DapolDave

Hi Lee, please PM me with the name of the shop and i'll check with Kevin in the morning regarding that stores orders (if any) for the couplers, and then see if they want any. cheers Dave

Hi John, Answering from home i would obviously need to check, but providing i phrase this carefully then we should be ok. As far as i understood, none of the class 22's that featured both our front end AND roof exhaust/boiler configuration were able to be painted all over green with no yellow warning panel. If this is incorrect then someone please clarify, and i dont mean just by a picture of the real thing side on, as i really need to make sure the roof is 100% as well. Nidge will be along soon to clarify for me i'm sure cheers Dave

Hi Nick, Sorry for not answering your PM. I do have 'some' wheels sets available, but must stress 'some' not loads. If this is going to be viable for you guys, then i can get some sets in directly for Ultrascale or to any of you that want them. I will need to work out how much per set but cannot do this until i can talk to the factory after CNY so please bear with me. cheers Dave

Hi Jack, Please mail me direct at. Davej-pdm@Dapol.co.uk And Iet me know which ones and I'll put some in the post before I go off to Nuremburg on Wednesday. Cheers Dave

Hi Baldrick, I'm not sure where I can now go to clarify this further for you? I have told you exactly the situation regarding models of the class 22 to stockists, but this doesn't seem to be good enough. I've also asked you to PM me with details of exactly which stockist you are referring to, to allow me to comment further on Monday knowing all the details. As you haven't contacted me with a PM but replied here in rather disparaging terms towards Dapol and our / my "need to get out there amongst the dealer network more", I can only surmise there might be more to this than meets the eye. To everyone else, please note I have never, and will never, lie or "miss truth" to this forum, and I am sorry if this doesn't tally with what customers are told by stockists and I hope there is some sort of miscommunication in there somewhere. However as it stands, and i have personally checked ALL gold stockists have received class 22 locomotives. ( usual caveats apply until I can check quantities etc on Monday). Cheers Dave

Hi Baldrick, i have checked the situation with gold stockists and class 22 delivery but cannot check exact stock levels until monday. Rest assured that ALL gold stockists did receive green class 22's, so one saying they did not is not accurate, sorry. hope this helps a bit and look forward to your PM. cheers Dave

Hi Baldrick, lets see if i can help clarify this for you. Can you PM me with details of the stockists who you ordered from and i'll PM you back with the information regarding class 22 deliveries to them and how many were supplied. this should clear things up either way i think. cheers Dave

Hi Baldrick, I can understand frustration but I'm stunned to hear you haven't gotten any of the 3 you ordered. Rest assured only a very few (and we are talking less than can be counted on one hand) never received all they per-ordered and then subsequently increased on the second order form which went out. This second order form was to allow stockists to draw back from their original order or increase it. I cannot for obvious reasons tell you who received less, but some 'large' ones did due to their over the top ordering would have meant the smaller stockists lost out. So far, everything has worked out perfectly. However there have been cases of some retailers ( and again I cannot mention them here but will to Andy privately if he wants corroboration) that have been selling class 22's at shows that have been per-ordered by customers with no hope of getting extra stock to cover !!! Now that opens a whole new can of worms that Dapol cannot get involved with. Also, remember my phrase I have been using recently of "those that have ordered and are in good standing"? Well we are holding some class 22's for those traders who have ordered but are currently not "in good standing", pending their change of circumstance. Your stockist may not be any of these but in all honesty, and not wishing to know who your stockist is, I'd be looking elsewhere for your models. Hope this helps clarify your point? Cheers Dave

Hi Matt, if there are overseas stockists who have ordered then yes. however please remember that sending out stock isnt an immediate thing and takes a few days, and devlivery overseas can add to that so please be patient. Hi Kris, these couplers should have some springs in with them but as i'm at home i cannot guarantee that, sorry. cheers Dave

Hi everyone, We started to ship the 5 pair 'multi pack' magnetic couplers out to stockists yesterday. cheers Dave

Hi Everyone, The last of the 6 class 22's started to be shipped from Dapol Yesterday, This being the BR Blue version D1000b Hope this helps. cheers Dave

Hi Matt, Delivery into Dapol is delayed until tomorrow. So with any luck they will leave Chirk for stockists who have ordered them or are in good standing tomorrow around 3pm. Please note Alan's comments and mine above as I don't think Dapol can be held to blame if anyone else cannot get these through your regular stockists, due to their not ordering them. Having said that I do know that Hatton's have ordered a shed load so you will be fine Matt :-) Cheers Dave

Hi Alan, like i said previously 'you can lead a horse to water.............................................', there seems to be a problem with reading order forms and stock forms that is worrying, almost as worrying as phone calls however also fail to raise orders about 60% of the time as well. Maybe it's an overstock situation, maybe the economy is causing draw backs of stock, i truly dont know. However what i do know is that "the horse doesnt seem to want to drink" cheers Dave

