Dapol Class 121 and 122 in OO gauge

[Roy Langridge]

14 hours ago, class37418stag said:

Hello 

class 121 975042 is sandite and route learning of NSE livery ?

 

 Thank you 

 

History of its use here: https://www.railcar.co.uk/data/vehicle/975042

NSE livery as a route learner then Railtrack livery as a sandite unit. Lately in and Network Rail yellow.

 

Roy

 

[keefer]

On 17/10/2020 at 19:09, Oldddudders said:

Thanks, Chris. I will have seen 122s on the Withered Arm lines in the mid-sixties - I was last there in 1965, and certainly travelled from Wadebridge to Bodmin Road on one. The Tyseley thing makes absolute sense - I know a bit about Regional transfers from when the LSWR WoE mainline came back to SR in 1984, and we had to find quick ways of improving reliability!

Operational history of the units here:

https://www.railcar.co.uk/type/class-122/operations

[JSpencer]

I recieved a class 122 today after much hesitation about buying one. Actually, I think its a delightful model (yeah ok day 1). But like others, I was amazed at how slow it was at full speed!

 

Now reading the thread, I saw people talking about it getting faster when its warmer and I had another loco that did the same many years ago. It was a Hornby 37 that I cleaned up as a youngster.

In my young wisdom, I replaced the Hornby grease with - wait for it - vaseline! She would jitter and be by very sluggish for 5 minutes until she had warmed up. 

 

The gear train on this model is very fine. Rather than overloading the motor, I had a class 24 tow the 122 round the layout for several minutes, and indeed once warm she was faster though still slow for my tastes (and pre-warming sessions with another loco on front is not always practical).

To my surprise the bogie frames unclipped easily, exposing much of the gear train. A little essence F, I cleaned most of the grease (avoiding the bearing pickups), a thick black grease, not the thin white stuff, and then a smaller amount of oil (avoiding those pickups) and clipped it back togethor.

 

Well now, at 1/3 speed, she is now as fast as what she was for top speed that she had before and is very controlable. I can make creep along or have going around a decent speed for a DMU. Her top speed looks a scale 90mph.

Of course this is day one, so lets see how she behaves over time.

Those lights though are really bright even one low end DC.

 

 

[NickL2008]

I have 3 Dapol bubblecars, all of whic hare good performers, the slow speed is fine for me as theyll never run at 30mph+ in scale speed terms. it is a pity though that some of the detailing is a bit weak by Dapol, but a good effort

 

NL

[Graham108]

I'm glad I looked up this thread. I bought 2 of these (Silverlink & Midland versions)  in the sales and was concerned about the slow motion. However I don't need them to go fast so I'll stay happy for the time being

 

The other problem I had with both, was what looked like a fuel tank fell off when taken out of the box - simple enough to glue back on.

 

Graham

[Eden Road TMD]

I have three 121’s and really pleased with them. They all run fine for me, I have fitted Dapol DCC chips on all of them. 

[JDW]

I have to admit I'm very tempted by the Silverlink and Chiltern ones even though I have absolutely no use for them! The two Railtrack ones are also tempting. The sandite one is wrong area again, but the blue/green one I can almost justify... I think if it came down to the price of the others it'd be hard to resist!

[class37418stag]

Hello everyone 

 

I has read online about single DMU class 121/122 to class 131 for only parcel service mean windows cover by white and remove seats based short time in Scotland ?

 

Class 131 move class 121/122 removed white off from windows and put seats inside for ready passenger service 

 

thank you

 

am I right ?

[Halvarras]

2 hours ago, class37418stag said:

Hello everyone 

 

I has read online about single DMU class 121/122 to class 131 for only parcel service mean windows cover by white and remove seats based short time in Scotland ?

 

Class 131 move class 121/122 removed white off from windows and put seats inside for ready passenger service 

 

thank you

 

am I right ?

 

Only three Class 122s were converted for parcels use in Scotland, SC55013/4/5, in April 1968. Interestingly they were all in different liveries, 55013 was green/small yellow, 55014 was blue/full yellow and 55015 was blue/small yellow. The two small yellow ones lasted well into 1971 like this. You may find captions referring to other vehicles but I've never been able to substantiate any of them.

