Mark 5, By Accurascale

[E100]

Something I've messaged Fran about but thought it'd be worth chatting about to see if I'm on my own. I said that it might well be a good idea in run 2 for there to be an expansion pack of sorts for the sleepers. A 2 coach pack with all the destinations included (1 accessible, 1 normal). This is to cover for the seasonal variations between the legs or where adding another 4 coaches is a bit overkill to your WCML set. Very conscious from a personal perspective that the Fort William set seems more often to be 6 coaches but adding an extra 4 coaches with the redundant spare seated and club cars doesn't feel the most efficient way to achieve this. Obviously this can be sold somewhat at a premium e.g. ~£100 for the two.

[Krieghoff]

On 24/02/2023 at 09:06, scouse889 said:

Might be useful for people with the TPE sets - new from Hunt Couplings a bespoke pack to connect the 68 to the coaches to enable pushing and pulling.

 

https://westhillwagonworks.com/hunt-couplings/505-hunt-magnetic-couplings-Dapol-class-68-to-tpe-mk5-set-2-pairs-of-couplings-2-pairs.html

 

No connection to this business other than I've used their couplings for other things and find them to generally be very good at the job they are designed for.

Just ordered two sets 👍👍

Edited February 26, 2023 by Krieghoff

[scouse889]

8 hours ago, Krieghoff said:

Just ordered two sets 👍👍

Be interested to know how you get on. Ever hopeful I can pick one of these packs up at some point when finances allow.

[Legend]

On 26/02/2023 at 09:05, scouse889 said:

Be interested to know how you get on. Ever hopeful I can pick one of these packs up at some point when finances allow.

 Picked up my set of couplings at Model Rail Scotland . There are two sets enclosed . One long and one short . I fitted the long one to my Class 68 and can confirm she now pushes with ease . I’ve successfully run her round second radius curves and haven’t had a derailment .  Good stuff . Should point out thats both in push and pull mode

Edited February 27, 2023 by Legend
Clarification push and pull

[ERIC ALLTORQUE]

On 22/02/2023 at 16:20, big jim said:

Thought that was a pre packed pack of mince! 

Yup, its a beefed up version of decoder.

[vulcan product fan]

Hi Accurascale just wanted to say a massive thanks for the coupling for the Mk5a that arrived in the post today great customer service .

[adamvb]

On 18/02/2023 at 13:26, McC said:

 

There is a plan to offer a Lokpilot for lighting function, but no plans to offer a sound chip at the moment. We've noticed on some DT's there is poor connectivity between the pickups and the main pickup bar - we'll prepare a short guide / video shortly so you can pop the body off your DT and check / easily resolve if you are having any flickering.

 

Hi @McC @Accurascale Fran

 

Now its been a couple of weeks would you mind sharing the easy fix with the forum please?

 

My TPE MK5s were delivered with missing centre caps, glue smudges on some of the centre caps and lights that flicker almost constantly - its been away for a month and has now come back and is exactly the same. I also listed about the lack of couplings for the loco when sending it off and despite confirmation that all the things in the list being sorted the couplings were not in with the parcel.

 

Coupled with the 92 mentioned in an earlier post that went away in early Jan with a failed motor and returned early February for a few days with me to then have to be sent off again because the powerbank had stopped working after the motor replacement and it had developed a clicking and thrum when running. It was duly sent back again with the MK5s for whats turned out to be another month and has just returned with the same clicking/thrum and this time a pantograph head floating loose in the packaging.

 

I'm not feeling the love for Accurascale that others seemingly are and now almost 3 months on with the 92 and 5 weeks on with the MK5s I'm tempted to give up on the lot - hopefully you can give some advice to at least resolve the MK5s while I think what to do ref the 92.

[newbryford]

3 hours ago, adamvb said:

 

Hi @McC @Accurascale Fran

 

Now its been a couple of weeks would you mind sharing the easy fix with the forum please?

 

My TPE MK5s were delivered with missing centre caps, glue smudges on some of the centre caps and lights that flicker almost constantly - its been away for a month and has now come back and is exactly the same. I also listed about the lack of couplings for the loco 

 

 

 

Having run my mk5s at a show, the lights were flickering on the DT. So the guide on how to cure it would be good.