Hi Steve, simply PM me your address please. cheers Dave

Hi Alan, I fully understand your frustration, but i take it you'll be changing your retailer or, at the very least, informing them of their dereliction of duty? As for the couplers, you may well have a point, however Hattons sold out of their initial 300+ couplers and have ordered more, as have Rails, Kernow and at least a few others so you could say that 1000 or so are definately in the public domain to be fair as a conservative number. so even so that's a 1% failure rate, which is well below any expected standard. cheers Dave

Hi Keith, dont forget that sourcing another speaker is easy as its mentioned in the instructions. If a locsound 4 is used then the 4ohm speaker from DCC Supplies (serial /product number in the class 22 instructions) will give you a nice beefy sound as it has its own sealed enclosure and bass aperture, clips straight in but does need 2 wires soldering. The sound benefits might outweigh the soldering negatives. Also worth noting is that this same speaker is designed to fit the class 22 as well. cheers Dave

Hi Alan, you say "I do also wonder how committed Dapol will be to this - they don't seem to readily do repeat runs of items when they are getting thin on the ground". To what are you referring? Yellow light bars? In stock at Dapol Couplers? In stock at Dapol 5 pair multi pack? In stock when they arrive at Dapol today? Catenary? In stock at Dapol Couplers, magnets and catenary and the yellow light bars have NEVER been out of stock and the multi pack couplers are new items. White light bars have been out of stock for 7 weeks but are now back. I can only refer to my now oft used phrase on here...................."you can lead a horse to water............................." as ALL stockists, have a Dapol stock list EVERY MONTH to be able to order from. Not Dapol's fault if they dont read it or cant be A***d to order, is it? If, however, you know of other items that are out of stock or not committed to by Dapol, please feel free to let me know on this forum as i think you may have an important point. As for the couplers, we are now going to supply spare springs with each pack, plus we have gotten the springs 'pre-loaded' so any losing of springs should not readily happen again. However it is worth noting that we have sold 3000 pairs of these couplers and i have had or heard of only around 10 customers who have had problems with losing springs. Which when loooked at less dramatically isnt a bad turn around rate for a product is it? Cheers Dave

Hi Matt, no swinging valances here, not on my watch!!!

Hi chaps, back in the office today and have reviewed the cad/cam. Now the valance and clearance of of the bogie are still an issue, so i might ask for the bogie to have separate brake shoes for the customer to fit (i.e. fit ones at the factory that are cut across (or half shoes if you like) so that out of the box they negotiate all curves). The more curve concious customer can then fit the alternate brake shoes for a more realistic appearance. thoughts? As for the valance, this WILL be factory fixed in place with a coupling slot through it, but replacement valances will be in the box (these will not have a coupling slot in it) Oh, and the cad/cam? pease ignore the exhaust covers now put in place, as these need to be removed. Comments as usual please ladies and gents, but i feel we are close. Can any one supply me with or point me in the direction of a great picture of the original battery box catches please? cheers Dave

Hi guys, Chinese new year certainly galvanises the mind, as a revised cad/cam was sent this morning. However I haven't seem it as in on the sofa at home with a chest infection. If I'm well enough to go in tomorrow I'll post some more pics, but looking already (at a picture they sent) they still haven't gotten their heads round the alternate valance. We shall see Cheers Dave

Hi everyone, The cad/design for this model is reaching a slow but hopfully great conclusion and i put the latest pictures here for your delectation and comment. I'm not sure of the curved front window ledge to be honest as i could see this in my pictures, but things to look out for include the side profile now looks nicely curved and the roof and cab front windows are way better without those awful rivets. So please take a look, and yes the valance is fitted to the coupler but a separate valance will be supplied without the coupling arm hole. I'm not sure of a way to improve this so the valance is fixed so i'd appreciate any thougths on this matter too. Cheers Dave Edit, to show both sides of the Western for clarity

Remember e-bay is your friend ;-)

You know it makes sense ;-) Cheers Dave

Ok well I had a quote from China regarding these wheels. However it's a lot of money for Dapol and would have to be charged at about £35.00 per set. Now luckily the wheel can be used on Kernow's 6xx so that's good, but as Ultrascale say, there don't seem to be many takers. Is there a society that might want to collate interest from modellers ( sorry but I don't have the time)? The problem for me is the financial " leap of faith" that this will entail and at the moment, probably because I don't know the scale, I cannot justify it. However I'm willing to be proved wrong. Can someone get some figures together for me and we'll see where we go with it? Cheers Dave

Hi Matt, As requested and from memory so apologies if any are wrong, Diesel locos Class 73 DCC ready, 66,67,58,hymek,86,26,121,HST, Steam M7, 14xx revised, b1, b17, britannia,9F,manor, hall, ivatt, A3, A4, terrier Coaches Gresley, collets revised, mk3, mk3 DVT, auto coach revised Freight Cargowagon, telescopic hood, silver bullet, mega fret, blue spot fish van, spine wagon, When you look at the list you realise just how small our portfolio is. ( of newer standards, that is). Cheers Dave