GEARJAMMER

Oh, you mean like this, lol As much as i like the class 50s, ive already decided i wont be buying anymore, they just look to dated compared to other modern image stuff.

Surely a quick solution is for Evergreen to get two ships to drop anchor each end of the canal and say to Egypt, nothing moves until we get our ship back. Maybe backed up by a Chinese war ship, or even better, some European and US warships. Will probably never happen but might make Egypt realise that not only are the pi$$ing off Evergreen by holding their ship to ransum but also many other countries by holding onto their containers and the goods inside them.

Yes you have missed something..... 59003 has a top head light the same as the class 66s, none of the other class 59s have it, it was a mod done to it when it went to Germany. So the tooling and the lighting would need to be modified to model 003.

I thought all the class 59s were different to class 66s ;P

Well at least we know exactly where they are now...... and we will know when they are on route as i expect it will make the main stream news. So no need to to rely on Dapol to communicate to us.

It also went on hire to Freightliner for a while.

I do the same thing on Railtour websites to suss out what seats are left.

Ta, I had a nose on YouTube, i could only find two fixes which involve removing all the rotating axle boxes and drilling the holes out that they fit through with a 3.2mm drill. Removing the part of the bogie that needs drilling looks simple enough so that is what i aim to do, drills have been ordered and I'll see how brave I'm feeling when they arrive, also ordered some 0.8mm drills to drill the glue out of the axle box ends.

Reference the issues with the rotating axle boxes, i will remove them and glue them in place so they dont rotate if i have to, but i will have a crack at fixing them first. This thread has a couple of fixes but i dont really want to trawl through 184 pages to find them, is there a quick way to find the fixes, my modeling skills are not great but not that bad either, so would like to read through various ways of solving the issue?

Fair comment, the amount of stuff that Dapol do its easy to assume they are a large manufacturer.

I didn't mean air freight all of them, just 2-3 of each so they can be reviewed etc etc.

Thanks MGR...at least thats something to go on, however im now just as confused/frustrated, they say these wagons are complete and ready for shipping, did no one at Dapol think to photograph each model and send them to the UK in advance so we the buyers can put orders in? Or even air freight a very small selection to their Dapol HQ so reviewers/purchasers can see them and get funds ready for when they do eventually arrive?

Well i took the plunge and purchased my first Hattons 66.... in the end i went for Freightliners 66957. Ive never been so nervous at opening a new model, sadly it had a number of faults, starting with the minor... One of the nameplates wasn't applied straight, luckily as implied in a post above they are held in place with double sided tape so straitening it wasn't to bad. The etched grill on the roof isn't glued down and lifting away from the roof on one of the corners, this will be an easy enough fix. And so predictably we get on to the rotating axle boxes..... One was loose in the bottom of the box, another was hanging by a thread of glue so i removed it before it got lost, two others were attached to the bogie frame but not the axle so did'nt rotate. Im now left with a dilema, i put the loco on a bit of track just to run it up and down, it displayed a very slight sign of wobble but nothing that bothers me, i also looked at the rotating axle boxes that were still on the loco, as good as they are you have to get your eyes right down by the loco to see them actually going around. So what to do, do i mess about trying to reattach the axle box covers so they rotate, or just remove them all, cut themdown and glue them back in place on the bogie frame so they don't rotate. Im not really sure that rotating axle boxes really adds much to the model and if im honest, mine will spend the most of its time in a cabnet anyway.

The lack of progress and communication from Dapol regarding these wagons and the class 59 is getting beyond a joke.

