

 

But someone else posted the same observation and Dapol's description says 'incredible low speed' so I don't think it's a fault. It's just the way it's built.

Edited by AndrueC
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41 minutes ago, bluedepot said:

try a different decoder

Might be worth a try.

41 minutes ago, bluedepot said:

increase the track voltage a bit (obviously be careful and try it just a v or 2 higher) 

But that will make everything else go a bit faster as well.

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1 hour ago, Crepello said:

If it really is that slow, why not send it to DCC Supplies for rectification?

Meh, it still runs. Also I know of at least one other person who's posted the same comment so what with that and the Dapol description I think that's just the way it's supposed to be.

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  • 1 month later...

It looks like Dapol may have been listening, new models announced for next year.  Thank you!

 

https://www.Dapol.co.uk/New-N-Gauge-Class-56-Models-Announced

 

2D-004-010 Class 56 56302 (ex 56124 Crewe built) Fastline

2D-004-010D Class 56 56302 (ex 56124 Crewe built) Fastline DCC Fitted

2D-004-011 Class 56 56131 (Crewe Built) Large Logo Blue

2D-004-011D Class 56 56131 (Crewe Built) Large Logo Blue DCC Fitted

2D-004-012 Class 56 56029 Transrail (Romanian Built)

2D-004-012D Class 56 56029 Transrail (Romanian Built) DCC Fitted

2D-004-013 Class 56 56059 EWS (Doncaster Built)

2D-004-013D Class 56 56059 EWS (Doncaster Built) DCC Fitted

2D-004-014 Class 56 56303 (ex 56125 Crewe Built) DCR

2D-004-014D Class 56 56303 (ex 56125 Crewe Built) DCR DCC Fitted

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