Dapol announce 'OO' OLE

[Wolf27]

Hi Dave, If there are no signs of any additions to this range, wires etc "as promised by Dapol" could this be a reason why the Dapol warehouse have plenty left in stock and the stockists have stop buying them ?

 

Regards

Craig.

 

A bit like having dozens of tins of paint and no brush!

 

Come on Dapol, let us know whats going on, its been nearly three years since the masts came out.

 

cheers

 

Shane

[ThaneofFife]

Dave, we know youre a busy man but where is the company right now on OHLE and is there any mileage in my earlier suggestions if theyve not already been thought of?

 

Some of us would appreciate an update. I would also be interested to know how sales of the Mk3 masts have gone since their arrival and the bearing this has on the future development of more OHLE products or kits.

 

Is it a dead duck or is it too early to say one way or the other ? (success of the Bachmann 85?)

[Andy1975]

I have joined this topic as like probably hundreds of other have purchased lots of packs of the Mk3 masts, with the understanding that we will be able to purchase the gantries and other items that have been promised by Dapol for approaching TWO YEARS.

I am very disapointed with Dapol that they have not to date even commented or provided a press release as to when these items will become available.

It is also very obvious that a representative from Dapol is on this forum and must read these posts regarding this subject, but cannot bring himself to update the consumer!!!! Very poor....

 

Come on Dapol get these items manufactured as you promised and give the consumer what they ask for!!!!!!!

[DapolDave]

Hi guys,

 

Quite right, I have been quiet on the subject since my last posting in January, so please accept my apologies.

 

Wires and gantry kits should drop into the tool room in the next 2 weeks and be quite a quick turn around.

Panto's will follow later nut hopefully not that much later.

 

As for sales? Well it's true to say they haven't been great, but that might be a self fulfilling prophecy due to lack of gantries and wires, so we shall see if they "take off" sales wise when the range is expanded. Plus there might be the boost effect with the 85, although the 350 hasn't produced any extra sales at all! :-(

 

Cheers

Dave

[Guest jim s-w]

Hi Dave

 

Is that because they are WCML prototypes and your OLE is for the ECML perhaps?

 

Cheers

 

Jim

[ELTEL]

I bought some Dapol posts about 2 years ago but gave up and redesigned my layout with no overhead requirements and also cancelled my class 350

 

Sorry Dapol over two years with little or no info is not good enough

 

I heard on the grapevin from a unamed trader that Peco who were going to prouduce there own over head equipment are now not going ahead.

 

Great shame as Dapoll have missed a good sales opportunity, which was there for the taking.

[Andy1975]

Thank you very much for the reply. I now wait with interest on the production of the gantries and wires -I'm sure they will fly off the shelves and encourage the further sales of the masts !

[DapolDave]

Hi Jim,

 

I think the main problem, as you know, is there's so much to do, and we aren't going to please everyone all at once, or indeed ever if a previous post is anything to go by.

 

No doubt plastic wires won't be good enough for some, and multi track "H" section gantries won't please others, but it's a developing project and we had to start somewhere.

 

Sorry you couldn't wait ELTEL, and I do understand, as I can only imagine, as a fellow modeller, how frustrating it must have been.

However, as long as we produce the wires and gantries as our next step, it should give us a good indication as to whether catenary will sell I would think.

 

Cheers

Dave

[ELTEL]

Hi Jim,

 

I think the main problem, as you know, is there's so much to do, and we aren't going to please everyone all at once, or indeed ever if a previous post is anything to go by.

 

No doubt plastic wires won't be good enough for some, and multi track "H" section gantries won't please others, but it's a developing project and we had to start somewhere.

 

Sorry you couldn't wait ELTEL, and I do understand, as I can only imagine, as a fellow modeller, how frustrating it must have been.

However, as long as we produce the wires and gantries as our next step, it should give us a good indication as to whether catenary will sell I would think.

 

Cheers

Dave

Thank you for your promot response

Eltel

[Hippo]

Hi Dave,

Will the multi track gantries be produced in 'N' as well, as i have a fair few of your class 86's I'm hoping to build a layout for.

 

Thanks

Owen

[DapolDave]

Hi Owen,

 

Yes it will.

Cheers

Dave

[Removed a/c]

I plan on using this system so will wait for the wires to be released before I purchase. Not knowing to much about this can anyone tell me when/where/what I would use the 2 different arms for. Are the posts not generally a set distance from the track and what is the general distance between posts.

