Accurascale Class 55 Deltic - 4mm scale

[Ryan91]

4 hours ago, Craigw said:

A quick question if I may,  have you started processing the overseas orders yet?

 

Regards,

 

Craig w

 

I received an email from Accurascale a few days ago in which I was being told they will start processing international orders from next week. 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Ryan91

[atom3624]

9 hours ago, Wolf27 said:

29 coaches now. I could keep going but I’m having to assist it up the curved gradient as it is. On level track, who knows? I may assemble a rake of 40 at the weekend and just try a starting test on the outdoor section, but half the train will be down hill, so it’s not a true test. I’m out of space to do it fairly

 

 

I had been looking out for somebody doing a load test on one of these.

When its reaching its limit, needing a little assistance, does it 'stall', or are the wheels spinning?

How quickly does the motor warm up?

Once 'freed' from the trauma of a WWII coach load, does she run free and well - no signs of increased power requirements / motor damage?

Just a few questions.

 

Al.

[Enterprisingwestern]

Has anybody used the provided screw coupling to drag a decent number of  coaches around?

 

Mike.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Enterprisingwestern

[Hilux5972]

I just watched a quick video on YouTube from someone called BBC Model Railway Eddie of Gordon Highlander. He turned it upside down and a screw was missing from one of the fuel tanks. His reaction was unreal. He got really angry because it was missing and he asked “who quality controlled this one because they didn’t do a bloody good job of it and when you’re paying 250 notes for a loco you expect the bloody screws to be there!!!” I mean for crying out loud. The body isn’t held on by the screws and the fuel tanks didn’t look like they were rattling around so bit of an over reaction to say the least! Here’s the link if anyone is interested lol. 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

12 minutes ago, Hilux5972 said:

I just watched a quick video on YouTube from someone called BBC Model Railway Eddie of Gordon Highlander. He turned it upside down and a screw was missing from one of the fuel tanks. His reaction was unreal. He got really angry because it was missing and he asked “who quality controlled this one because they didn’t do a bloody good job of it and when you’re paying 250 notes for a loco you expect the bloody screws to be there!!!” I mean for crying out loud. The body isn’t held on by the screws and the fuel tanks didn’t look like they were rattling around so bit of an over reaction to say the least! Here’s the link if anyone is interested lol. 

 

 

He's got a screw loose.

 

Mike.

[spamcan61]

55 minutes ago, atom3624 said:

 

I had been looking out for somebody doing a load test on one of these.

When its reaching its limit, needing a little assistance, does it 'stall', or are the wheels spinning?

How quickly does the motor warm up?

Once 'freed' from the trauma of a WWII coach load, does she run free and well - no signs of increased power requirements / motor damage?

Just a few questions.

 

Al.

An interesting point, hopefully it wheelspins at its load limit rather than stalling and warming up the motor 

[NIRCLASS80]

44 minutes ago, Hilux5972 said:

I just watched a quick video on YouTube from someone called BBC Model Railway Eddie of Gordon Highlander. He turned it upside down and a screw was missing from one of the fuel tanks. His reaction was unreal. He got really angry because it was missing and he asked “who quality controlled this one because they didn’t do a bloody good job of it and when you’re paying 250 notes for a loco you expect the bloody screws to be there!!!” I mean for crying out loud. The body isn’t held on by the screws and the fuel tanks didn’t look like they were rattling around so bit of an over reaction to say the least! Here’s the link if anyone is interested lol. 

 

If you watch his reviews he wants detail but not fragile.  He wants detail but the model must be able to cope with handling of a six year old.  You just can’t have it both ways. 
Accurascale have released a great model.  Perfect no, but what is. It’s a massive learning curve for any company but to get it so good, so early on in a company’s life is pretty good.

[Torbay Express]

41 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

He's got a screw loose.

 

Mike.

Send 2 Patrick, one for Deltic, one for him!

 

Lol!

[McC]

6 hours ago, tlm said:

Seems rather convoluted, but it works, though quite why it's not activated by default is beyond me.

 

Sadly, I've also got the rattling speakers, square wheels, and juddering crawl problems, which seriously detracts from what I'd been expecting. While I normally rate Mike Wild's opinions, his comments in the Hornby YouTube video that these are at least on a par with the SLW 24s might well be correct for overall detail, but imho simply isn't correct for slow running and sound quality out of the box.

 

On the first point, they are set with notch lock / hold, a standard ESU feature. The idea of a 'drive hold' is something that was unique to a local third party (a bit like a certain tang band speaker being called an EMx) so the next iteration, will have the clearly more familiar version in the right place.

 

On the second point, we're really sorry you have a poor example - obviously your slow running and sound isn't up to snuff - I assume you've been in touch to have it replaced?

[Coryton]

27 minutes ago, McC said:

 

On the second point, we're really sorry you have a poor example - obviously your slow running and sound isn't up to snuff - I assume you've been in touch to have it replaced?

