New OO gauge Class 73

[YesTor]

Sorry; the 'Dutch' grey is too dark (whilst the roof's too light), the yellow body-side is too dark (if only they'd used that for the warning panel) and is several passes over the dark grey base (just feel the layers with a fingertip). The numbers are too low, the arrows should be silver and the Stewarts Lane plaque is too large.

 

Definitely getting there.

 

Agreed, the 'Dutch' yellow definitely appears to be too dark.

Edited December 30, 2015 by darkjunglemung

[Jim]

I've canceled my order for a sound fitted rail blue 73 135.

I've seen pictures of this version now available. The blue looks the same as 124...

Jim

[rob D2]

Crikey, the livery errors aren't getting better.

Is it possible to turn a container ship round and send it back to China with a note " must try harder "

[Matabiau]

That assumes the problem lies in China and not in the order sent from the UK!

[Phil Mc]

I figured I'd at least be painting the Fibreglass roof panels, so I'd Matt varnish one of those to see what effect it had on the Blue.

To my eyes, in natural light (first pic) it seems to have taken away some of the 'Purple' tinge, but the colour is still missing some 'Green' to it. Under artificial light the Blue still seems too 'Purple'.

Funny that the separately applied roof section at the other side of the roof grilles to where I've varnished (next to the exhaust outlet) appears to be a closer match to Rail Blue than the overall body colour does!

Standard Hornby 50 in last pic for colour comparison.

I think varnish would make the Yellow ends an acceptable colour.

 

Cheers,

Phil.

 

[fozzy280472]

Just got my 73 135 through from Hattons , I'm not sure what to make of this model ,

On one hand it's probably one of the best detailed models I have come across straight from the box with superbly applied paint and numbers etc , no bits falling off and an excellent runner.

On the other hand .....those colours .....

It's weird , on its own the blue seems worse , I positioned it on my layout surrounded by Hornby Bachmann vitrains and Heljan locos and while it's definitely different it doesn't stand out as much ....I also think the lemony yellow is almost identical to vitrains yellow.....This is under cold white flo tube lighting.....

I think I will keep it but I'm not sure it will have any class mates joining it .

Worth £110 .....yes and no .

I think Dapol need to do better colourwise as it's a shame such a nice model could be doomed to failure

[SWT442]

Arriving from Hattons this morning was a parcel containing GBRf 73206. I've been looking forward to it for a while now but having been reading this thread for the last week, my enthusiasm for its arrival had dampened some what.

 

Straight out the box, it's certainly a very nice model. I was a bit surprised at how light it was, I assumed it would be on the weighty side. The colours look good to me, with maybe the Yellow front being a little "off" but I can live with it. Unfortunately, there was a part rolling around in the box. One of the brake actuators that fits on the back of the bogie had fallen off, while on the same bogie one of the yaw dampers isn't even fitted. (It wasn't loose in the box). I plan to e-mail Dapol to see if a new bogie frame can be sent out, seems a faff to send it back for another loco.

 

On my somewhat dirty track, it ran well. Would benefit from a running in though to just dampen down the growl it has. Not having opened it up yet, I'm not sure what the lighting layout is but the headlight at one end shines through bodyshell and not the headlight aperture, hopefully this'll be easy to remedy. The sand pipes will need trimming back as some do snag on the track.

 

Overall I'm pleased with it, and looking forward to getting all the details attached, giving it a weathering and putting it into service. Going by what's said on here and from what I've seen on my model, I think the QC department needs a kick up the arse to stop the avoidable mistakes of wrong colours and loose parts. Saying that, I am quite tempted by Olivias model of 73141, it'd make a nice pair with 73206!

 

Below are a few photos taken on the camera phone.

 

 

(The missing yaw damper is on the bogie closest to the camera).

 

 

 

 

Andy.