Be aware that these three vehicles were modified with an extra pair of outward opening doors each side, near the middle on one side and at the opposite end to the guard's compartment on the other (placing both new pairs of doors in the middle would probably have risked structural collapse!) As you say, the bodyside windows were painted white on the inside (I think 55015 later had mesh fitted instead) but the door modifications meant that these units never went back into passenger use. It also means that Dapol's model of SC55013 in blue/grey livery as a passenger vehicle is incorrect!

[89A]

On 04/01/2018 at 12:45, adb968008 said:

Here’s a few pictures how to modify the unit (bear in mind it’s your own choice to do so, and is probably outside warranty, even if, in my opinion it’s a better result).

1. Body removal is straight forwards, it just up clips, either side at either end, I’d Start with the open end, as the guards van end has exhaust pipes that sit just under the chassis your removing, and this way you can slide it slightly away from the cab.



Fortunately the screws you need to remove are all different sizes throughout this exercise, so just keep the count correct..1 bogie retainer, 1 pcb retainer, 2 gearbox retainers, 4 seat retainers.

2. 4 screws hold the seats on, these are straight forwards to remove and the seats lift straight off.

3. Remove the bogie retaining screw, and the pcb retainer

4. Slide the bogie side to side (don’t lower it out at is stage) and undo the two gearbox retaining screws..

5. The bogie now has movement in all directions, hold it with the frame and flip it sideways, I used the smallest screw in My jewellers screwdriver set to unclipped the gearbox cover and flip it upwards towards the chassis. (Flip the whole chassi/bogie over and repeat for the other side, again don’t let the bogie drop out, it’s still connected by the pickups).

Worm exposed

6. Using a small screwdriver, slide up the plastic cover that protects the pickups.

7. Finally, lift the pcb cover, approx 4mm above the chassis, and now for the greasy bit, using your fingers, or tweezers to pull out the worm/shaft, if it doesn’t immediately move, turn the worm or lift the pcb a little higher, it’s loose fit.


8. Reassemble again, in reverse order, slide the plastic cover back over the gearbox (it sits inside the pickups, so sometime you need to tweak the pickup ends out a little, then snap fit the gearbox lid, turn it right way up, add the pcb screw (the smallest screw you have),then the two gear box retainers, then the fat stubby screw to hold the bogie, add the seats and their 4 screws, finally add the body, starting with the guards van end, and sliding the exhausts under the frame, beware of the tail lamp irons, and finally snap it back together.

 

 

 

On my ATW unit the drive shaft to the brake van side recently sheared from the bogie end 2 pronged attachment which slots into the worm drive.

 

Thanks to the detailed description and photographs above I was able to remove the worm drive from that bogie and 121 032 is now running more freely and smoothly than ever.

 

Many thanks.

[JohnR]

I'm thinking of getting Dapol's Sc55013 to run as a parcels unit, and while I'm not confident enough to do the door mods, I do want to blank out the windows.

 

Is the glazing available as a separate item? I really want to have the option to convert it back fairly easily.

[spamcan61]

Plenty of Dapol spares available from DCC Supplies, I can't find a quick way of tracking down the glazing though:-

 

https://www.dccsupplies.com/product-category/Dapol-spares/oo-gauge-spares/

[JohnR]

40 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

Plenty of Dapol spares available from DCC Supplies, I can't find a quick way of tracking down the glazing though:-

 

https://www.dccsupplies.com/product-category/Dapol-spares/oo-gauge-spares/

 

Yeah, I couldnt find any on there, but I'm not sure they have everything listed, and lots of items dont have a photo. I also cant find a service sheet or similar to see if its available. 

[Deborail]

My Dapol Class 121 recently won’t run. It will make a whining sound and run very slowly or stop. The motor is obviously running but somehow the energy is not being transferred to the wheels. 

[Waverley West]

On 02/11/2021 at 17:56, Deborail said:

My Dapol Class 121 recently won’t run. It will make a whining sound and run very slowly or stop. The motor is obviously running but somehow the energy is not being transferred to the wheels. 

