DapolDave

Well apart from the terrier we don't recommend less than 10 1/2 inch radius curves for our locomotives. Most modern built stock ,both passenger, and freight will have close coupling systems and should have no problems but in all honesty it's probably more trial than error on this, as we have customers say that some loco's will go round 9" radius on their track. Cheers Dave

Hi, In drop testing on the A4 and A3 loco's there has been problems with them fitted with these couplers, so we will fit them with rapido's and have a pair of magnetic ones on the packaging. It's annoying I know but to prevent damage a necessity. Interestingly enough the drop test and long distance transport test with 2 diesels fitted with these couplers proved ok, so they will come factory fitted. I'm in the factory next week and I will clarify for you. Cheers Dave

Hi Tromans, Wipers!!!! Don't worry they will be straight on tomorrows ( hopefully) cad/cam. The slope is definitely there on the cad/cam but not as pronounced as I think you hope it should be ( no bad thing your comments though), so I have a suggestion........... After tomorrows cad/cam we cut metal. Once the first shot is here we can examine the slope a fair bit just to be safe and if we need to alter it a bit then this should be possible before the tool is locked down for its final detail additions. How does this sound? As for the lift rings they will be stainless steel, primed with etching primer and painted. I think between the 'Guru' and yourself / others this will be something special............... Makes me think towards other WR loco's that are poorly represented. Look what we can do by pulling together? Cheers Dave

Hi chaps, a little help required if possible, Mark wrote "The distance between the top slat and the upper edge of the bodyside cutout for the main grills should be larger then the spacing between the slats and is quite a characteristic feature of the prototype" As this is the 'last day' to get things done before the , hopefully, final cad/cam and i am out of the office, i cannot send any pics of this area that i need correcting. Can anyone post a picture here that i can forward to China as soon as possible please as if i get this i should have the 'final' corrected cad/cam tomorrow? cheers Dave

Hi Tromans, yes i do see what you mean, but i have a question.................... whilst the 'peak' of the bonnet (for want of a better word) does indeed look more pronounced in your picture, is it truly that? I ask because although i agree it must have a 'peak' i'm wondering if your pic, not taken at the correct level, is actually showing the 'prow' andgle forward as a 'peak' due to this angle? Thoughts? cheers Dave

Hi Jerry, BR Blue? simples, dont worry...............................i'll say no more. cheers Dave

Hi, am in China next week visiting 2 of our 3 factories and i will get an update. please bear with me. cheers Dave

Hi guys, Thanks for the feedback, and due to this i have asked China to look at Mark's (the 'guru' in my eye's) comments plus a couple of others from you here, and see what we can do. Sand pipes should be a must, but do you want them factory fitted or fit your own? If i leave off the crew cab side card holder is it going to Peeeee you off, and if so why? I suppose if its fitted it can be filed off, but at the damage to the paintwork. Something i have decided on is the nameplates and number plates will be separate, but we will print a small outline rectangle exactly where each plate should go so that you can fit your own choice if needs be, but get the positioning correct. I intend to make the outline 80% of the shawplan number plates (who will be supplying them), and about 80% the size of the word 'Western' (this rectangle placed right in the middle of the 2 words for safety) so that we should all manage to get the correct height and main position. (famous last words) The only 52 to come with factory fitted plates will be Enterprise for Steam (correct at the time of typing this) using shawplans superb new etches. Cheers Dave

In the vain hope we are doing something right with this loco, look what's come in this morning? Only a first view cad shot with lots still to do, but of interest and worth me teasing you all. cheers Dave

Hi everyone, The time is nigh. Look what's come in the mail today for your delectation Now, changes since we last spoke, are as follows; 1) Change to the cab front handrail profile. 2) Subtle upward curve of cab front window (i cant see it but am told it's there) 3) Alternate battery box clips 4) Fixed and alternate front Valances 5) Alternate brake shoes for those with tighter radius curves 6) Body lowered on chassis by 0.5mm I have attached pics form the cad/cam and would like a concensus of opinion to this question...........................do i authorise cutting metal? i am in the UK until Saturday but ideally would like thoughts and general approval very soon as every day counts now. Enjoy Dave