 

Elsewhere,  there have been different recommendations from McC for the coupling to loco,  varying from tension lock, to the "extra" free magnetic coupling[*] to Kadees and now the Westhill coupling...... one does wonder.

 

[*] I seem to be one of the lucky ones that was sent extra magnetic couplings, but had to pull it out on the mk5 NEM pocket (that is set back from the standard by about 1.6mm, the Dapol 68 is less off spec) and secured it with a dab of hot glue.

Edited March 4, 2023 by newbryford
Typo

[Accurascale Fran]

3 hours ago, adamvb said:

 

Hi @McC @Accurascale Fran

 

Now its been a couple of weeks would you mind sharing the easy fix with the forum please?

 

My TPE MK5s were delivered with missing centre caps, glue smudges on some of the centre caps and lights that flicker almost constantly - its been away for a month and has now come back and is exactly the same. I also listed about the lack of couplings for the loco when sending it off and despite confirmation that all the things in the list being sorted the couplings were not in with the parcel.

 

Coupled with the 92 mentioned in an earlier post that went away in early Jan with a failed motor and returned early February for a few days with me to then have to be sent off again because the powerbank had stopped working after the motor replacement and it had developed a clicking and thrum when running. It was duly sent back again with the MK5s for whats turned out to be another month and has just returned with the same clicking/thrum and this time a pantograph head floating loose in the packaging.

 

I'm not feeling the love for Accurascale that others seemingly are and now almost 3 months on with the 92 and 5 weeks on with the MK5s I'm tempted to give up on the lot - hopefully you can give some advice to at least resolve the MK5s while I think what to do ref the 92.

 

2 hours ago, scumcat said:

 

I have PM ‘d Fran today but haven’t been answered yet, my class 92 has also been a disaster. Mine arrived last week of December the power bank stopped working after a few hours and the motor started drawing tremendous amounts of power I was advised to send it back for an exchange but that turned into a month awaiting a repair when it returned it lasted 2 hours then failed again it has been returned that took 9 days by Royal Mail slow mail. I received the replacement 92010 today and this one is also not correct. Again the power bank is dead and it grinds at slow speed. I am not convinced the one I received today was new as the wheels were absolutely minging when I tried to run it this what I got off them before it could be run. I am at a loss. My mk5s also had bits broken and missing but these have been replaced. I have 3 other sound fitted locos on order and am at a loss with no confidence in them. Simon the repair guy is great but I do get the impression he is drowning.

Hi both,

 

I’ve responded to the PMs from you both and will make sure the issues you are both suffering are resolved ASAP. 

 

22 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

Having run my mk5s at a show, the lights were flickering on the DT. So the guide on how to cure it would be good.

 

Elsewhere,  there have been different recommendations from McC for the coupling to loco,  varying from tension lock, to the "extra" free magnetic coupling[*] to Kadees and now the Westhill coupling...... one does wonder.

 

[*] I seem to be one of the lucky ones that was sent extra magnetic couplings, but had to pull it out on the mk5 NEM pocket (that is set back from the standard by about 1.6mm, the Dapol 68 is less off spec) and secured it with a dab of hot glue.

Hi Mick,

 

If you wish to send back your set for warranty repair/replacement we will happily do this for you. Please email support@accurascale.co.uk with your order number and we will take care of it for you.

 

Regarding couplings, there are several different types out there, so we have recommended some for people to used based on their needs and following on from our personal conversation in Glasgow last week. As I said then, could we have done better? Yes, and we have taken your feedback on board and will ensure we do in the future. In the meantime our warranty team will help you out best they can.

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

[newbryford]

28 minutes ago, Accurascale Fran said:

 

Hi Mick,

 

If you wish to send back your set for warranty repair/replacement we will happily do this for you. Please email support@accurascale.co.uk with your order number and we will take care of it for you.

 

Regarding couplings, there are several different types out there, so we have recommended some for people to used based on their needs and following on from our personal conversation in Glasgow last week. As I said then, could we have done better? Yes, and we have taken your feedback on board and will ensure we do in the future. In the meantime our warranty team will help you out best they can.

