SECR Maunsell D1 Class Locomotive

[Wickham Green too]

10 hours ago, No Decorum said:

Colour matching the green ones might not be so easy.

Doesn't have to be too precise in the shadows !

[JSpencer]

My pair of D1s. I went for SECR grey and BR Sunshine. Both models have different smokeboxes, safety valves, domes and chimneys. I might get a 3rd to have the different frames (I have not seen a photo comparison between early and late frames of the models).  Also shown next to their respective D class.

 

 

[JSpencer]

The SECR grey D1 at the head of a Rapido SECR train (with 1 Dapol/Rails 1424 van, first vehicle). In the background, other former SECR locos in BR colours.

 

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by JSpencer

[JSpencer]

And finally, the SECR grey family together.  Rails/Dapol D and D1, Hattons P, Bachmann N and C classes...

[SRman]

Great pics there. I hadn't realised the size difference between the D and D1 was so great - I haven't put mine side by side.

[phil gollin]

.

 

That sunshine lettering "British Railways" 31487 one looks lovely.

 

Does anyone know the dates for it ?

 

.

[Wickham Green too]

As I said somewhere up-thread 31487 got its BR number in June 1948 BUT it retained 'SOUTHERN' on the tender .............. it DID get 'BRITISH AIRWAYS' in 1949 BUT in Gil Sans NOT Sunshine.

Edited July 9, 2023 by Wickham Green too
not February

[phil-b259]

On 03/07/2023 at 08:13, Jack P said:

 

 

I thought both of these might be a possibility, but:

 

 

 

Those definitely look like cab doors to me. There are a couple of other photos where they look half open/closed.

 

Have you considered the possibility that they were built without doors - but had them added later on. As both your photos are during British Railways days its not conclusive proof that they all had them from new.

[Jack P]

11 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

Have you considered the possibility that they were built without doors - but had them added later on. As both your photos are during British Railways days its not conclusive proof that they all had them from new.

 

I hadn't considered this prior to now. Thinking about it further though, the D1's were rebuilt from 21 members of the D class, which we know had cab doors. So 2 questions arise.

1: How many tender engines didn't have some form of cab door? I know health and safety was not what it is now, but it seems farfetched that a 'new' class wouldn't have relatively basic equipment &

2: Why would the rebuilding into the D1 include the removal of the doors? It would seem like a retrograde step to me. 

 

There are also these two photos:

 

 

 

I'll be the first to admit they aren't as clear as the BR images, but if you look closely at the first image, paying particular attention to the bottom of the cab/footplate level, there does look to be a door. The second image also looks to have the far door shut, and the near door partially open. 

I'm sure that followers of this thread will no doubt wonder why I haven't shut up about the doors - and I'm honestly not that bothered by the lack of inclusion, as I mentioned earlier, I was simply impressed with the method used on the D. Will have to wait for mine to arrive and see what can be done!

[Wickham Green too]

Doors were clearly shown on the E1 GA drawing - which must have pre-dated any thoughts about creating D1s.

 

I think Dapol's thought processes might have gone something like this : - 

Designer 1                            "I like the way you plugged the cab doors into the toolbox on the D class - we'll do the same on the D1.

Designer 2                            "Er - well, the tool boxes you've designed into the D1 model shouldn't actually be there on the rebuild !.

Designers 1&2 in unison    "Perhaps if we omit the doors nobody will notice ?"

[Oldddudders]

13 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

 it DID get 'BRITISH AIRWAYS' in 1949 BUT in Gil Sans NOT Sunshine.

Ok......

[Wickham Green too]

To summarise the options for 31487 in 'Sunshine' livery : the only D1s recorded with British Railways numbers AND tenders lettered in 'Sunshine' style were :-

 

February 1948 :     s1735 with 'British Railways' on the tender   

April 1948 :            31470 with 'British Railways' on the tender

May 1948 :             31246 with 'British Railways' on the tender

June 1948 :             31487 with 'Southern' on the tender

July 1948 :               31743 with 'British Railways' on the tender

September 1948 : 31489 with 'Southern' on the tender

 

All can be represented by changing loco or tender insignia ( both for 31489 ) .............. but, of course, other loco details may need changing too.