Hi Neal from the cross channel ferry on my way back to Germany. I am hoping Monday or Tuesday I should be posting the "finished" cad/cam for what I hope is your mutual approval. Please keep an eye on this thread as changes after we start tooling are next to impossible, and certainly expensive. If everyone is ok then by the end of the week tooling will commence on this model. Tooling takes a month to 6 weeks, then I get first shots for test fit approval etc. once I'm happy it then takes a further month to add the detail and finish the tool. Painting will take place on spare first shot bodies and I will order the nameplates from shawplan accordingly at this time. I'd hope that finishes samples would go to the magazines about 2-3 weeks later while the consignment is shipped. So I think probably end of May for models in the shop. Meanwhile I'll start designing the chassis for the N gauge version with a view to a Warley release. Hope that helps. Cheers Dave

Hi, sorry its a rough and ready cad/cam snatch, but this should show the 'slope' eathier side of the centre section of the lip. Its there ok, but doesnt seem to show on the overall cad/cam unless you zoom in. hope ths helps. cheers Dave

Hi Jerry, Sorry, reading on the go :-( Standard back to back is or should be 7.44mm but try getting that 0.04 of a mm accuracy , it's not easy. Hope this helps Cheers Dave

Hi Lee and Jerry. sorry no idea of a price yet. We just havnt gotten round to setting one yet, although i would hope around the £10-£15 mark would do it, but id hope for closer to the £10.00 mark so as not to make it too expensive taking into account the need to buy the couplers as well. As for the kits, i'm thinking 10 pairs or conversions per pack plus the 'tool'. cheers Dave

Hi Lee, The kit is almost finalised and I got the cad/cam last monday for review. However to make the kit better value for money I have asked for the mounting block to have a number of extre features that all modellers should find handy. These are, Trip pin height gauge ( already mentioned) Trip pin angle markings for optimum setting Track gauge Back to back gauge Extra sets of height shims I think that not only will you get this gauge with the conversion NEM pockets, we will probably make them available separately for those that want them as they may be handy for modellers in general. The new revised cad/cam should be available this week, so this could go in the tool room by the weekend. Delivery around Ally Pally time I hope. Cheers Dave

Hi Jim, Easy one to answer ,albeit indirectly. The 22 tooling allows Dapol, at will, to chance the roof, the sides and nose ends at any time we choose ( providing we have designed the detail to go on the slides for those other variants), and mix and match, and change back to original configuration at anytime and how ever anytimes we choose. I planned well ahead on this one and realised this was the easiest, less expensive route, in the long run. This allows us, as we always use hard steel tools, to be still making class 22 models in 40 years time. Cheers Dave ( from Nuremburg where it was minus 15 last night) ;-)

Hi everyone and in particular Lee, Who i have been conversing with on PM, regarding his comments about a stockist of his that hasnt had any information or order information etc regarding the magnetic couplers. Now, before i start it's best to say that what im about to say doesnt absolve Dapol from any blame where other stckists are concerned as until i know of these i cannot look into the facts and sort out any problems either the customer or the stockist may have, and as i i have said before we are not without fault, of that i am sure. We know we can and do let stockists down from time to time and we are endevouring to do better. However, as promised i have looked into Lee's comments and frustrations (quite rightly justified) and now have the proof i was hoping for. I will not name said stockist as that would be wrong but let me just fill in a few gaps. Said model shop DID receive an order form from Dapol for both the coupler pairs, bulk packs and magnets in October. They faxed their order form back on 31st October at 13.00 hours (thank you fax machine for putting ther date and time on the fax). The 3 coupler items were not ordered at all, however bubble cars, class 22's, signals and a little OO gauge was ordered. The subsequent order forms except the latest have not had any orders for the couplers, however the latest one did have an order for the multipacks ( 4 in total) but no magnets at all. I hope this clears things up a little. cheers Dave

Hi Lee, just cleared out my inbox, sorry i dont realise it was so full. please feel free to PM me if you want. cheers Dave