 

Thanks

 

Scott

[Guest jim s-w]

Hi Scott

 

The masts alternate on straight track so that the wire is staggered. Typically masts are 65 meters apart

 

For more info see

 

http://jsmithwright.demonweb.co.uk/other/articles/Resources/Update%2038%20ole.pdf

 

Hth

 

Jim

[Removed a/c]

Thanks very much Jim, much appreciated.

[wombatofludham]

Good news and quite a spooky co-incidence as my heavily delayed model railway shed was erected this weekend, so the arrival of the wiring and gantries in the near future is just about spot on for me to start work on the new layout!

 

 

[ThaneofFife]

Its good to hear the range being extended Dave.

 

I think this one is a slow burner, in time I am sure other improved overhead models will follow the 350 and 85 classes.

Your timing could well prove to be spot on.

[Bouncy Bouncy]

Good to hear of some progress, looking forward to seeing some gantries arriving!

[reevesthecat]

Maybe if Dapol produced their own AC loco/ unit this may push sales (hint, hint)!!!

[Joseph_Pestell]

I have only just come across this thread and knew next to nothing about Dapol's intentions with regard to OHLE. It has certainly not gained much traction in the press.

 

Frankly, I'm not that surprised at the difficulties Dapol have had. OHLE is complicated and will never be popular with the wider railway modelling market. If you build it to anything like scale, it is just too difficult to install and maintain. And so many compromises are involved on models where our curves are so much tighter than on the real thing.

 

So, a product which is much better suited to the artisan producer albeit that makes it more expensive.

 

If I can find any Dapol masts at a retailer, I will certainly experiment a bit with it - mainly out of curiosity. I am impressed with the technical aspects of what Dapol has chosen to do even if, from a marketing viewpoint, it has been a b*****'s muddle.

[Patriot87003]

Great news that the wires and gantry kits are entering the tool room soon.

 

Will any details of the upcoming items be available soon/before release, eg. wire lengths etc ... will this info be in the upcoming 2012 catalogue or elsewhere?

 

Regarding my own sales demand ... I bought about 150 of the OO Gauge Mk3 masts when first released as I'm in the process of building a WCML based layout (approx 25ft by 14ft), but the masts have been safely stored since to allow the scenery and other bits to progress (as well as waiting for the wires to be produced - as in my view not much point in planting masts without the wires!).

 

Hence the return good news for Dapol from me is that the production of the wires is very likely in me buying lots of the new wires ... and lots more masts! It would be nice in the meantime to continue detailed planning .. so any info as to what products will be coming would be most useful.

[ThaneofFife]

I would be particularly interested to know what the maximum wire length available will be......presumably there will be at least a couple of different lengths but as they are dummy only wires it would be good to plant masts at near prototypical distances from each other at least on the straighter runs and not every say mk2 coach length apart like you sometimes see on "train set" layouts.

[Guest jim s-w]

Typical length scales down to 787mm in 4mm scale. Factoring stagger etc you can (just) get away with this length on curves if they are 10 feet radius or bigger.

 

I have been a supporter of Dapol's mast since day 1 believing they are as good as you will get without scratch building it as a complete system. I am not advocating that Dapol go for scale as it would be difficult to produce and awkward to package and ship. (plus once you go over 12inches in length etching (if that's how Dapol are doing it) gets seriously expensive)

 

At the end of the day, those who want scale will scratch build it (certainly no point having dummy wires) so I would be surprised if there would be much of a market for it.

 

Cheers

 

Jim

[ThaneofFife]

I would say its space or lack of it that is the key limiting factor for most folk. I think everyone would like scale and many would tackle scratch building their own OHLE if 10ft+ radius curves could be easily housed but it remains the nirvana if you are simply stuck for room.

 

Hopefully Dapols next creations will continue to give those of us with an average space for our layouts an acceptable and fairly authentic compromise.

[Guest jim s-w]

Indeed so, but you only need to look at the better 00 track (fancy that one Dave) threads that crop up regularly to see that once you introduce the word compromise it's nigh on impossible to get an agreement.

 

Perhaps 6 inches, 1ft and 2 ft lengths would be a good start? Buyers would need to accept though that while the cost of the lower 2 could be comparative it's likely that the longer length might appear disproportionately expensive.

 

Cheers

 

Jim

[ThaneofFife]

What would also be a useful addtion to the range would be lattice type 2 track "gallows" style gantries either ready to plant or as I alluded to Dave way back in post #127 perhaps achievable from a range of smaller "catenary kit" packs with various pieces for the modeller to mix and match like uprights, cross members, insulators, support arms, register arms etc....if packaging becomes too unwieldy but that would really only affect the larger structures designed to be simply plonked on a layout.

 

Dave if youre reading these......I need 6 gallows masts please!