[Eddie the dog]

Genuine question please.

From watching video’s online, the front bogie spring seems a little light which causes the the front

end to lift up down.

Does having Dapol’s slide in pcb in the smoke box compromise weight in this area ?
Thanks.

[paftrain]

My D1 with sound arrived this afternoon but unfortunately it is completely dead! It won’t work on DC or DCC, nor can I read an address for it. Rails are closed now, so I’ve left a message for a call back. They obviously don’t check these locos before they deliver them. For that kind of money, you would expect that. As they fit the decoders in the UK, why don’t they check they work?

[selset bill]

I received my D1 (31487 with sound) on Saturday and have given it a run on my layout and on the club's one.  It cetainly looks really good, and the sound is also good once the volume has been reduced substantially.  The sychronisation with the wheels is probably the best I have seen for a model straight from the box.  The performance in terms of speed control is excellent, from a crawl up to a prototypical maximum speed BUT it can't pull the proverbial skin off a rice pudding!  My layout has a ruling gradient of 1 in 60 on the main line and it just about manages three birdcage coaches but not four.  On the club layout (whose gradients I haven't measured but I would guess 1 in 50 in a couple of places) it wouldn't even take three but got round, with a bit of slipping, with two.  Not good enough, Mr Dapol ! You should have put traction tyres on, like the D which is ok with three birdcages on the club layout.

I should add that I have a section of 1 in 30 that forms a link to enable continuous running, and this I have equipped with DCC Concepts' Powerbase system.  Fitting a magnet under the loco (with loss of the brake pull rod) transforms the performance and it will take the three coaches up the 1 in 30 without difficulty - possibly more than the prototype could do.  If I were starting from scratch I would fit Powerbase everywhere but I'm not going to rip all the track up so I will have to live with my 1 in 60 gradients as they are. 

[Kaput]

4 hours ago, paftrain said:

My D1 with sound arrived this afternoon but unfortunately it is completely dead! It won’t work on DC or DCC, nor can I read an address for it. Rails are closed now, so I’ve left a message for a call back. They obviously don’t check these locos before they deliver them. For that kind of money, you would expect that. As they fit the decoders in the UK, why don’t they check they work?

 

Checked the basics that the decoder isn't slightly loose or the slide in tray hasn't been fully pushed back in?

 

I would question Dapol's sanity if they didn't at least do a basic "does it work" test after fitting the decoders.....

[phil gollin]

On 09/07/2023 at 16:27, Wickham Green too said:

To summarise the options for 31487 in 'Sunshine' livery : the only D1s recorded with British Railways numbers AND tenders lettered in 'Sunshine' style were :-

 

February 1948 :     s1735 with 'British Railways' on the tender   

April 1948 :            31470 with 'British Railways' on the tender

May 1948 :             31246 with 'British Railways' on the tender

June 1948 :             31487 with 'Southern' on the tender

July 1948 :               31743 with 'British Railways' on the tender

September 1948 : 31489 with 'Southern' on the tender

 

All can be represented by changing loco or tender insignia ( both for 31489 ) .............. but, of course, other loco details may need changing too.

.

 

Well, that's "good".

 

When they do a re-run of the early BR sunshine version they can do any of, 31470, 31246, or 31743.

 

. 

Edited July 11, 2023 by phil gollin

[Oldddudders]

On 09/07/2023 at 16:27, Wickham Green too said:

To summarise the options for 31487 in 'Sunshine' livery : the only D1s recorded with British Railways numbers AND tenders lettered in 'Sunshine' style were :-

 

February 1948 :     s1735 with 'British Railways' on the tender   

April 1948 :            31470 with 'British Railways' on the tender

May 1948 :             31246 with 'British Railways' on the tender

June 1948 :             31487 with 'Southern' on the tender

July 1948 :               31743 with 'British Railways' on the tender

September 1948 : 31489 with 'Southern' on the tender

 

All can be represented by changing loco or tender insignia ( both for 31489 ) .............. but, of course, other loco details may need changing too.

So not "British Airways" as per your post 2100 last Friday?