 

Could it be that the black plastic ends of the carden shaft(s) are slipping on the shaft? I had this problem, mainly because it regularly runs coupled to a Bachmann DMU which has different speed characteristics (must fix that!).

 

Replacement shafts are available from Dapol if this is the problem. I couldn't work out how to secure the old ones again once they started slipping.

[PieGuyRob]

On 10/12/2019 at 01:21, RBC said:

 

I also had a stuttering/grinding Class 122 which I've now sorted out thanks to following the above instructions.

Although a bit wary at first, by taking my time I finally got there without breaking or damaging something which is good going for me.

Like others have said the running is like night and day.

A great thread/article.

 

Thank you. My railtrack 121 works a treat now.

[crompton 008]

Just had to take the worm and cardan shaft out of one end of my class 121 as it decided to completely jam, now reassembled and running well on one bogie, just wondering if anyone has had a total failure after doing the above remedy? Lovely model but what a pain. We shouldn't have to be doing these fixes for the price we pay for models these days. 

[Lyddrail]

I have a friends unit that failed when we ran it. It was ok the last time we ran it. The shaft is not straight. Ran one of mine which had been run in months ago, it too doesn't run now. I have others of mine to test when I get a chance. Only started dismantling so comments above will help. So far the design of the drive looks very poor. Hopefully I can sort them out. Will report once dismantled.

Cheers.

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, crompton 008 said:

Just had to take the worm and cardan shaft out of one end of my class 121 as it decided to completely jam, now reassembled and running well on one bogie, just wondering if anyone has had a total failure after doing the above remedy? Lovely model but what a pain. We shouldn't have to be doing these fixes for the price we pay for models these days. 

I've had to do that on my 122 as well. Fingers crossed for the other end...

[cessna152towser]

On 12/02/2022 at 20:57, Lyddrail said:

I have a friends unit that failed when we ran it. It was ok the last time we ran it. The shaft is not straight. Ran one of mine which had been run in months ago, it too doesn't run now. I have others of mine to test when I get a chance. Only started dismantling so comments above will help. So far the design of the drive looks very poor. Hopefully I can sort them out. Will report once dismantled.

Cheers.

Just had the same problem today.   Took my Dapol 121 out for its first run in several weeks and it would only run in one direction.   Took it apart and the problem is the flexible coupling on the leading bogie has become chewed up such that the drive shaft on that end is only intermittently able to turn the gears at that end.  It is hardly out of its 12 month warranty, being bought in July 2020 and scarcely had a chance to become properly run-in.       

Edited February 21, 2022 by cessna152towser
typo

[norman]

deleted

Edited March 2, 2022 by norman
not 00 gauge but O gauge

[Russ (mines a pint)]

On 23/01/2021 at 19:44, Halvarras said:

 

Only three Class 122s were converted for parcels use in Scotland, SC55013/4/5, in April 1968. Interestingly they were all in different liveries, 55013 was green/small yellow, 55014 was blue/full yellow and 55015 was blue/small yellow. The two small yellow ones lasted well into 1971 like this. You may find captions referring to other vehicles but I've never been able to substantiate any of them.

Be aware that these three vehicles were modified with an extra pair of outward opening doors each side, near the middle on one side and at the opposite end to the guard's compartment on the other (placing both new pairs of doors in the middle would probably have risked structural collapse!) As you say, the bodyside windows were painted white on the inside (I think 55015 later had mesh fitted instead) but the door modifications meant that these units never went back into passenger use. It also means that Dapol's model of SC55013 in blue/grey livery as a passenger vehicle is incorrect!

I've got SC55013 in blue and see that it was a parcels unit even in green livery, checked out SC55011 and this is a passenger unit in both blue & blue/grey and stayed on ScR pretty much to the end of its days, so Im going to renumber mine. Flickr is good for photos

[AndrueC]

Very late to the party here but good to see that Dapol are consistent at least. My N scale 121 also has a high pitched whine. That's a bit annoying because it's a unit I intent to have continuously circling on a branch loop. On the plus side it does drown out the sound of turnout motors operating 🙂