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

 

 

Hi Fran, 

I appreciated the conversation last week, but it didn't cover the issue of the differing selection couplings, which I have highlighted in my previous post. Hopefully enabling others to make an informed choice, even though there have been mixed messages from AS regarding which ones to use.

 

And another point.

In a previous post on this thread, you said you were investigating with the factory about the variances on the B2B.

Did you get answer from the factory other than "we'll do better next time"

If so, is it possible to post on here?

 

[Accurascale Fran]

1 minute ago, newbryford said:

 

 

Hi Fran, 

I appreciated the conversation last week, but it didn't cover the issue of the differing selection couplings, which I have highlighted in my previous post. Hopefully enabling others to make an informed choice, even though there have been mixed messages from AS regarding which ones to use.

 

And another point.

In a previous post on this thread, you said you were investigating with the factory about the variances on the B2B.

Did you get answer from the factory other than "we'll do better next time"

If so, is it possible to post on here?

 

Hi Mick,

 

We have been providing feedback to customers on coupling choices based on their needs and requirements, but to be honest we haven’t had many queries directly. I was shown the westhill ones last week and they look good, we have also taken to sending our dellner packs to customers who have requested them. Although not prototypically accurate they are longer than the bar style and customers seem happy with them so far. Some have used larger Kadees to bring in line with their other stock and others have been happy with tension locks working for them. Obviously the pocket being circa 1mm too far back hasn’t helped matters and we will look to see what we can do there.

 

Re back to backs we have indeed talked to the factory who have confirmed they had not worked on a project utilising inside bearing bogies before. We’ve had a few to adjust for customers (less than 10) but we want this area to be a lot better in future to mitigate any issue like the one you suffered. To that end we will be bringing a nice package of back to back gauges to our desired tolerances (we’re having them machined specially) to the factory in China when we visit them in late April/early May. This will ensure a further step in the QC process to prevent such inconsistencies from occurring again.

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

[ERIC ALLTORQUE]

36 minutes ago, Accurascale Fran said:

when we visit them in late April/early May.

Are we taking a camera so we can have an out and about with Accurascale or is it with flowers and chocolates to get the Purple Deltic take two assembled......

[newbryford]

40 minutes ago, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi Mick,

 

We have been providing feedback to customers on coupling choices based on their needs and requirements, but to be honest we haven’t had many queries directly. I was shown the westhill ones last week and they look good, we have also taken to sending our dellner packs to customers who have requested them. Although not prototypically accurate they are longer than the bar style and customers seem happy with them so far. Some have used larger Kadees to bring in line with their other stock and others have been happy with tension locks working for them. Obviously the pocket being circa 1mm too far back hasn’t helped matters and we will look to see what we can do there.

 

 

Fran

 

At the last count some AS petsonnel were suggesting buying Westhill couplings, yet I will reiterate that you yourself said magnetic couplings would be provided with the set. Ok, some are being supplied free, albeit the Dellner type. Maybe a magnetic coupler could have been made to look like a screw link............. that would be cool.

 

IMO, 99% or more will be running the TPE mk5s with Dapol 68s, it would have been an Accurascale PR win to provide a mag coupling between it and the Mk5, taking into account the errors of both the mk5 and the 68.

 

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by newbryford

[Accurascale Fran]

1 minute ago, newbryford said:

 

At the last count some AS petsonnel were suggesting buying Westhill couplings, yet I will reiterate that you yourself said magnetic couplings would be provided with the set.

 

IMO, 99% or more will be running the TPE mk5s with Dapol 68s, it would have been an Accurascale PR win to provide a mag coupling between it and the Mk5, taking into account the errors of both the mk5 and the 68.

 

 

Hi Mick,

 

I agree on both counts. We said that one would be provided and it wasn’t due to oversight, so we send out to anyone who contacts us, yourself included.

 

I also agree that it would’ve be a PR win (a bit like engaging with customers at midnight on a Saturday night perhaps?) but we didn’t. We dropped the ball on securing this PR goodwill coup and I apologise on behalf of Accurascale. If I could turn back time I would, but I can’t so here we are. 
 