[BR(S)]

Decent close-up pictures of lots of the 73s on the Rails of Sheffield website: https://railsofsheffield.com/search/search-results.aspx?searchTerm=Dapol+class+73

[Derekstuart]

Has anyone counted the number of grill slats?

 

(tongue in cheek humour)

 

(why do I think I am going to regret asking that?)

[newbryford]

Interesting to note that the GBRf loco has roof panels to represent fibre glass, but the other locos are painted in the body colour.

Shouldn't they also have fibre glass panels? ( Not near my books to check)

 

Cheers,

Mick

[martin_l_jones]

Arriving from Hattons this morning was a parcel containing GBRf 73206. I've been looking forward to it for a while now but having been reading this thread for the last week, my enthusiasm for its arrival had dampened some what.

 

Straight out the box, it's certainly a very nice model. I was a bit surprised at how light it was, I assumed it would be on the weighty side. The colours look good to me, with maybe the Yellow front being a little "off" but I can live with it. Unfortunately, there was a part rolling around in the box. One of the brake actuators that fits on the back of the bogie had fallen off, while on the same bogie one of the yaw dampers isn't even fitted. (It wasn't loose in the box). I plan to e-mail Dapol to see if a new bogie frame can be sent out, seems a faff to send it back for another loco.

 

On my somewhat dirty track, it ran well. Would benefit from a running in though to just dampen down the growl it has. Not having opened it up yet, I'm not sure what the lighting layout is but the headlight at one end shines through bodyshell and not the headlight aperture, hopefully this'll be easy to remedy. The sand pipes will need trimming back as some do snag on the track.

 

Overall I'm pleased with it, and looking forward to getting all the details attached, giving it a weathering and putting it into service. Going by what's said on here and from what I've seen on my model, I think the QC department needs a kick up the arse to stop the avoidable mistakes of wrong colours and loose parts. Saying that, I am quite tempted by Olivias model of 73141, it'd make a nice pair with 73206!

 

Below are a few photos taken on the camera phone.

 

 

Andy.

 

Thanks for the pictures Andy, I ordered one on Tuesday, waiting for mine to come.

 

I agree with your comments on the yellow warning panel definitely looks a little pale !..

 

I was looking at 73205 as a pairing loco, again from Olivias..

 

Did you have any notification about the wiring issue for DCC on this model ?

[Jim]

This is a serious question....

I can never be sure how to react to manufacturers errors and technical problems...

We spend £100+ on something, twice that if sound fitted but when there is an obvious issue like for example, the over greasing of the Bachmann class 40, we take them apart, often dismantling quite delicate parts, running the risk of voiding our warranty.

 

Is this acceptable behaviour? Do we pay someone to hang our gutters up, only to find ourselves up a ladder the first time it rains fixing the leaks?

 

I know it's a bit of pride sorting issues out but, we do pay a lot of money for a product...

 

Look up the history of when AMF owned Harley Davidson in the seventies and early eighties. Only the real dyed in the wood types would buy them. They leaked, rattled and wore out, bits fell off and they didn't ride in a straight line.

If you bought one you would strip it down and rebuild it with reliable parts. They nearly went under until a management buy out bought in new tech and much improved QC. Look at the company now....!

 

We almost expect it as standard practice, to pay good money for a model, knowing we will have to rebuild it at home.

 

I'm starting to think that we have misguided loyalty towards some manufacturers.

Perhaps we should be thinking, if they can't produce a product that's finished and reliable, perhaps they should just stop and sell the tooling to those who can produce acceptable products straight from the box.....?

 

Jim

[Derekstuart]

Jim,

 

Since coming back to this hobby last summer, I was initially very impressed by the extra detail that appeared over the past 20 years or so. But that changed to despondency when I started to find how many errors were there.

 

These supposed errors with the colours of the D73 don't bother me nor the number of grill slats on the SLW24. But some models aren't even getting the basic shape right, or putting livery variations with versions of a design that could never have happened.