Just after a bit of info on the Freightliner locos and if what I have researched is right..... I'm after one that is accurate for the modern day scene, with the absence of the Dapol 59 I'm potentially looking at a Freightliner 66 instead to put on a stone train.. So, I'm after a no frills original green liveried one, this straight away rules out 66502 and 66513 as these two have both had cab refurbishments/repaints with yellow light clusters and the new style Freightliner branding on the front and cab sides. I'm not keen on purchasing 66621 with the big bug eye lights (as much as I like the look of it) as I've heard many horror stories about the lights not functioning correctly. This leaves 66593 and 66957, research seems to suggest that these two are currently running on the network as per the Hattons models? Can any one confirm if this is the case. I've never been to keen on the later Powerhaul livery so not interested in those locos, and I'm not totally sold on the shade of Orange Hattons have used on the latest G&W Freightliner 66623, it seems a bit pale, the real thing being a much deeper/brighter shade (pic included to prove my point), maybe some one who has that one or seen it could comment on that. Its a shame as i was one of, if not 'the' first to photograph 66623 when it rolled out the gates at Eastleigh after its repaint on my 40th birthday. And lastly....no, I don't want a pink 'ONE', I'm not even sure that one has even been down to the Mendips to work stone trains? Any feed back/info/conformation would be great.

Well my model arrived of 58021 in mainline blue, very impressed..... impressed enough to log straight back on to Kernows website and order 58039 in EWS livery... This was waiting for me when i got home from work today, im now sat her looking at my two class 58s feeling very happy. Will certainly consider more from this privatisation era as and when EFE release them, one in trainload triple grey with mainline branding would be nice.

Nothing at all from Hornby if you like class 50s.... I think that Cappagh/DCR class 60 is a must have.

So, i took the plunge and purchased some ARC liveried wagons just before Christmas, now im not usually one to come on forums just to kiss a$$ and tell someone they done well..... but, these are so good not to say something positive about Accurascale, they are my first purchase of Accurascale products and are superb models, i love the wagons, the couplings, the pipe detail.... i was mightily impressed with the style of box they come packaged in, even the box they are posted in had Accurascale printed on them, everything from the time i took delivery of them, unpackaging them, opening the box, putting them on the track and running them just said 'class'. I even cant help but be impressed with the price, they are immensely good value for money. I now have two rakes of Mendip wagons, the Accurascale ARC wagons, and Revolutions Mendip JNAs and its hard not to compare the two, im hard pushed to say which ones i prefer, i think Accurascale wins if only for those stunning nuckle couplers on the inner wagons (although i certainly have no complaints about Revolutions JNAs). The one thing that does win me over though and touched on above is the price, i have 16 of the JNAs, purchased over a year - 18 month period, buying 4 at a time from the nice people down at Cambourne at £210.... x 4, its cost me £840. However i wasn't convinced i would have that luxury of buying a few at a time with the Accurascales wagons so i did something i have never EVER done before, and purchased a whole rake of 15 in one hit, that cost £450, thats a huge massive difference. I would like some more Revolution JNAs, but im waiting for the TOUAX liveried ones to mix in with the silver ones, so im potentially looking at another £210 taking a rake of 20 wagons up to £950. If as Accurascale have hinted they do another rake of ARC 'slightly different yellow' wagons i will also buy another pack of 5 to mix in with what ive got taking that rake of 20 wagons up to £600...... thats a £350 difference.... enough to buy a loco to stick on the front and still have beer money. As i said above, they are both very good models, but the Accurascale model has more of the class factor, more of the wow factor and for a lot less money which impresses me, i dont know how you do it Fran & Co.... but keep it up, you have certainly impressed me, these wagons are the first ive purchased from you, they certainly wont be the last.

In the absence of a Dapol class 59 to stick on the front of my newly acquired rake of ARC Accurascale wagons i decided to buy an EFE Class 58 in Mainline blue (58021) via those nice people down in Cambourne (and Guildford) to put on the front. It should arrive today or tomorrow hopefully and im very much looking forward to getting hold of it, if its as good in my hands as it is in the pics i'll have no hesitation in ordering the EWS liveried 58039 to go with it. After that (and off topic) again with no Dapol 59 on the scene i may well take the plunge and purchase a Hattons Freightliner 66 to stick on the front of my rake of Revolution Trains JNA box wagons.

