N gauge Class 50

[Luke Piewalker]

2 hours ago, Crepello said:

 

The booklet uses the term 'cab lights', but this means front and tail lights.

 

Not in my experience, it has cab lights as well and the manual talks about front and rear lights. Although all the switch combinations are very confusing for all the different decoder options etc.

[Davexoc]

4 hours ago, njee20 said:

At risk of jinxing it a subsequent run seems nailed on, with 149, the intermediate NSE (lighter blue, no upswept stripes) and revised-NSE (darker blue, never quite sure on the official descriptions!) are as good as a certainty. I’d like to see a GBRf one too. 

Light blue was the original NSE colour, it was darkened because it faded too quickly. Revised was no upsweeps in the darker blue.

[bigP]

--

Edited February 1, 2021 by bigP
Deleted

[njee20]

38 minutes ago, Davexoc said:

Light blue was the original NSE colour, it was darkened because it faded too quickly. Revised was no upsweeps in the darker blue.

 

Yes, I realise that, but revised is used to cover both the lighter and darker variant without the upswept stripes (and white cab window surrounds etc), I wasn't sure if there a was a specific name for the two variants. Paul suggests not, they're both just "revised"! IMO it's a far better livery, particularly with the darker blue. The original NSE is awful IMO!

[Davexoc]

There were plenty of revisions to NSE, including paint shades, angled upsweeps, curved upsweeps etc.

The current release isn't a good match for many earlier ones unfortunately....

[jamespetts]

13 hours ago, Davexoc said:

There were plenty of revisions to NSE, including paint shades, angled upsweeps, curved upsweeps etc.

The current release isn't a good match for many earlier ones unfortunately....

 

Interesting - which original NSE class 50s are not a good match with the Dapol release of 50037 and what are the differences in those individual locomotives?

[Davexoc]

5 hours ago, jamespetts said:

 

Interesting - which original NSE class 50s are not a good match with the Dapol release of 50037 and what are the differences in those individual locomotives?

The closest matches are 002, 044 and 048.

The others are 017, 018, 019, 023, 025, 026, 029, 032, 034 and 035, which all had white cab door window surrounds.

026 carried black windscreen surrounds for a while as another variation.

Half the class carried the revised livery at some point though....

[jamespetts]

Interesting - I had not spotted the white cab door surrounds until you had pointed this out, but this is apparent from this comparison:

 

50035 Oxford by Carl Looker, on Flickr

 

50037 Oxford by Carl Looker, on Flickr

 

I was aware of the black window surround issue as here:

 

50023 Bristol by Carl Looker, on Flickr

 

although it is notable that this had faded/warn significantly on 026 by late 1989 as here:

 

50026 - 1M01 - Leamington - 9/9/89 by A Neds Perspective, on Flickr

 

The black window surrounds should not be too hard to spray paint with some masking as black will easily cover white; but it is likely to be very difficult to add the white door surrounds over the existing blue paint.

 

I may well have to accept the inaccuracy of not having the white door surrounds on my models for 025, 035 and 035, for which I have already acquired nameplates.

[GEARJAMMER]

2 hours ago, jamespetts said:

Interesting - I had not spotted the white cab door surrounds until you had pointed this out, but this is apparent from this comparison:

 

50035 Oxford by Carl Looker, on Flickr

 

50037 Oxford by Carl Looker, on Flickr

 

I was aware of the black window surround issue as here:

 

50023 Bristol by Carl Looker, on Flickr

 

although it is notable that this had faded/warn significantly on 026 by late 1989 as here:

 

50026 - 1M01 - Leamington - 9/9/89 by A Neds Perspective, on Flickr

 

The black window surrounds should not be too hard to spray paint with some masking as black will easily cover white; but it is likely to be very difficult to add the white door surrounds over the existing blue paint.

 

I may well have to accept the inaccuracy of not having the white door surrounds on my models for 025, 035 and 035, for which I have already acquired nameplates.

 

Its not the only difference, 002, 037, 044 & 048 had a higher white strip above the NSE blue, this can be seen on the photos of 50037 and 50026 above, the orange cant rail on 50026 is on the guttering around the top of the loco, on 50037, the orange cant rail is on the bottom edge of the headcode box.

[jamespetts]

Interesting - I had not spotted that, either.

 

The Dapol model seems to have a very thin white stripe at cantrail level:

 

Dapol Class 50 and Farish Class 47 compared by James Petts, on Flickr

[Davexoc]

6 minutes ago, GEARJAMMER said:

 

Its not the only difference, 002, 037, 044 & 048 had a higher white strip above the NSE blue, this can be seen on the photos of 50037 and 50026 above, the orange cant rail on 50026 is on the guttering around the top of the loco, on 50037, the orange cant rail is on the bottom edge of the headcode box.

And the grey is deeper on 037 coming higher than the footstep, which pushes the white and red higher. Noticable by which colour the fire pull handle sits in, and that the red is on the bottom two slats in the radiator grille, but only one on 035, also affects the door....

[Davexoc]

5 minutes ago, jamespetts said:

Interesting - I had not spotted that, either.

