Jim

Hi, I've got 73124, Can anyone say if 73135 has the same issues with the Rail blue and yellow livery. Cheers Jim

All we wanted was the right colour and to actually run well... We have weathering, complete re-paints, re-wiring jobs, re-glueing jobs.......... If Dapol just gave us a box of bits, we could put it together..... Why are we making excuses?

Have Dapol expanded into prototype spares now?

Look at the wipers....! They do park wherever they want too..

Perhaps we should sent this to the factory in China?

I wonder if they would stretch to supplying replacement bodyshells in corrected livery one straight buffers? Jim

He he...! I've got a few Bachmann 24s/25s.... I had no idea about the incorrect cab profile until I read about it on here a few years ago. The thing that makes me smile is the fact I've had no real contact with the real things, only pictures going back years. I found myself actually preferring the erroneous model shape over the more rounded real thing....! I've just been running my rail blue 73 124.. I really like it. Those people who are worried if it accurately reflects the prototype, yes it most definitely does and ticks my boxes. I see them a few times a week and worked on them as a Trainman in the early nineties on ballast trains. I have the sound fitted version which really is the icing on the cake...it takes me back to times drinking tea in a nice warm, yellow Formica lined cab with a slight diesel fuel smell and the soft rumble of the 600hp engine.......except when the compressor kicked in, waking me up! It's just the colour of the blue, yellow ends and...the painted-over roof panels. If they fix these, it will be visually very good indeed. Then I might get another, but not until then. Jim

This is a serious question.... I can never be sure how to react to manufacturers errors and technical problems... We spend £100+ on something, twice that if sound fitted but when there is an obvious issue like for example, the over greasing of the Bachmann class 40, we take them apart, often dismantling quite delicate parts, running the risk of voiding our warranty. Is this acceptable behaviour? Do we pay someone to hang our gutters up, only to find ourselves up a ladder the first time it rains fixing the leaks? I know it's a bit of pride sorting issues out but, we do pay a lot of money for a product... Look up the history of when AMF owned Harley Davidson in the seventies and early eighties. Only the real dyed in the wood types would buy them. They leaked, rattled and wore out, bits fell off and they didn't ride in a straight line. If you bought one you would strip it down and rebuild it with reliable parts. They nearly went under until a management buy out bought in new tech and much improved QC. Look at the company now....! We almost expect it as standard practice, to pay good money for a model, knowing we will have to rebuild it at home. I'm starting to think that we have misguided loyalty towards some manufacturers. Perhaps we should be thinking, if they can't produce a product that's finished and reliable, perhaps they should just stop and sell the tooling to those who can produce acceptable products straight from the box.....? Jim

I've canceled my order for a sound fitted rail blue 73 135. I've seen pictures of this version now available. The blue looks the same as 124... Jim

Thanks NSE DAZ...I've taken another photo with the Bachmann MEA in I think Blue Mainline livery.... It's quite close to that. I find if I just watch the loco run round on its own, it's fine but when you look at the other rail blue locos, they look green for an instant..! My lighting is two "cool white" 58w strip lights. Jim Edited to actually include photo!

I now feel guilty because I really like the model.....Is the blue bad enough not to live with? Jim

Hmmmmmm, I was really trying to be understanding about the errors, I didn't want to count rivets I've got 73 135 rail blue ordered with sound fitted.. I received 124 with sound fitted a week or so ago. I was so enjoying the sounds that the issues were ignored a tad but reading this.... I'm my own worst enemy, when I removed 73 124 out of the box, a guard-iron fell off, buffers one end were what I thought damaged by delivery and it hesitates over electro-frog point work as if only one bogie was picking up. I noticed the blue was rather intense and the yellow "thin" but......I just thought oh well, another imperfect model in design and delivery. Bachman, Helgen, Hornby seem to get rail blue and yellow warning panel colour right with a few, "easy to live with" discrepancies. I was so exited in having a sound 73 that the issues didn't bother me enough to send it back. But now I've read this and stood back and compared the loco berthed with other rail blue liveried locos....it is very obvious. I want to be positive, the engine will have a place on my layout and I do enjoy it, but I wouldn't of bought it if I knew of the issues first. I know we can't expect perfection without hand crafted £600 builds but £110 is £110...(£240 for sound fitted) there is a danger that we are no longer willing to spend that sort of money on products that are quite obviously wrong. I'm very sad but I'm going to cape my pre-order for 135 and go for a Helgen 33/0 with sound fitted... At least I know what I'm getting and in future, I will be firmer on what I receive compared to my expectations... Jim