 

My thought (and no doubt a certain bloke will be waiting to rant at me for this heresy) is if I am going to spend so much time and money putting something right, why not start with the 20 odd year old model that at least got the basic shape right.

[SWT442]

Thanks for the pictures Andy, I ordered one on Tuesday, waiting for mine to come.

 

I agree with your comments on the yellow warning panel definitely looks a little pale !..

 

I was looking at 73205 as a pairing loco, again from Olivias..

 

Did you have any notification about the wiring issue for DCC on this model ?

 

A pleasure.

 

No notifications about the wiring. The instruction sheet just gives a standard overview about how to go about fitting a decoder and speaker. The issue doesn't affect me as I run analouge.

 

Andy.

[SRman]

So, summarising to date, ignoring the lemon yellow warning panels which are relatively easy to fix, the green JA and the GBRF JB models seem to be the best for accuracy, livery-wise. All would appear to have the faulty PCB design, though.

I would add that on my early blue example, I also noted that the warning panels seem to be a little too wide and go right to the front corners of the cab, where they should stop a millimetre or so inboard of the corners - see the photo I posted against the Lima model earlier. Again, I can live with the livery errors on this particular model as they re not too obvious, but I have heard absolutely nothing from Dapol regarding fixing the PCB design under warranty (it is a manufacturing defect, after all), in spite of two emails direct to them through their website.

Come on Dapol, if any of your representatives read this forum, get your act together and communicate with us ... properly.

 

[SRman]

Having posted that last entry, I decided it was time to do something about the 'lemon yellow' warning panels. This is a trick I have used before with some of Lima's 'too yellow' panels, where I use matt (or satin) varnish with just a hint of orange in (Humbrol #82 in today's case).

The difference is subtle, as I prefer to built up the tint in layers (rather like weathering), so here is the original unmodified panel.




And here is the panel with the first layer of varnish-tinted-orange. as I said, it is subtle and doesn't show particularly well in the photo.

[Derekstuart]

In fairness, whilst it might be easy to criticise Dapol for their lack of communication, they may well be working behind the scenes to establish what- if anything- is wrong with the PCB, how many models are affected, who is to blame, and until they have completed that they probably cannot do much to resolve it.

 

I could imagine the indignation if they sent out a press-release to the effect that "we know there's something wrong with the PCB and we are working to try and get answers"- they would be criticised for that too, so they are in a no win situation now.

 

SRMan, just to make clear I am not having a pop at your PCB/communication post, which was very well balanced I thought, only suggesting why they might be keeping quiet at the moment.

 

EDIT: Useful trick regarding the yellow panel.

[SRman]

While I appreciate that they may well be still investigating, and that the Christmas holidays may also be "in the way" as far as that goes, I'm not normally one to criticise manufacturers, but their news item on the website ignores the fact that the lights were not corrected by their "fix" for the wrong direction running on DCC (suggested change to CV 29). Having put that on the website, something along the lines you suggested may have been better than wrong information.

Also, a polite acknowledgement of receipt of the emails would also go some way to mollifying me (and probably others too).

[Guest]

Fiddling with the CVs to sort out the lighting issues, that I can live with. Inwards, outwards and skywards-angled buffers... not good, but again, fixable. For me, the killer is the livery issues. I've noticed on some layout threads, owners have made a huge difference to the appearance with either weathering or a complete body repaint. That, sadly, is where I draw a line. Comfort zone, out of. I do hope future models are a big improvement in the livery department, as I'm just not confident enough to go down the complete repaint route. Here's hoping.

[steveb860]

So, summarising to date, ignoring the lemon yellow warning panels which are relatively easy to fix,

 

For some people (myself included) this may be relatively easy to fix. For many others it isn't, and can't be ignored. On a £100+ one should not have to correct the basic application of livery, or anything else for that matter.

I for one will be voting with my wallet, and not be buying one. Only when people do this, will Dapol listen and act on critism .

