Oxford Deans Goods - Readers' feedback for BRM

[tomparryharry]

Picture the scene, a locked room, somewhere in the UK...

 

In the locked room are senior representatives of Bachmann, Hornby, Oxford, Dapol, and DJ Models. Andy York popped out to the shops, and was kidnapped, blindfolded, and bought here. Each man is strapped to his chair...

 

A speaker rings out....

 

"Right! You each have a straw! The one who chooses the shortest straw, gets to announce the next Great Western locomotive RTR, in 00 scale!"

 

"Noooooo!"....

 

The truth, they say, is indeed stranger than fiction.....

 

Fred the Office Boy.

[81C]

so, to paraphrase that post by Andy Y: If you send the magazine a review sample early, we'll give you the 'traditional' review, otherwise you get what people post on here.

 

I suspect you might be receiving lots more review samples if that becomes policy!

 

I wouldn't have thought so the way some members rip into products and each other on this forum, have your say by all means and leave it at that not keep droning on about subjects in post after post and certainly no picking holes in what other members have said it's that sort of thing that degrades this forum. 

Edited July 28, 2017 by 81C

[eastglosmog]

Looks fantastic but what will it pull.  Can I abandon my Ks Chassis Airfix body Dean project and buy an Oxford to pull reasonable length 24 wagon freights?

Sorry, missed this until 34theletterbetween B&D replied to it today.  To supplement what he said, now that it stays on the track, mine will easily pull 24 wagons (mix of Hornby, Bachmann, Dapol, Ratio and Cambrian) on the flat.  It can just manage 18 on the parts of my track with 1 in 80 gradients. I would have rated the model 5 on performance had it not been for my initial woes (see the other thread).  I could not honestly rate a locomotive that repeatedly fell off the track at 5, even if I did manage to fix it!

[The Stationmaster]

I have been critical of a number of aspects of this model since we first saw some reasonably clear images of it.  But one thing which it has clearly shown is what I would call 'sloppiness' in converting the scanning process into a CAD and subsequent tooling and the particular example of this is the line of rivets on the front of the splashers - which arrived there because nobody took sufficient care to check scans which had put them there (because they were reflected from the footplate).   Having made such a basic error (they can of course be removed with a suitable tool for those who are offended by their presence) on what is presumably a moulding common to all versions it is perhaps hardly surprising that insufficient attention was paid to other details or various combinations of them.

 

A good mechanism it might well be, a good overall pastiche of a Dean Goods it might also be for some, but amateurish errors such as those rivets simply don't live up to the initial sentiments expressed by Oxford in this article -

 

https://www.collectors-club-of-great-britain.co.uk/diecast-collecting/news/oxford-diecast-launches-oo-scale-oxford-rail

[The Johnster]

In pursuit of excellence but not really showing much intention of putting in the extra effort to actually catch up with it.  I have a lot of time for Ox, and the principle behind Ox, which I think is brave and deserves support, but they are losing friends fast where I live.  I'm not a rivet counter but this model is a bit of a mess in the form it's been released in. so not only are the development and research systems questionable but so is the marketing wisdom of not introducing the BR black or unlined GW liveries first.  The wow factor of Edwardian glory seduced you, didn't it, Lyndon, just like it did with the Adams Radial.  And even before we start talking about rivets, there is the glaring wrongness of the badly painted dome that should have been a separate brass fitting, the badly painted safety valve cover which is apparently made of a different colour brass to the badly painted dome, and should also have been a separate brass fitting, and the chimney cap, which is badly painted brass when it should be badly painted copper, I mean copper, and is anyway wrong for a tapered chimney which has a cast iron cap and is wrong for the model in that livery anyway.  

 

It is the more annoying because Ox can get it right, or at any rate close the gap between themselves and excellence a lot more, and at competitive pricing, which to be fair is not a particularly easy trick to pull off in the current market.  I have several of their wagons in BR unfitted grey livery and am well pleased with them; the first rtr wagons I have ever owned with posable brake handles and spring detail behind the headstocks (did Hornby beat them to it on the last point with the 21ton mineral hopper?).  The silly white wall tyres are an indication, though, of a philosophy too easily distracted by the pretty and impressive.  Maybe they know the market better than me, because pretty and impressive is usually a sure fire seller...

