DapolDave

No worries Simon, cheers Dave

Hi Simon, That's not the 'Ask Dave' section of our website. That's the facebook page run by Joel. Unfortunately the information given on the class 73 is still incorrect. cheers Dave

Hi Simon, source please? Sorry mate but unless its come from me or the CEO I'd discount it totally. As with the Western it will be ready when its ready and we certainly havnt said anything about a release date. Cheers Dave

Hi richard, As i have said to you privately on numerous PM mails we have had. Do not worry 'YOU WILL NOT MISS OUT' and i will sort it for you. Cant say much fairer than that can i? cheers Dave

Unfortunately it wont be a Dapol product, much as i'd have liked it to be. cheers Dave

There you go Jim, sorted :-) cheers Dave

Never a bad thing Jim, Welcome to the Hydraulics, and we all expect a lovely model of Exeter St. Davids next Knowing your modelling ability it would probably be as mind blowing as New Street cheers Dave

Hi guys, Just measured a wheel in a Western just to make sure and its 13.71mm diameter +/- due to my cold fumbling fingers. And here's a pic which i took of a Western shoulder grills, that should clarify Jim's grill comments accordingly. cheers Dave

Hi Richard, Gareth's PM'd me on this and of course it will get sorted for you. 2 to the same customer always concerns me as going back for a replacement is a leap of faith, and to have it happen again is awful. Can you let me know how it goes, but if you want me to run one for you, testing it thoroughly and sending directly to you please let me know and I'll sort it. Cheers Dave

Pretty much standard as i understand it across most Chinese factories (i could be wrong though), but certainly my 3.

Hi Jim, That figure is based on 'end user' sales. so of course doesnt take into account the number of failures they have in china that could put a totally different slant on things if the bigger picture was taken into account. However being typically Chinese, we never know or get to know what the QC failure rate is in China, and to be fair as long as the models we receive are under the 4% it doesnt become an issue. Interestingly, since our 'W' warranty came into being almost a year ago we have had under 40 loco's across the whole range written off due to being non repairable, so things are improving nicely. Now to get the Chinese to make like Kato or Tomix, thats the next challenge. cheers Dave A Western on an Autocoach, what a great picture. any details on the working? cheers Dave

Hi Richard, Way too early to start saying its' got quality issues. Chine expect 4% failure rate on all models and that's about normal in this Industry. That equates so far as numbers are concerned as 26 models, and we are nowhere near that figure. Add to this that only 1 loco has yet been written off due to g-shock causing the cab end to crack, we are still batting high figures here. This will of course annoy lots of people who get models that don't behave as they should, but we are on the case and can only apologise. However, spares are here with more inbound from China, and we have spare chassis for 'W' warranty replacements in place with DCC supplies, just in case. You will note from previous posters that their models have been returned to them within 48 hours fully working as well. With this in mind I think it's a little too early to say that "the sky is falling in" on this model with regards to below average QC faults and unheard of low write off figures. Cheers Dave

Sounds like a circuit board problem. Please contact either your stockist or DCC supplies who should be able to help. Cheers Dave

Original receipt / proof of purchase is required. Doubt an e-bayer will ave that, besides we will know who #37 originally belongs too.

Will be interesting if it goes wrong, as all numbers from the certificate have been logged, and as such the original owner will have to return it for repair/exchange with receipt (or Steams authorisation).

Out of interest, what was the good price?

Hi Alan, no problem at all with any of them, and apart from a wheel clean they have only been oiled twice in that time. Clean track is a must mind you, but no flogging them to death, realistic speeds at all times and they crawl like good uns and accelerate smoothly holding the set top speed without and stutter, smell or heating up beyond 'warm'. Wheel treads are shiny though but that's to be expected. Oh and I'm running DCC with an NCE power cab. Cheers Dave

Hi Ian, My sound fitted 67 and HST have now had the best part of 150 hours running with about 3-4 hours continuous and you cannot hear them. cheers Dave

I was perusing 'Looking Back at the Westerns' and found them, i havnt checked any more books but its interesting that they are like it though. cheers Dave

Looking at the face of a Western in some pictures the marker lights are red to the left and white to the right. Fine, no problem there then......except.........i'm looking at a colour picture of D1071 Western Renown with what seems to be red on the right and white on the left. In fact ive just found D1040 with the same and D1030, oh and Western Sultan with the marker light on in Daytime on passenger too! where's Nidge when you need him? cheers Dave

Hi guys, not sure this will help, but i have about 8 class 67's i use on Welham Green and 2 of them were definately growly. However lubrication and then left to their own devises doing laps on the layout (and i mean laps) while we ate lunch at shows and they are almost silent. It may just be that some of the models need 'bedding in' more than others. cheers Dave

This section is nothing but porn now! You guys should be ashamed of yourselves posting such video and pictures. Go hang your heads in shame, naughty boys! :-) Cheers Dave

Yup, first of the green ones have been dispatched. (249 models) the remainder are about a week away along with the first batch of Blue. Cheers Dave

A nice picture of a Desert Sand D1000 in the latest Hornby magazine on the Paddington - Birkenhead Woodside service in 1962 passing high Wycombe station. Very nice

The 21/29 are not allocated production slots. They were re-allocated to the 122 & 121 project. I will now pencil them into a 'possible' production slot early in 2014. 'Possible' as these things take time and I will always offer up the cad/cam designs here for opinions, despite hopefully having the plans. Cheers Dave