All I have left to say is that we will learn from the experience. We’re a young company, still finding our way and we’re not infallible, just like all the other model railway manufacturers aren’t either. But we still do plenty right, and will continue to do our best to improve further.

 

Anyway, time for bed. We will do better in future, and maybe it will win back your trust in doing so, maybe it won’t, but we will always try our best. Let’s see what the future brings but we appreciate the feedback as ever.

 

All the best,

 

Fran

[newbryford]

6 minutes ago, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi Mick,

 

I agree on both counts. We said that one would be provided and it wasn’t due to oversight, so we send out to anyone who contacts us, yourself included.

 

I also agree that it would’ve be a PR win (a bit like engaging with customers at midnight on a Saturday night perhaps?) but we didn’t. We dropped the ball on securing this PR goodwill coup and I apologise on behalf of Accurascale. If I could turn back time I would, but I can’t so here we are. 
 

All I have left to say is that we will learn from the experience. We’re a young company, still finding our way and we’re not infallible, just like all the other model railway manufacturers aren’t either. But we still do plenty right, and will continue to do our best to improve further.

 

Anyway, time for bed. We will do better in future, and maybe it will win back your trust in doing so, maybe it won’t, but we will always try our best. Let’s see what the future brings but we appreciate the feedback as ever.

 

All the best,

 

Fran

Hi Fran, 

Thank you for the reply. 

 

I'm in  different time zone, so still nowhere near bedtime for me...

[Jeremy Davison]

I just spent two days with my TPE Mk5 set going around our Euxton Junction layout at the Preston Exhibition.  I've used the Westhill Wagon works coupling between the loco and coaches and it works very well both pulling and propelling.

 

Hopefully linked below is a very short video taken during testing prior to the exhibition:

 

TPE Set running fast through Euxton Junction Station

 

Cheers

Jeremy

 

[Legend]

On 04/03/2023 at 23:18, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi Mick,

 

We have been providing feedback to customers on coupling choices based on their needs and requirements, but to be honest we haven’t had many queries directly. I was shown the westhill ones last week and they look good, we have also taken to sending our dellner packs to customers who have requested them. Although not prototypically accurate they are longer than the bar style and customers seem happy with them so far. Some have used larger Kadees to bring in line with their other stock and others have been happy with tension locks working for them. Obviously the pocket being circa 1mm too far back hasn’t helped matters and we will look to see what we can do there.

 

Re back to backs we have indeed talked to the factory who have confirmed they had not worked on a project utilising inside bearing bogies before. We’ve had a few to adjust for customers (less than 10) but we want this area to be a lot better in future to mitigate any issue like the one you suffered. To that end we will be bringing a nice package of back to back gauges to our desired tolerances (we’re having them machined specially) to the factory in China when we visit them in late April/early May. This will ensure a further step in the QC process to prevent such inconsistencies from occurring again.

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

 

Can confirm I got the Westhill Wagon Works TPE coupling set last week at Model Rail Scotland and they work well in push and pull mode round second and third radius . Previously I had used some magnetic couplings designed for use with HST. This wasn't succesful because they were too short and causing buffer locking   The original  issue for me with the tension locks  was the coupling on the Dapol 68 which tended to be a bit droopy and was riding under the tension lock provided on Mk5 .  I have just received a coupling from Accurascale but I think I'll stick with the Westhill versions on the - if it ain't broke don't fix it basis !   My only issue is occasional derailing of coach 4, but it is only occasionally- enough not to leave it running with confidence though . I also haven't managed to run the set through a crossover without a derailment somewhere , but that might be my crap trackwork .  I get the impression that tolerances on Accurascale are much more fine than on other makes . I've found this with the Deltic too which derails where other makes of loco just sail over . My trackwork is certainly not perfect however . 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Legend

[Traveltrains]

On 18/02/2023 at 13:26, McC said:

 

There is a plan to offer a Lokpilot for lighting function, but no plans to offer a sound chip at the moment. We've noticed on some DT's there is poor connectivity between the pickups and the main pickup bar - we'll prepare a short guide / video shortly so you can pop the body off your DT and check / easily resolve if you are having any flickering.

When will the video be released to help with the flickering lights problem? 