 

I'd still probably buy a BR black one and live with the inaccuracies if I had a railway that wanted one, though, mainly because I think this isn't so bad that it isn't better than a) an Airfix/Mainline second hand one with tender pushing it and an Everest sized lump of coal to hide the motor while showing off it's cogs below the tender running plate, or b) no Dean Goods at all.  After all, I have a Hornby 2721 which is all sorts of wrong, and I can live with that!

Edited July 29, 2017 by The Johnster

[Edwardian]

In an effort to keep contributions more user-friendly, I have been editing my original post #7 when new information comes to light.  We now have some evidence to suggest that Oxford's dome is over scale, so I have added that information to post #7.

[tetsudofan]

My ratings for this model are quite low for the reason that I purchased the sound-fitted version which, for me, has been a great disappointment.

 

The sound decoder fitted to this model is the worst of all the sound-fitted models that I have purchased - and I have purchased many over the years since Broadway Limited started producing run-of-the-mill sound-fitted models in HO/OO models many years ago.

 

The main problem is that there is very little sound produced by the sound decoder fitted to the model and that was after I had tweaked CV63 to the maximum possible. The basic running sounds can be heard but lack depth or oomph whereas the whistle sound is just pathetic - it can hardly be heard above the running sounds and that is after tweaking CV275.

 

One feature that I do like is F7 described as "Right of way whistle (on) response (off)". Press (on) for the guard's whistle and press (off) for a response toot on the loco whistle. Kool as people say these days!! Think its the first time I've seen such a setting.

 

I don't know who does the programming for the Oxford sound decoders but it must be the same people who did the sound decoder for the Adams Radial which produces marginally more noise than the Dean Goods decoder.

 

Problem now is what do I do to get some proper sound out of the decoder.........? Be interesting to hear what other purchasers of the sound-fitted models think.

 

Keith

[Edwardian]

Thanks to all those who have complained about my, apparently, overwhelming negativity. 

 

So, to redress the balance and strike a positive note, I hope I will be allowed one final chance to comment on the Oxford Dean Goods, and to say that, nevertheless I think this is a very attractive model and that I am sure that it will prove popular.

 

God bless and happy modelling!

[Martin S-C]

Some people have said the model is a good runner but mine was 100% DoA and it took the best part of a day to disassemble, fix and rebuild it. Live wires were shorting across the two sides of the chassis so how it was tested and released from the factory as acceptable I cannot say. However after several hours work it now runs very well, nonetheless I rated the reliability as "1" as this was my experience.

Historical accuracy is low, as others have pointed out. I rated it a "2".

 

I too have the factory sound version and in my case its very nice and quite loud enough! I suppose given the comments above from tetsudofan, the sound units are as variable as other elements of the model's assembly. One can be lucky, or unlucky which is a lottery experience common to all RTR loco buying.

Despite the inaccuracies and the mechanical faults I rated the model a "3" overall as it is a fair price and since my railway is a freelance layout, my loco won't be a Dean Goods anyway, but something fictional, or rather it will represent a Dean Goods but locally modified by my company works - wider footplate, bigger splashers, changed cab, rivets on splashers, etc etc...

There does seem to be a worrying trend at Oxford Rail over poor research and QC - this model, the GW 6-wheel brake, the NE cattle van and their 6-plank wagon all have glaring faults which could all have been caught with better research and QC proceses and improved tooling. Then again, if that had happened we would not be getting such low prices. Low pricing is apparently a key marketing element of Oxford's strategy and they are to be commended for that. It is however a shame that a comptetively priced model will always sell well, no matter whether it has inaccuarcies with the prototype or not and in such cases it is then unlikely that a competitor would release a version of the same model but higher priced. This is the worry with the structure of our current RTR model railway industry.

[Mikkel]

That's a shame. Is yours 2309 in pregrouping livery or one of the later unlined versions? 2309 had twin flywheels and there seems to be consensus it runs very well (mine certainly does). The later versions were made with a single flywheel and the feedback on running seems to be more mixed on these.

[Martin S-C]

Hi Mikkel

 

Yes, it's 2309 and after a day disassembled on the workbench and put back together it does now run very sweetly.

[Mikkel]

That looks nice and smooth, nice work on fixing it. I like the sound too!

[tetsudofan]

Seeing the above postings reminds me that I finally got the sound in my model sorted.

 

Showed the model to Kevin of Coastal DCC who found that the speaker was loose. He tightened it up and all was well...… Simples really but would have been better if Oxford had got it right in the first place.

 

Keith