 

The Dapol model seems to have a very thin white stripe at cantrail level:

 

Dapol Class 50 and Farish Class 47 compared by James Petts, on Flickr

Seeing that photo confirms my initial impression that the white stripe between grey and red is overly thick, especially on the upsweep...

[jamespetts]

Gosh, yes, I see that. Some of these variations are extremely subtle.

[Les1952]

On 20/09/2019 at 23:18, grahame said:

I've never has a body crack when removing it or handrails fall apart. I guess how RTR models are handled has a lot to do with it as I've knocked airhorns off units I've made myself. Perhaps the glue I used wasn't strong enough but they were easy enough to stick back on.

 

I'm happy for increasing levels of fidelity. And decently designed it doesn't have to mean a lack or robustness.

 

 

I've never had a UK outline body crack - they all have enough plastic in them.  I was talking about the Minitrix GERMAN Class 143 which is very thin and suffers badly.  Please do not let our quest for fidelity cause us to go down that route.

 

On the other hand I've had glazing break on a Farish Class 108 as a result of it having been glued at the factory to both the chassis and the bodyshell.....  Again not a problem I've had with Dapol.

 

Les

 

[grahame]

30 minutes ago, Les1952 said:

 

I've never had a UK outline body crack - they all have enough plastic in them.  I was talking about the Minitrix GERMAN Class 143 which is very thin and suffers badly.  

 

 

I realise you were referring to a Minitrix German loco but I my comment wasn't restricted to UK outline. It also included Japanese, American and Continental stock I have. Some of which also have fine details and high fidelity. I wouldn't like to think the UK outline producers are encouraged to scale back on details because of one German model but to simply ensure thick enough body sides to prevent cracking without affecting fidelity.

 

 

[John M Upton]

If I recall correctly, the two different versions of the original upswept stripe NSE livery was due to repaints being carried out by two different works.  (If I have got it the right way around) Doncaster did the higher white stipe with blue cab door windows and orange cantrail stripe across the bottom of the headcode boxes, OOC did the other version with the orange cantrail stripes on the gutters and everything starting downwards from there.

 

50023 Ark Royal also carried plain white when initally outshopped as well before its NSE stripes were added. 

[Stuart A]

Very happy with Valiant. Also happy that I'd not pre-ordered the NSE version (very nearly did). It is a shame that Dapol can't always get aspects of certain liveries correct.

Will get 008 if DCC Supplies commission it, and I'd get 149 in RF General if produced.

I'd probably get a revised NSE one too.

[Davexoc]

20 hours ago, John M Upton said:

If I recall correctly, the two different versions of the original upswept stripe NSE livery was due to repaints being carried out by two different works.  (If I have got it the right way around) Doncaster did the higher white stipe with blue cab door windows and orange cantrail stripe across the bottom of the headcode boxes, OOC did the other version with the orange cantrail stripes on the gutters and everything starting downwards from there.

Yes, OOC aquired a team of painters who were made redundant when Swindon Works closed. They were done in the short road of the Pullman shed, which turned into a paint shop for full repaints, but some royal prep and touching up was still done in The Factory.

[Crepello]

On 21/09/2019 at 18:45, Luke Piewalker said:

Not in my experience, it has cab lights as well and the manual talks about front and rear lights. Although all the switch combinations are very confusing for all the different decoder options etc.

I'm using DC--perhaps this is where the confusion arose.

[TomE]

I’ve now fitted a You Choos sound chip to my 50 and the mechanism is smooth, quiet and just as good as the 68. Installation was straightforward, although I used the You Choos speaker with their 3D printed enclosure designed specifically for this model rather than the smaller Dapol speaker tray. 
 

It is a shame Dapol fitted white LEDs for the lights though, as it looks completely wrong on a class of this era. The lightning functions also take a bit of getting used to, but it does sound good rumbling away! 
 

Despite the model’s failings when you compare it to the prototype, I’ve developed a liking for it now I’ve fitted sound. 
 

Tom. 

[jonas]

9 hours ago, TomE said:

It is a shame Dapol fitted white LEDs for the lights though, as it looks completely wrong on a class of this era. 

I’m sure I saw on one of the Facebook groups that someone had coloured the back of the lenses with a yellow marker and toned down the lights. Don’t have the model myself so can’t check if that’s possible or not!

[Marke]

Does anybody have any intel on the sound fitted class 50s? I preordered one a couple of years back and understand retailers will still be honouring those orders despite the more recent change of policy by Dapol to only sell sound fitted locos direct.

[dpgibbons]

Why wait when you can save money with a DIY job. Sound is all wired in so all you need to do is plug in a suitable sound decoder. 

[Steven B]

For a sound fitted loco you'll also need a suitable speaker and do a bit of soldering - there are pads on the PCB next to the speaker enclosure for the speaker wiring. I've fitted sound to the Dapol N gauge clas 68 for a friend as its owner wasn't happy waving a soldering iron around a £100+ loco.

 

I've got my fingers crossed for D400 in refurbished condition to run with 50007.

 

Steven B.

[Ed-farms]

At the Dapol open day I asked this question and they said the decoders were getting programmed in house in Austria (Zimo? not sure who they are using) and due to leave the week after the open day so week commencing Monday 23rd Sept and it would be approx. 6 weeks after they were done