RapidoCorbs

Hiya, yes that's correct on speaker size, it's located in the bunker and the sound comes out via the coal hole door and into the cab, then into your ears. It's the same method as used on a few of our other locos.

The warranty form creates a ticket on our system which the warranty engineer processes. As you can imagine we are dealing with quite a few at the moment so it's not as fast as usual. If sending the model in for repair, we send a postage label to you.

No, there is no NEM coupling mount on the front, just the chain. We felt any sort of NEM fitting on the front would have really spoiled the look of it.

We will honour the warranty on it as it is clear that your work has not caused the fault. Sounds like the jammed plunger could be an assembly error so we will take a look at it.

About 410mm if the tension locks are still fitted - that's from measuring the sample we have here.

Completely agree - they should be functioning on a new model. We'll take a look.

Hello Grimfool, I don't currently have access to the warranty system as I am WFH today but I do apologise for the hassle. I am hopeful that as you are coming direct to us that there is no risk of something being lost in translation. Pieces falling off are particularly annoying as we are finding that even models that are checked before they leave us are being so battered in the post that they are no longer complete when arriving. Potentially some improvement to packaging to be made there. Please be advised there is a small delay this week due to staffing but we are trying our best to get these things fixed. The 15xx uses plunger pickups and these should be working on all wheels.

Oh crumbs, I'm so sorry that you've twice been sent a dud. Completely understand your frustration - I'll drop you a private message.

Without seeing it, it's hard to say for sure, but most of them have a small side-to-side movement owing to the wheelbase etc. The problematic ones tend to display up/down movement which points to the wheelset being faulty.

We would always advise getting in touch sooner rather than later.

I believe the Hunslet has a coreless motor. 16xx I am not sure about (I'll be honest, I've never even picked one up) - will need to check.

We would have repaired your one or replaced it with one that had been checked, given the issues we are not sending any out without checking first.

Was that from us? I hope not, our team have been checking the replacements. Dan kept the job move quiet! 😉 Glad it's been sorted.

Forgot to update the answer to the question from a few pages ago - the 15xx has an iron-core motor, not a coreless.

Out of interest did you use the existing bearings or put replacements in?

We agree. Before we get distracted in this thread again by talking about how relationships between brands and suppliers work, please let us handle conversations with our supplier. We don't need to fill the thread guessing how or why these issues occurred or how we are going to proceed in the future. In the short term, our aim is to fix or replace the affected models so that our customers can get what they paid for.

I can understand, from the photos the examples you have are particularly poor, we are really sorry about this and hope we can fix it for you.

The other difference between 1501 and 1505 is the copper cap being black or not. Please could you try setting CV 029 to value 63 and see if that makes a difference to the speed control? The build-up in speed should be very gradual on the default settings.

I'm not too up to speed on the ins and outs of Gaugemaster controllers but our engineer told me that we advise against things like H&M Duettes because they don't properly rectify household AC into DC, and are prone to voltage spikes. Similarly we advise against PWM controllers and electronic track cleaners because they do bad things to the motor. That said, one of the controllers on our test layout is an analogue Gaugemaster (I am not in the office so can't check exactly which one right now). As far as I know the Model 100 is not a PWM controller, so providing it doesn't get spikes then it should be ok.

They are all here now :) The whole range arrived at the same time.

They are not supposed to dance like that at all - please could you get in touch: https://rapidotrains.co.uk/warranty-form/

Yes we feel it was not an unfair look at the model, people can only review what is in front of them after all.

Yep - drop us a form and we'll get that sorted. With some things we can post out replacement parts if that's easier, but I'll let the warranty engineer make a call on it.

I was just having a look and some of our Minks do 'ave 'em - white patches of varying sizes. The SECR and SR wagons too I believe. As for the second part of the paragraph above, I might need to hide that from the designers lest they get carried away....

Glad you got the model ok :) Regarding the white brake handle ends, it does depend on the photo references. If it's clear that the handle is white we would definitely try to replicate that. The GWR wagons we are doing tend to have white ends on their DCIII handles, for example.