Terrier problems - again

[gc4946]

Today I took delivery of "Freshwater" which I've wanted for some time to go with my Isle of Wight fleet.

Within ten minutes of running in after lubrication both front wheels shifted on their axle. Although it still ran OK although with an occasional limp, I didn't want to risk the other wheelsets going the same way, so packed it away for posting back to Hattons on Monday for replacement.

Am I very unlucky, as the same loss of quartering happened to my earlier version (32640 with early crest)?

I'm concerned the same problems are happening with successive batches of Terriers.

 

Incidentally Dapol's spec for the B1 states it'll have square-ended loco driving axles to eliminate loss of quartering.

If DapolDave's reading this, will future batches of Terriers and other steam locos have square-ended axles as well?

[Kris]

It would defiantly be good to see the square axles moving across the range.

[admiles]

Not wanting to turn this into a bash Dapol session but 8 of my 12 Daopol 66s are now on the sick list

versus only 1 of 14 Farish 66s (and that was a mangled gear tooth due to a piece of stray ballast).

 

Dapol quality control seems to be very shakey at times, the 73s were truely awful. Thats said the 67s seem

ok so far so hopefully the corner has been turned. But that does not excuse them putting out some frankly

very sub-standard products.

 

Rant over!

 

Anthony

[Etched Pixels]

Not wanting to turn this into a bash Dapol session but 8 of my 12 Daopol 66s are now on the sick list

versus only 1 of 14 Farish 66s (and that was a mangled gear tooth due to a piece of stray ballast).

 

Dapol quality control seems to be very shakey at times, the 73s were truely awful. Thats said the 67s seem

ok so far so hopefully the corner has been turned. But that does not excuse them putting out some frankly

very sub-standard products.

 

Rant over!

 

Anthony

 

Personally I've had no Dapol 66 fails (cross fingers) and a 50% fail rate on Farish 66s (split gears). Never had a problem with the 73s either. I know folks who didn't oil them had problems with both dying, and particularly the early 66s.

 

As to the terrier - as supplied I take the view its sold to collectors to look at. You can sort the wheels out - kind of. You need to remove them, roughen up the ends of the rods a little, clean both very well to get rid of all traces of oil on the axle ends and wheels and then requarter them accurately using nut-locker or if that won't grip it a 50/50 mix of slow setting superglue paste and nut locker seemed to work better (found that by accident when dealing with a 14xx where nut locker didnt work). Just remember you've only got 5 minutes to quarter and gauge them if you do it that way !

 

It's also theoretically possible to square the ends of the axles by filing, square the wheel holes likewise and make a small square collar to fill the gap. I seriously considered doing that if nutlocker/superglue didn't work.

[Butler Henderson]

As to the terrier - as supplied I take the view its sold to collectors to look at. You can sort the wheels out - kind of.

 

Hardly makes the product fit for purpose. Wonder what the outcome would be if everyone who has a duff Dapol loco took it to their trading standards office. Trading standards expect a product to last a reasonable time based on its purpose and cost and Dapol and other manufacturers cannot hide behind stupid short guarantees.

[Dr Al]

You can sort the wheels out - kind of.

 

With this kind of problem the risk of it loosening again in the future is high, which is why I don't buy locos that I've heard of this happening to.

 

For a new loco this should never be tried and it should always be sent back - this is a failure in design by Dapol (Farish axles are splined/knurled at the ends so there is no chance of this ever happening). Clearly they acknowledge it from the promise of squared axle ends for some future models.

 

Cheers,

Alan

[gc4946]

I've been waiting 20 years for a RTR motorised Terrier, in 1989, I scratchbuilt a non-motored loco (sorry, no digital images available) using Minitrix Dock Tank wheels and rods, and I was really looking forward to running "Freshwater" with my model of the Ventnor West push-pull set, converted Farish 4-wh coaches, as preserved at Havenstreet.

For me, these Dapol locos are there to be running side by side with Farish locos, not just collectors items mainly for display, hence my annoyance at things!

[bertiedog]

It has to be back to Dapol for an answer, the problem is curable, but not for the average customer. As with all out shopped production it is up to the UK designers, the Chinese/ FE input is minimal, and the responsibility lies with the UK importer to cure the ills.

 

Not easy when you rely on the foreign maker to provide parts, but this is no issue for the purchaser to have to bear, the goods should work, or be replaced with a refund, or a replacement when serious problems like these arise.

 

That it makes life difficult for the UK importer is of no consequence to the public, they sell these to work properly, and should bear the brickbats when things go wrong. It appears the wheels are indeed on plain axles, I cured one for friend with Loctite, but splined axles would be the better option.

 

I hope the problem is minor and easily overcome, as Dapol are involved with several prjects to be imported from China, but it does seem that a lot of confidence is placed in CAD "design", which is a wonderful process, but needs the basic engineering "nonce" to base the design on.

 

It is easy to specify the axles in CAD and order the moulds to make suitable plastic wheels to fit with an interference fit, but it needs experience to know the better approach is splining, or squaring, and specify this in the drawings.

 

I was involved with scientific instrument making and was lectured on the advantages of CAD and shown a design for a device we made, with costings showing the advantage of Chinese manufacture, a cost saving of 800%.......

 

Ours passed B S standards to perfection, the samples from China were basically expensive door stops, as they simply made exactly to the CAD design, without any allowances for actual tolerances, the result was near 10,000 instruments sent to scrap.

 

The Chinese make very fine products, but do so to order, and if the order is wrong, the product is wrong, it is the trouble with lots of FE items on the UK market, compounded by major makers not using Quality Control and sampling before acceptance of the production run.

 

Stephen.

[grahame]

Dapol quality control seems to be very shakey at times, the 73s were truely awful.

 

 

Yep, QC can be shakey at times, but it seems to affect all manufcatuters to some extent. However, my experience with the class 73, which I have lots of, is that they are great. They have all been excellent runners with no problems and some have clocked up many miles at exhibitions without any problems. My class 73s have not been awful in any way, and I would rate them as amongst the best, if not the best, of Dapols locos for performance.

 

G.

[gc4946]

My OP was only about the Terriers. At one time I owned two 73s and four 66s, they were OK, but due to changing circumstances I now own two 66s.

If they sort out the quartering issue I'm interested in buying more Terriers, bring on the Isle of Wight Central (lined black) and Freshwater, Yarmouth & Newport (Great Central lined green) versions!