alan24

According to the Bachmann Times, received this week, the next N gauge loco to arrive (Summer 2020) is 40012 with disc headcodes...plus some green ones...due in the next 3 months. Also, 31s & MK2Fs approved for production.

I agree totally, I've got a lot of Dapol locos but there's always that one livery error which they could have just googled. 33030 was pretty much spot on, colours, fonts etc. and will probably go for 33020 as well. I can overlook the ED depot sticker. Alan.

£7.95 it says on the back. Got mine in the post today. I think last years Farish one was £8.95.

It never appeared on Hattons under new releases as they sold out their allocation on pre-orders. This suggests it was eagerly awaited and possibly less than the usual 504 were made.

Thanks Crepello. Found your earlier post on the class 40 thread. Posted by Crepello on 16 December 2017 - 16:06 in Farish Undoubtedly they are superb models but the 1Co-Co1 wheel arrangement appears rather prone to trouble on Peco code 55 curved points; they'll run perfectly without the pony as a Co-Co but maybe extra weight or a spring would refine performance. Back-to-backs seem to be properly set for the Peco-recommended standard of 7.315-7.366mm. I would now advise against returning them as it seems to be an inherent characteristic of the long bogies

40159 lost its MW gear between May 1981 and Dec 1981. Looking back at my Platform 5 collection... Before May 1981 40159 was xb (dual brakes, steam heating boiler) and allocated to HA Haymarket. After Dec 1981 40159 was xin (dual brakes, boiler isolated, not equipped with MW) allocated to LO Longsight. 40159 was withdrawn during 1983.

I have now looked into this s bit more... NMRA standards show BTB as 0.301" (7.6454mm) with tolerance of +0.0508mm / -0.1016mm. This is where the 7.65mm comes from. However, looking at some old ModelRail mags for reviews I find that... Dapol class 33 is 7.3mm BTB Farish A2 is 7.2mm BTB

Whilst these wagons look excellent, even more so with short couplings, I'm experiencing a small issue and looking for advice... I found that the wheels did not spin freely as per other models and when on the track there is less side play in the wagon. I took a small drill (0.65mm) to the axle boxes and opened them out a bit - half a turn just until a tiny slither of swarf was produced. This helped the free spin a bit, but not as much as I'd hoped for. I have a rake of 9 and both a Farish 08 and 31 struggled to take them round a Peco radius 3 (11.75 inch I think) curve. There's quite a lot of drag. I compared the wheel sets with some spare Farish ones and found that the Farish wheel sets had a slightly smaller back to back measurement. The Farish ones also have longer axles and larger wheels so direct replacement was not an option. My suspicion was that the back to back was too large, causing drag by jamming on the curve due to lack of sideways movement, so to be sure I purchased the DCC Concepts gauge for 9mm track which says that it is set to the mid-point of the tolerance range at 7.65mm. The DJM wheels are a 'snug' fit onto the Gauge - just as described by the DCC Concepts instructions. I can only conclude that these wheels are 'spot on' in that respect. I did find that neither Farish nor Peco wagon wheels would fit onto the gauge, obviously they're using less than 7.65mm. What is the correct BTB figure and is there a preset gauge I can use to set the wheels slightly less than 7.65mm? Alan.

I like the simple packaging as well. Dapol wagons seem over packaged with a hard plastic box and foam insert, just for a wagon, this must be adding to the cost of the product by way of materials and shipping weight. It's good for the environment too, well done Dave.

Received mine today from hattons but only the A and D suffix numbers for some reason.

Yes, mine runs much slower than any other Farish loco too. Is this a fault or are they all like it?

Missed this first time I went through the list but looking forward to the class 20 in blue with discs. Don't like the weathered one they did...I'll be able to get rid of that now. Still like to see the red stripe 20 with discs. Good to see the referb 31. Alan

33102 is reviewed in Model Rail this week. I don't know if the model featured is preproduction but a couple of glaring issues not commented on are the orange MW sockets and there appears to be a gap in the yellow around the handrail on each cab corner which looks odd. On the positive there is a gap between 33 and 102 unlike 33030.

Now I've had a chance to run the loco here are some further thoughts... The book BR Blue No1 by John Desman does show 33002/003/032 devoid of ole warnings. Red tail lights above the buffer can be turned off with a switch on the underside - nice touch. The roller blinds are set at white blanks and do not show red in the reverse direction. IMO the roller blinds are better on the 73. I have a slight bump over points and straight track but not curves in one direction only - I think this could be a wheel back to back issue. The yellow on the four corners or the lower cab is slightly dulled as it appears in this location yellow has been applied over blue. Had mine running with a rake of farish olive livery seacow hoppers and it looks great - just how I remember living near Winchester in the 80s. This loco is full of character and would love to see one of the Eastleigh grey roof namers - my preference would be 33027.

Got my blue 33030 today. Much better looking in the flesh. Two minor errors...no ole warnings and mine has an ED shed sticker...about as far from EH as you can get! Not sure about the roller blind as it wouldn't show when loco is on shed. What I might do is paint the whole middle window gloss black and use Fox route code numbers and cover with glass varnish. I think this might look better. Blue and yellow shades are great. Just wish my 26&27 were the same colour. Overall great model which is easy to correct livery for those that feel they need to. Hope they produce dummies. Real shame there were no 26 dummies as if any loco needed double heading it's 33s and 26s. Well done Dapol.

Here's my FK corrected with Fox Transfers. The yellow line needed to be cut down in width by about 30% to fit the model. The previous Bachfarish IC offering some years ago also had a similar mistake. The Second class coaches had a red cantrail stripe as used on catering vehichles. Agian I had to use Fox Transfers Buff lining to correct those. Alan.

With the seemingly impossible to find Taylor Precision Models etched headcode discs and an increasing collection of 20s, 26s, 24s & 44s I had no alternative than to try my hand at producing my own - or at least my own artwork - and have them made up. This is the result, based on the ones carried by the real 26007. Regards Alan.

Just found a picture of the actual 5826 in the John Dedman book BR Blue No. 5 dated October 1973. Alan.