Hi Baldrick, Sorry but i am now at a loss. I dont remember our conversation to be honest (lots of people to talk to at the show so forgive me), however i'm certain i wouldnt have said that. I might have said something along the lines of 'Thats not right that dealers are doing that, however i cannot do anything to prevent it', but certainly not as you have said. Indeed, now its public, do you expect me or Dapol to prevent dealers doing that? They had purchased from Dapol, we only suggest a recommended retail price, we dont (as alluded to in your previous post) tell them they have to sell it at said price, that's their business, not mine. and to tell them they are wrong and suggest that as a gold stockist they might like to change their pricing structure so as not to profiteer on a model is, i believe illegal, and if not its certainly wrong and immoral for me to contemplate it no matter how distastful it may be to me, and it is. As for the other stockists, i'm afraid you have to read between the lines on what i write regarding orders etc. As for who these dealers are? i cannot tell you the situation either because you in your position of knowledge wont tell me, or circumstances will not allow me to, sorry. I am concerned by your lack of being able to get your models, however i am even more concerned as to your sweeping comments here that you dont back up. Please PM me a list as asked for yesterday and i will answer each one with you where and if i can by return. cheers Dave

Hi Baldrick, I have now gotten to the bottom of this somewhat and owe both you and this forum an apology. The shop in question did order his models, and in the following quantity 1000C x 5 1000B x 6 1000D x 3 1000E x 3 However the orders from said shop came a bit late (looking as far as i can go into the figures they were ordered around the 3/1/12 Apart from 'E' which i dont think we have, the others are allocated to him. However this stockist has not been rung by anyone from Dapol (i have asked every member of staff here) , and their shipment is not being dispatched for the time being. (sorry i can not elaborate here on this). Apologies to everyone one here who feels misled, but this has been a bit like sky 'breaking news' where bits are found out as we go along. Still i hope this helps clarify things and you do not waste a journey on Thursday as they will not be receiving a package from Dapol as things stand at the moment. Cheers Dave

Hi Ian, Due to the distance back from the front valance on the 67, the coupling when fitted will be quite close to the valance. Thereby the trip pin part that sticks out of the top of the coupling knuckle might foul the moulded coupling hook. Just something you need to look out for and trim off the excess metal accordingly if the hook stops bogie rotation. cheers Dave

Hi Baldrick, Thanks for bearing with me and i have a part answer for you that although may not assuage your annoyance, might help you understand where we are coming from ont he class 22 issue you raised. OK, i can confirm that ALL stockists who pre-ordered their models did in fact get them. The model shop you named privately with your PM to Andy, did not in fact order any, and only asked for them in a meeting with the shop owner and Dapol at Chirk in late November last year when we could only supply him 1 model from my 'spares' pile. So taking this into account, what about 'added orders'? I class these as over and above the original pre-orders that let stockists add to their existing pre-order or just come back for more at a later date, stock permitting. This is a tricky one as initially the class 22 was a very slow burner and i know that we were concerned about orders being so low, but 'took a punt' on manufacturing 500 of each running number in the hope we could shift them. (getting back into OO was an unknown journey at the time) This was prudent for us with regards to risk as we had no indication from any stockist about how well they thought they would sell, and even forum speculation was concerned (quite rightly as i have said here before) that we were about to release pendolino MK2. So what's happened i think is that, again quite rightly, stockists have steered clear in these austeer times and made sure it looked and ran well first before committing to upping their order (or indeed ordering any as some pre-order forms came back with '0' in the quantity box for the class 22) This isnt a fault of the stockists, as i would have done the same in their shoes. Now, the 22 came out and got good reviews and reports in most magazines, and things started to take off. orders then started to come in and were filled where we could. At Warley when we released the D6331 in Green syp, we had sold out to the trade completely and had a small 'over sell' situation that we could not do anything about due to the amount made. This is and was our problem totally but please understand our production quandry on this. This means that those who pre-ordered got their models, those that didnt had to rely on the 'chance' of them being in stock at Dapol when they came to order (after all we always said we were going to make only 500 of each number so we werent hiding the facts from anyone), or indeed order more. It is those that have missed out unfortunately and without knowing further names of stockists i cannot confirm either way whether the gold stockists you have alluded to, pre-ordered and then sold out, or didnt pre-order and took a chance that there would be stock left for them to get from Dapol. What remains fact though (as far as i can ascertain at the moment), is that all stockists who pre-ordered their class 22 models were delivered in full. Now i beg your indulgance somewhat as the chap who deals with the ordering is away today but here tomorrow. so i will ask him in the morning to comment on any anomolies there might have been with regards to pre-orders not being fulfilled and i will come back on here tomorrow to clarify either way. I have also spoken to Joel (my CEO) about this and he confirms my understanding of matters regarding the Class 22 orders that i am conveying to you here. As mentioned without knowing whom the stockists are (and i understand your reticence to disclose) we cannot contact them and discuss what might or might not have gone wrong. However if you would like to contact them for me and ask them to ring here and speak to my CEO, then if we are at fault i'm sure Joel will move heaven and eath to ensure it never happens again, and to understand their grievances and perhaps, if possible, remedy them. cheers Dave