[adamvb]

On 04/03/2023 at 18:59, adamvb said:

 

Hi @McC @Accurascale Fran

 

Now its been a couple of weeks would you mind sharing the easy fix with the forum please?

 

My TPE MK5s were delivered with missing centre caps, glue smudges on some of the centre caps and lights that flicker almost constantly - its been away for a month and has now come back and is exactly the same. I also listed about the lack of couplings for the loco when sending it off and despite confirmation that all the things in the list being sorted the couplings were not in with the parcel.

 

Coupled with the 92 mentioned in an earlier post that went away in early Jan with a failed motor and returned early February for a few days with me to then have to be sent off again because the powerbank had stopped working after the motor replacement and it had developed a clicking and thrum when running. It was duly sent back again with the MK5s for whats turned out to be another month and has just returned with the same clicking/thrum and this time a pantograph head floating loose in the packaging.

 

I'm not feeling the love for Accurascale that others seemingly are and now almost 3 months on with the 92 and 5 weeks on with the MK5s I'm tempted to give up on the lot - hopefully you can give some advice to at least resolve the MK5s while I think what to do ref the 92.

 

My 92 is going back for a third time, and the MK5s for a second crack at repair - hopefully the 'easy' fix @McCrefers to can be applied this time - will keep you all posted! @scumcat@Traveltrains

 

Although it looks like its a pretty common issue with the lights on the TPE MK5 DT by the comments on Dean Parks review: 

 

[adamvb]

Just spotted that Eugene at Euvirail has just released a video showing how to potentially overcome some of the lighting shortcomings on the MK5s - a good technical overview and explains why the stay alive wasn't used on the DT end lighting circuit. It's a shame a 12v stay alive wasn't included on the cab end lighting circuits to avoid the flickering issues that are being seen.

 

 

[Pteremy]

Thanks for posting this - an interesting and well presented enhancement and an interesting 'channel' that I was not aware of.

[Krieghoff]

Gents

are we likely to have a 'fix' for the flickering lights please and perhaps a DCC decoder that has a built in stay alive ?

 

im only asking as i dont want to start playing around with bits and invalidating warranties etc. 
 

appreciate there is a lot happening at present with 37's coming and all the associated projects Accurascale are working on. It would be good to have a 'work around' or at least a heads up that its being looked into !

 

best regards

[newbryford]

13 minutes ago, Krieghoff said:

Gents

are we likely to have a 'fix' for the flickering lights please and perhaps a DCC decoder that has a built in stay alive ?

 

im only asking as i dont want to start playing around with bits and invalidating warranties etc. 

 

There was mention of a video coming shortly  by mcc back on 18 Feb....

[Accurascale Fran]

19 hours ago, Krieghoff said:

Gents

are we likely to have a 'fix' for the flickering lights please and perhaps a DCC decoder that has a built in stay alive ?

 

im only asking as i dont want to start playing around with bits and invalidating warranties etc. 
 

appreciate there is a lot happening at present with 37's coming and all the associated projects Accurascale are working on. It would be good to have a 'work around' or at least a heads up that its being looked into !

 

best regards

 

Hi @Krieghoff,

 

We are currently working on both a guide to help with flickering lights and a decoder solution. We will have more news on both the other side of Ally Pally and appreciate the patience. 

 

The alternative is of course that you contact support@accurascale.co.uk where our tech team can talk you through any issues you are having. 

 

Thanks for bearing with us.

 

Fran 

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by Accurascale Fran

[Vistisen]

On 20/10/2022 at 12:48, Accurascale Fran said:

 

Hi Tom,

 

What's wrong with longer than 2 or 3 seconds?

 

Cheers!

 

Fran 

Probably nothing at all, but I do wonder about the power on surge. If the capacitor stores power for 60 seconds as opposed to for example 5 seconds. then it must need to store about 12 times as much power that it will draw form the track on power on. A rake of these coaches might cause a power overload, depending on how many other locomotives, dcc point motor units and so on, are also drawing current. I might be oversensitive on in this area. but I have just spent months trying to trace a ‘short circuit’ which turned out to be too many DCC solenoid accessories starting up.