Myself personally.... no i won't go and panic buy Hornby class 59s, i already have plenty of Lima examples, what i will do however is spend my hard earnt cash on Hornby class 60s and Hattons and/or Bachmann class 66s.... The amount of time this model is taking is really starting to take the pi$$, as someone said above, the real ones took less time.

Its been that long that i cant actually remember if i seen the painted examples of the 59s, or if i just seen photos, i must have seen the painted examples i guess as ive gone to Warley every year for the last 3-4 years. Im all settled and living in Marchwood at the moment, and work in Salisbury. Hopefully will see you at the MHR, or those other places i used to see you... i forget what there called...... oh yeah, model railway shows.... remember those? lol

Hi Ian, hope your well. This really is a great layout, the neatness of everything is what blows me away the most, and i'm not just on about the track/layout.... the woodwork, the wiring, shed and all the painting and all the memorabilia on the walls etc..... I do like the cups hanging up on the hooks, it makes it a great environment to want and sit and play trains all day. I noticed your comment about the Dapol 59, I to am becoming increasingly frustrated (ok ok pissed off) with how long its taking to turn up, in anticipation of it arriving I built myself up over time a nice rake of 16 Revolution Trains Mendip Rail JNAs, I've no where to run them....and currently nothing to pull them either, lol. I'm tempted to buy a Hattons FL 66 to stick on the front untill the 59 arrives. I've also for the first time ever just recently purchased in one hit (as in within the last hour) a rake of 15 Accurascale Tippler wagons, same as yours but I've gone for A.R.C livery.....so, er, back to needing a 59 to haul them. I've changed jobs (again) and I'm now driving an artic tipper on farm grain work and Mendip aggregate work which puts me into both Whatley and Merehead (Torr) quarries on a pretty much daily basis, hence the interest in stone trains, plus a mutual friend of ours (think D400) is now also driving them (the trains not the trucks, lol). Looking forward next year to building up a rake of Revolotion HOAs and Dapol O&K hoppers, then if I can find someone with a layout big enough i can couple the whole lot together and run my own Mendip jumbo train.......if the 59 to pull it ever arrives that is. Stay safe.

Can anyone tell me how the Fareham A.R.C trains used to operate/be set up? Would/Did it run with 15 wagons consisting for example an outer at each end of the rake and 13 inners inbetween or would it have ran inners marshaled in the middle of the train. To run something similar to what was real im wondering if i would need three sets of inners/outers or one set of inners/outers and two sets of inners???? Hope that makes sense. Ive tried looking on Youtube to see what the consists looked like but not having much joy, can only find modern video clips.

So where are these wagons???? Surely if they are due to be released this month (which as I type we are dam near half way into), then they should be in a container on a ship somewhere, if not already unloaded and in the country, yet we've heard.... or more to the point, seen nothing, you cant tell me someone at Dapol didn't have the sense to take some pictures of the finished product to get people interested and get sales flowing as soon as they do hit the shelves?? Im finding the silence and lack of news, somewhat annoying and concerning.

Well.... i cant say i had a class 58 on my radar but both the EWS & Mainline blue examples are very tempting, i very much like the weathering on them as well, its not over the top, in fact it barely makes them look dirty at all, but its just enough to take the new/ex works/plasticness look off them. Regarding some of the comments about who produces what, obviously these class 58s (which i'll use as an example) are produced by Heljan in their own factory presumably? Are they then sent to Bachmann or EFE...who ive yet to work out are the same company or not and share factory warehouse space? Then packaged in EFE boxes etc or do Bachmann/EFE send Heljan the packaging and Heljan do the whole manufacturing, packaging and distribution? Also regarding some other 'wish list' comments about producing N gauge models in OO gauge etc. Is it cheaper, easier or any longer to design and produce a model in both N & OO gauge as opposed to one or the other?