 

If it was the norm for these models, it would certainly have become clear in this thread by now.

[McC]

7 minutes ago, Coryton said:

 

If it was the norm for these models, it would certainly have become clear in this thread by now.

 

Indeed, while it's easy to lose perspective on social media or YouTube, the current actual return rate for such issues is standing at 0.00755% 

 

[zr2498]

9 hours ago, scots region said:

@McC Just adding My two pence, I feel that a good compromise on the chains would be to simply make the body bracket a push fit instead of gluing it in the factory, my two did have loose chains, including one where the bracket had come apart! Nothing I couldn't sort, but it did involve clearing the factory glue out with a 1mm drill bit, exciting for an order that came to three hundred and twenty pounds. But I'm not complaining, especially since in order to notice anything, I'd need to be about a centimetre away from it.  

An alternative might be a small hook similar to a lamp iron for each end of the chain to fit onto. This could then be an option for the customer to fit if desired. A touch of Deluxe Tacky Wax could be added for extra security. I used the Tack Wax to secure the green covers of the axle ends of the GT3 - works well.

 

[Colin_McLeod]

21 hours ago, AY Mod said:

 

It did manage two bricks totalling 8.6kg, equivalent to 53 Mk1 coaches but the tension lock couplings couldn't hold out any longer.

 

@AY Modhow did this perform up a 1:50 gradient with 3rd radius curves?  😄

 

 

PS I'm impressed with whatever bearings you have in The brick wagon to support that weight.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Colin_McLeod
PS

[DIRTY DIESEL]

Hi,

Just a question on the stay alive, I've seen AC videos where the loco was picked up off the track and the sound and wheels continued to run for a few seconds.

My Ballymoss runs fine bar dirty wheels straight out of the box (can happen with new locos ) which caused a few issues until I cleaned wheels with IPA & cotton bud.

But I've noticed that if I take the loco off the track the sound & wheels stop straight away, unlike the video, does stay alive need enabling via any CVs or is already enabled and doesn't run on for a few second as per earlier videos?

Thanks

 

Stu   

[RedgateModels]

Certainly when I had the engine room lights on they stayed on for a few seconds when I picked it up off the track

[97406]

The new arrivals meet one of the residents

[mudmagnet]

My stay alive works fine, gives a couple of seconds sound. Lifted off track with only sound on, so don't know about motor drive. Something else to check.

[mudmagnet]

Looks rather nice on my layout. Since added pipework at each end. The online instructions very good, plus being to remove beam considerably easier. Will look at adding a wire loop so can use tension lock couplings later.

 

The etch data plates in the bag are superb, but from photos I have seen are not fitted to Ballymoss in this livery / era.

[Daddyman]

19 hours ago, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi everyone,

 

We would never expect anyone to accept a paint defect. If we include the Sam's trains review there have been 3 reports of paint issue. The one reported here is (I believe) in the hands of our customer service team for replacement and the other is a no quibble replacement emailed to us. I think it's important to remember that we are here to help too, and it's not just "there's your lot, don't call us, we'll call you so accept it". We want all our customers to be happy with what they have bought.

 

Of course, there are 1000s of Deltics out there all perfect, but as two reports of paint defects come are posted online the anxiety kicks in and the narrative can soon become "oh all the Accurascale Deltics have paint issues" when it's obviously not the case.

 

As we said, we welcome the constructive feedback, it helps us do better. However, some sense of perspective in the grand scheme of things is always good too. If there is an issue, you just email us and we will assist you to get it rectified. 

 

Cheers!

 

Fran 

 

 

 

This hasn't been my experience at all. I wrote to Accurascale a couple of days ago, pointing out a couple of concerns I had with the model. I've never done this with a manufacturer before, but I did it because I didn't want to embarrass A/S by making a manufacturing flaw public on a forum. I also thought an email was worth a try as I thought A/S took their models seriously. 

My first constructive criticism was the gap between the bogie tops and lower edge of the bodyside. I now understand that I'd been led to expect too much here - that a manufacturer can't make that gap prototypical if a model deltic is to go round trainset curves. Fair enough. I'd simply misunderstood that point, and thought that the choice of undersized wheels was supposed to allow a scale gap. However, what I got from A/S was denial: I was first told that the gap was "quite prototypical", until I showed a side-on view of the real thing, at which point A/S admitted the double compromise of undersized wheels and oversized gap. I was then offered "scale" wheels as a way of rectifying this - wheels which we now know are undersize by 1.8mm. 

My other complaint was that the windscreen surround etches have been fitted particularly badly to mine, with a visible gap around their upper edge on 3 out of 4 of them, and visible glue, and the tabs left on all the etches. The fact that only 3 out of 4 of mine have the gap problem suggest that this is an assembly flaw. The tabs are just visible on the pre-production samples, but not as noticeable, and none of those models have a gap. That mine has been badly assembled is also confirmed by other owners telling me that the fitting of the windscreen surrounds on theirs is "not too bad" (though I thought A/S were aiming for a little more than that). I sent photos to A/S but didn't even receive an acknowledgement - that part of my email was simply ignored.