Hi Jerry, Further to your mail here yesterday I can confirm that the following did and has happened. All stockists received a pre-order form for the magnets, single pair pack and the 5 pair multi pack magnetic couplers. Indeed I have just checked personally and the pre-order form for the 5 pair multi packs went out with the N gauge signals order form in November 2011. This order form also contained lots of other items (being A4 in size) We subsequently and to this date (bearing in mind these were sent to ALL stockists) have pre orders for only (as of today) at 08.30 some 450 packs of 'multi pack' couplers. All pre- orders for the couplers (single pairs) and magnets were filled in full to those that had ordered them etc and this stock started to go out in November last year. Since then we have not been out of stock of these items and ALL stockists who wanted more were and are totally encouraged to ring, fax or mail us to order 'top up' stock if they wish to. As for shortfall of stock or miss picked stock, both Kevin and Jim (sales manager and dispatch manager respectively) are away today so i cannot ask them directly yet as to complaints regarding this scenario of shortfall etc, but i can only assume any shortfall might be on items already out of stock or ordered too late from the sent out order form for them to be in stock. Of course there could also be a miss pick from the order form which would totally be our fault. I have spoken to Joel our CEO on this and he tells me that no one has contacted him directly (from a stockist) and complained about this or escalated a compaint to his desk. I would venture that these stockists please contact him, as Joel isnt one to let grass grow under his feet on such matters. I will update this tomorrow when i have more information on this. Please bear with me. cheers Dave

Hi Jerry, Thanks for that and I fully understand your reasoning. I will take up all you mentioned in your post tomorrow and see if we can figure out what, if anything, is going wrong. If once this is done I feel I can reply, then I will on here. Cheers Dave

Hi Jerry, thanks for the feedback. Basically everyone, every month is sent a stock list that is up to date and extremely accurate as we now have an 'almost' perfect stock control system in place. This shows everything (warts and all) regarding what we have lots of and what we have little of in stock at the time that the sheet was printed out. This then goes out to ALL stockists on the same day for them to get (post willing) the following day. Orders will be taken for the remaining stock from that following day, by phone, fax or e-mail (usually the first 2 of the 3) and a picking list is then generated and sent within 2-3 days (usually). However the stock list is simply that, a stock list, and not the order form that ALL stockists get sent 2 months prior to Dapol receiving product. This allows them to order immediately. If they dont , and you wont believe how many leave it weeks if at all, to order. I remember the orders for the class 26's and 22's were terrible and i was extremely worried. indeed the class 26's only had 6 or 7 stockists reply to the order form within 14 days of it being sent out. Now the couplers are another case in point............ we had only 20% of the production run pre-ordered when we released them, and indeed out of the total number of 5 pair multi packs, we have presold only 360 packs worldwide. These have been on order forms but stockists havnt ordered them. What then happens is simple, once they realise that they are populare and decide to order (if they do) then others who can see the bigger picture have ordered more and stock becomes short, or runs out temporarily This isnt acceptable for these and i know it. A new product that is designed to be cross model usable should be in stock ALL the time, and in this we have failed as we are now, i believe, out of stock of single pair multi-packs. Dont get me wrong here, i am not trying to say we are perfect, as we are most definately not and we are capable of creating a huge 'horlicks' from time to time. things are improving as we never used to send stock lists out, or as many order forms as we do now. Indeed some order forms contain items that in all good faith were put on there as we had a projected OBS (on board ship date) from China, only to find a reason for a rebuilt, or paint alteration and these items get delayed further. (example N and OO gauge signals) I would say that things are getting better, but i must admit that i am disturbed by stockists saying they have problems. If you would PM me the names of the shops, then perhaps i can get our CEO Joel to take a look at ther problems and see if there is anything we are doing that could and should be done better. cheers Dave