 

Happy new year everybody

 

Steve

[tjf4375]

In fairness, whilst it might be easy to criticise Dapol for their lack of communication, they may well be working behind the scenes to establish what- if anything- is wrong with the PCB, how many models are affected, who is to blame, and until they have completed that they probably cannot do much to resolve it.

 

I could imagine the indignation if they sent out a press-release to the effect that "we know there's something wrong with the PCB and we are working to try and get answers"- they would be criticised for that too, so they are in a no win situation now.

 

I think if Dapol are looking into it, they need to say so. They may not have much to offer in terms of solutions yet, but all they need to say is 'We're aware that some customers have reported technical or quality control issues on some models, and we are looking into the problem.' or something to that effect. Simply staying silent and not responding to emails etc is unacceptable, and to me represents very poor customer service.

[Derekstuart]

I think you have all made good, well balanced posts there and I do not disagree with you.

 

It is not my place to defend nor attack Dapol. I haven't received mine yet and no doubt I will have my comments when it arrives. I am trying to find my ancient Lima 73 for comparison (or it's an ebay job for a new one).

 

But as I said earlier, I don't think this is a Dapol issue in isolation. Bachmann made a pigs ear of the 24/25, Hornby haven't a clue about MK3's and HST's in blue with MTU bogies? I could forgive that, but not the prominent moulding lines on the nose (or its iffy shape). Is Dapol any better or any worse?

Edited January 1, 2016 by Derekstuart

[Bert Cheese]

Interesting to note that the GBRf loco has roof panels to represent fibre glass, but the other locos are painted in the body colour.

Shouldn't they also have fibre glass panels? ( Not near my books to check)

 

Cheers,

Mick

I too was thinking this a couple of days ago, but didn't feel like muddying the waters of this increasingly fraught thread any further...with it being Christmas n'all especially

In my experience (late 80's/early 90's) the real things were always very light in the engine/electrical compartments due mainly to the obviously translucent roof panels.

Though they obviously became dirty in traffic plenty of light still penetrated, this would not have occurred with a couple of layers of rail blue slapped over them to start with?

[Jim]

I think you have all made good, well balanced posts there and I do not disagree with you.

 

It is not my place to defend nor attack Dapol. I haven't received mine yet and no doubt I will have my comments when it arrives. I am trying to find my ancient Lima 73 for comparison (or it's an ebay job for a new one).

 

But as I said earlier, I don't think this is a Dapol issue in isolation. Bachmann made a pigs ear of the 24/25, Hornby haven't a clue about MK3's and HST's in blue with MTU bogies? I could forgive that, but not the prominent moulding lines on the nose (or its iffy shape). Is Dapol any better or any worse?

He he...!

I've got a few Bachmann 24s/25s....

I had no idea about the incorrect cab profile until I read about it on here a few years ago.

The thing that makes me smile is the fact I've had no real contact with the real things, only pictures going back years. I found myself actually preferring the erroneous model shape over the more rounded real thing....!

 

I've just been running my rail blue 73 124.. I really like it.

Those people who are worried if it accurately reflects the prototype, yes it most definitely does and ticks my boxes.

I see them a few times a week and worked on them as a Trainman in the early nineties on ballast trains. I have the sound fitted version which really is the icing on the cake...it takes me back to times drinking tea in a nice warm, yellow Formica lined cab with a slight diesel fuel smell and the soft rumble of the 600hp engine.......except when the compressor kicked in, waking me up!

 

It's just the colour of the blue, yellow ends and...the painted-over roof panels.

If they fix these, it will be visually very good indeed.

Then I might get another, but not until then.

 

Jim

[amwells]

Interesting to note that the GBRf loco has roof panels to represent fibre glass, but the other locos are painted in the body colour.

Shouldn't they also have fibre glass panels? ( Not near my books to check)

 

Cheers,

Mick

I think the best rendition of fibreglass panels on an RTR model were those on the Heljan Lion. Don't think anyone else has even attempted them really.