As said, I recognise that nothing can be done about the bogie-to-body gap (but resent the attempt to fob me off), but the windscreen issue is clearly an assembly error, and this body is a dud and needs replacing. Here are the offending windscreens - if I'd fitted after-sales etches this badly I would accept that they needed to be redone:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Br60066]

1 minute ago, mudmagnet said:

Looks rather nice on my layout. Since added pipework at each end. The online instructions very good, plus being to remove beam considerably easier. Will look at adding a wire loop so can use tension lock couplings later.

 

The etch data plates in the bag are superb, but from photos I have seen are not fitted to Ballymoss in this livery / era.

Very nice!

 

Surprised more people haven't been talking about the removable buffer beam. Means you can add detail with a bit of PVA glue much easier without making a royal mess....... Perhaps a missed opportunity though. Imagine having one end pre fitted with detail and being able to swap end by simply removing 4 screws. Even better maybe include 2 full detailed ends and 2 empty ends ready to go in the box so the customer can pick and chose as they want. Bit like a certain class 66 that probably shouldn't be mentioned if I want to keep my knee caps :P

[97406]

There were a few small parts in the box and a fair few parts come off with handling, and it’s quite easy to dislodge others when trying to put them back. The main problem appears to be down to the glue (presumably cyanoacrylate) not keying into the bogie plastic. No great shakes as they can either be left off or reattached when I detail the bufferbeams. I have had a couple of brake cylinders come off and 2 guard irons.  Both models look the part, nevertheless.

[Accurascale Fran]

4 minutes ago, Daddyman said:

This hasn't been my experience at all. I wrote to Accurascale a couple of days ago, pointing out a couple of concerns I had with the model. I've never done this with a manufacturer before, but I did it because I didn't want to embarrass A/S by making a manufacturing flaw public on a forum. I also thought an email was worth a try as I thought A/S took their models seriously. 

My first constructive criticism was the gap between the bogie tops and lower edge of the bodyside. I now understand that I'd been led to expect too much here - that a manufacturer can't make that gap prototypical if a model deltic is to go round trainset curves. Fair enough. I'd simply misunderstood that point, and thought that the choice of undersized wheels was supposed to allow a scale gap. However, what I got from A/S was denial: I was first told that the gap was "quite prototypical", until I showed a side-on view of the real thing, at which point A/S admitted the double compromise of undersized wheels and oversized gap. I was then offered "scale" wheels as a way of rectifying this - wheels which we now know are undersize by 1.8mm. 

My other complaint was that the windscreen surround etches have been fitted particularly badly to mine, with a visible gap around their upper edge on 3 out of 4 of them, and visible glue, and the tabs left on all the etches. The fact that only 3 out of 4 of mine have the gap problem suggest that this is an assembly flaw. The tabs are just visible on the pre-production samples, but not as noticeable, and none of those models have a gap. That mine has been badly assembled is also confirmed by other owners telling me that the fitting of the windscreen surrounds on theirs is "not too bad" (though I thought A/S were aiming for a little more than that). I sent photos to A/S but didn't even receive an acknowledgement - that part of my email was simply ignored.

As said, I recognise that nothing can be done about the bogie-to-body gap (but resent the attempt to fob me off), but the windscreen issue is clearly an assembly error, and this body is a dud and needs replacing. Here are the offending windscreens - if I'd fitted after-sales etches this badly I would accept that they needed to be redone:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi @Daddyman,

 

We are very sorry that you have not received the customer service you desired. 

 

Can you private message me your order number and I will look into this for you?

 

Cheers,

 

Fran 

[Daddyman]

5 minutes ago, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi @Daddyman,

 

We are very sorry that you have not received the customer service you desired. 

 

Can you private message me your order number and I will look into this for you?

 

Cheers,

 

Fran 

Thanks, Fran. Will send in a second. Oddly, barely three minutes after posting on here, the A/S customer service person has also been back in touch after two days of silence. And he's still offering me "scale" wheels! 

 

 

[Torbay Express]

Just seen the Deltic plus brick.  Gotta say pretty impressed with the Dapol Falcon for taking that.  Bet that doesn't run around 2nd Radius Curves.....

[Torbay Express]

3 minutes ago, Torbay Express said:

Just seen the Deltic plus brick.  Gotta say pretty impressed with the Dapol Falcon for taking that.  Bet that doesn't run around 2nd Radius Curves.....

My kids want a ride on garden railway, is the Deltic up to it McC?   Braking may be a bit of an issue, so suppose I'd need a wheel lathe, especially in leaf fall.....

 

Ride on coach - Two Dapol Falcons arranged with a body on top, similar formation to a KUA......