Mine too....from Hattons with sound fitted I just thought...oh yet another less than perfect £239 spent..... I'm thinking the packaging is the issue... Jim

I'll have a look, cheers

Thanks Fat Controller! That's exactly what I was after... Jim

Hi, Has anyone got any details of the Canterbury West oil depot? What was received there, type of tanks and frequency? Many thanks, Jim

Naughty drivers!!! Red and white shades!!

Thanks for that. Unfortunately Howes had sold out of round speakers so I soldered a rectangle 100 ohm speaker in.I decided to remove the bogie side frames to remove the excess grease and re-lube with electrolube. It had been running fine with the Bachmann non-sound decoder but when I installed a sound decoder, any interruption in the supply becomes noticeable. What I did find was that the engine was a bit "stuttery" when moving slowly. I decided to drop the bogies out and found that one bogie felt a little stiff when manually turning the drive shaft. I removed each wheelset and checked how it felt. I traced the stiffness down to the plastic "cap" that fits over the worm drive. It seemed to be pressing down a little hard on the worm bearings. I lightly filed the area where the cap meets the bearings. It worked! A lovely smooth running engine!!! And............the speed differential between directions has markedly reduced!!! I've a couple of other engines that I'm going to look at in the same way. Jim

Yeh, it's ok with slow movements over complicated point work, however there does seem to be a difference in speed between forward and reverse. Forward running, cooling fan, A end leading, runs noticeably slower. I've run it continuously for about half an hour but it didn't seem to "free up" I know most model locos have a "tight" direction but this one is more noticeable. Anyway, as soon as I think it's settled down, I'll be adding Howes sound to it. That reminds me, on the model, under the cooling fan, there seems to be a ready made speaker "holder". It looks like its for a bespoke speaker who's contacts are provided by the "holder" to the pcb. The first 40 141 I've had, I soldered a speaker with wires directly onto the speaker terminals on the pcb. I was wondering where you can get speakers that utilise the "holder"? Mind you, I need 100 ohm speakers as I'm still using Loksound v3.5s Jim

I received my 40 141 from Hattons yesterday. I asked them to give it a quick check before dispatch. All seems fine at the moment! Jim

Many thanks Jim

Love the Jinsy avatar too....The Great He would surely approve. Jinsy praise him! I received an email from Hattons stating that they were aware of the issues and would test a model if I wished. Can I ask a quick question concerning the real 40 141? In its rail blue guise, was this loco fitted with dual brakes? Many thanks, Jim

Hmmmmm, I've just emailed Hattons asking the question. Should've done that first! Jim

I cleaned my 40 141 last week in a similar way to the pics above. It runs perfectly now, very nice but........I didn't clear the grease from the centre pinions of the gear train on each bogie. Me thinks that the remaining grease will migrate back to the front and rear axles and pickups of each bogie...I'll have to wait and see. I bought mine from Hattons..does anyone know if their remaining 40 141 stock has been cleaned? I would like another one but object a little to dismantling another £88 loco... Jim

Right, I've had some time to work on my 40 141. It was running terribly, even when I cleaned every piece of track, which I'm not too hot on doing but don't seem to have problems. I was worried that I would have to solder wires from the pickups to the pcb. I wanted to see first if a clean up would help first. I removed both bogies and dropped the front and rear wheelsets out of each, as they're the pick-up wheels. I cleaned the surrounding area, axles and pickups with contact cleaner and cotton buds. Huge amount of grease on the axles, bearings and pickups. I then lubricated the axle bearings and gear with electro-lube. It has performed without fault for an hour or so...really nice. I was concerned that the "new" design of the pickups just wiping contacts on the pcb was an issue too but there haven't been any signs that it's a problem. I was previously quite critical of Bachmann's "new" design of pickups but, it does seem in this case that most issues are centred on the over-greasing from the factory. Jim