[Ian Hargrave]

18 hours ago, paftrain said:

My D1 with sound arrived this afternoon but unfortunately it is completely dead! It won’t work on DC or DCC, nor can I read an address for it. Rails are closed now, so I’ve left a message for a call back. They obviously don’t check these locos before they deliver them. For that kind of money, you would expect that. As they fit the decoders in the UK, why don’t they check they work?

So sorry to hear this. In fact,very few retailers do.Derails are an exception. In the past,due to a certain model being beset with quality control difficulties ( Not Dapol,I should add ) I have specifically requested Rails to do just that and open the box to check.They duly obliged. In fairness these days packaging is tight and it is all to easy to cause damage during unpacking,testing and repackaging. 

[Ian Hargrave]

14 hours ago, selset bill said:

I received my D1 (31487 with sound) on Saturday and have given it a run on my layout and on the club's one.  It cetainly looks really good, and the sound is also good once the volume has been reduced substantially.  The sychronisation with the wheels is probably the best I have seen for a model straight from the box.  The performance in terms of speed control is excellent, from a crawl up to a prototypical maximum speed BUT it can't pull the proverbial skin off a rice pudding!  My layout has a ruling gradient of 1 in 60 on the main line and it just about manages three birdcage coaches but not four.  On the club layout (whose gradients I haven't measured but I would guess 1 in 50 in a couple of places) it wouldn't even take three but got round, with a bit of slipping, with two.  Not good enough, Mr Dapol ! You should have put traction tyres on, like the D which is ok with three birdcages on the club layout.

I should add that I have a section of 1 in 30 that forms a link to enable continuous running, and this I have equipped with DCC Concepts' Powerbase system.  Fitting a magnet under the loco (with loss of the brake pull rod) transforms the performance and it will take the three coaches up the 1 in 30 without difficulty - possibly more than the prototype could do.  If I were starting from scratch I would fit Powerbase everywhere but I'm not going to rip all the track up so I will have to live with my 1 in 60 gradients as they are. 

TBH you’re asking a lot.If they had fitted the dreaded traction tyres there’d be howls of protest from the purists on this forum anyway. I knew what I’d be getting as it’s 4 coupled which we know is limited adhesion wise. Mine are happy with 3 birdcages or 5 Hornby Maunsells at max. Not involving any incline btw.

[cctransuk]

15 minutes ago, Ian Hargrave said:

TBH you’re asking a lot.If they had fitted the dreaded traction tyres there’d be howls of protest from the purists on this forum anyway. I knew what I’d be getting as it’s 4 coupled which we know is limited adhesion wise. Mine are happy with 3 birdcages or 5 Hornby Maunsells at max. Not involving any incline btw.

 

Gradients are a recipe for disappointment on a model railway, to be avoided at all costs.

 

CJI.

[paftrain]

Dead loco sorted!

Phoned Rails this morning and spoke to very helpful Lewis, he suggested to remove the smokebox door (easy as it happens though I was worried before) and check the decoder wasn’t loose. It was, I just pushed it in and hey presto, all ok now.

Unfortunately in these days of internet shopping, very often things get dislodged in transit. Hopefully they are easily fixed as in this case.

I’m a happy bunny again now!

[SRman]

8 minutes ago, paftrain said:

Dead loco sorted!

Phoned Rails this morning and spoke to very helpful Lewis, he suggested to remove the smokebox door (easy as it happens though I was worried before) and check the decoder wasn’t loose. It was, I just pushed it in and hey presto, all ok now.

Unfortunately in these days of internet shopping, very often things get dislodged in transit. Hopefully they are easily fixed as in this case.

I’m a happy bunny again now!

 

 

Unfortunately, it seems fairly common with Next 18 decoders for them to come loose in transit; they don't lock in very positively, especially when compared to some of the other connection types. The Rails NER railcar had similar problems, with (in this case) the decoder blanking plug coming loose, so they wouldn't even respond on DC for testing before chipping.

I'm glad it was that simple to fix, and Rails can't really be blamed for this hiccup.

[Wickham Green too]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

So not "British Airways" as per your post 2100 last Friday?

Nah ......... I had a quiet word with the spill chucker !

[Darius43]

Sound fitted D1 arrived today 😀.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

just tested it and all works fine - the sound functionality is impressive.
 

Cheers

 

Darius

Edited July 12, 2023 by Darius43