0041 Trouble with Dapol N gauge HSTs
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- Опубліковано 23 сер 2024
- For years I've had trouble with Dapol N gauge HST dummy power cars not being free-rolling - I show the problem and explain how Dapol handled it when I reported it to them. After a long wait I've received my HST Castle set, so was interested to see if that also has the dummy car issue.
In the video I said the Castle set doesn't look like it's going anywhere near a scale 125 Mph at full speed, and that I won't be measuring it. After receiving a comment about that I decided to do a simple measurement and it came out at a scale 121 Mph! So actually it's scale top speed is pretty much spot on.
My video about fitting a DCC decoder to a Dapol HST:
• 0023 Fitting a DCC dec...
I've used Dapol Imperium 2 Next18 decoders in all of my Next18 locos.
The Polyimide (AKA Kapton) tape I used to insulate decoders:
thepihut.com/p...
Other videos or channels I know have had similar dummy power car drag issues:
Chandwell August 2020 update with draggy HST:
• Dapol HST a brief new ...
Kingswear N-Gauge episode 2 with draggy HST:
• Ep:2 Kingswear
Will's N Gauge Trains:
/ @willsngaugetrains
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #1 НАЧАЛО ПУТЕШЕСТВИЯ [Новый сезон] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/380Q7gLWGvk/mqdefault.jpg)
Good morning Jonathan! It's so annoying when our locos don't run properly, and I can't believe that Dapol's "no quibbles" guarantee promise was met with a response of "we've not seen that problem" before! Isn't the point of a "no quibbles" guarantee that the customer is always right, so whether they've seen the problem before or not, they should simply replace the faulty unit? At least that was my understanding! And how poor that they sent a different unit back to you with even worse problems! Dapol have certainly gone down in my estimation! Anyway, I've just taken my dummy unit out of storage and whizzed it down the 2nd radius curved 3% incline on my test track, and while it does initially roll, it stops halfway down! Now, this isn't unique, and I have other rolling stock that also stalls on the descent, but the majority of these are medium sized wagons with fixed wheelbase, rather than ones with articulated bogies! It does appear to be more free rolling when on a straight, so maybe it's the tight radius it's having problems with, rather than an inherent problem with the bogies? I'm just making excuses for it now! Lol! I look forward to seeing if you find a fix! All the best, Ian.
Me again! :) Not content with leaving it with the HST, I've just ran my Farish class 101 dummy car down the incline, and it rolls perfectly, not stopping until it gets half way along the straight at the bottom of the incline! So, I'd say that my HST is also suffering from the same issue as yours and others! Oh well! Ian
Hi Ian! As you can imagine, I wasn't very impressed. I should say I didn't have to argue to get them to agree to a replacement, but one way or another they handled it so badly that I ended up worse off. I won't go so far as to accuse the person who dealt with me of lying (he spoke in the first person about it), but I flat don't believe that as a company they didn't know about this. My first HST was one of my earlier N gauge trains, and this to-and-fro was in the last few months of 2020, so it's set the tone for my opinion of Dapol since then (reinforced by all the issues since). It sounds like your dummy HST is better than the ones I got from 2020 to 2023 - maybe it's more like the Castle one that I've now got? There's definitely a fix out there - before I contacted Dapol I'd found talk of one on a forum, and Will of Will's N Gauge Trains has said the same and that he's found a fix - I think it's around filing-down or making cuts in the floor of the body to give the wheels more clearance. Nearly 4 years on and I've yet to brave it myself! But you can bet there'll be a video if I do :) Thanks for your sympathies!
was gonna say there's also an issue with the Executive set showing dual tail lights but it seems HSTs started doing this circa 1983, ahead of the rest of the BR fleet. Originally they used just one tail light.
I wasn't aware of that detail about tail lights - it would be interesting to see what Dapol have done with the blue/grey livery models, since that's a 70's representation. I've noticed the models of the re-engined power cars (FGW plain blue and after I made this video also CrossCountry) only have one front light - I think that's wrong - as far as I can remember on the real things one light was much brighter, but there were still two, so that often stands out to me.
Thanks for the shout out, for some reason youtube keeps removing my comments? So here is attempt 3: I posted on the dapol digest about this issue, I think you may find it interesting just how common this fault is! With a fleet the size of mine, I've encountered nearly every known issue with these models, but this has meant I've been able to find the cause and a fix for most of them. If you have any issues in the future, I'd be more than happy to help. I'm on a fb group called the intercity 125 modellers group, if your on fb, have a look for it and post your problem you are having and I'll be able to help. Hopefully this comment isn't removed by yt like the other two, and you can see it.
I should add, I have contacted Dapol on a number of occasions about HST issues, every time they just say they've never heard of such s problem and don't offer any solutions. I'm not surprised you got the same...
Hi Will, thanks for persevering with the comments! I've had that happen to me too - I think because I included links. I've got comment moderation at its default of "Basic", but even then I think at least I should see any messages it doens't like in the "Held for review" section. Thanks for offering to help - I'm not on Facebook myself - UA-cam is the extent of my use of social media. So far I haven't plucked up the courage to make modifications to much of my rolling stock (just JHA wagons, I think), but I think an HST dummy car might be next :)
I do find it hard to believe the old "we've not heard of that before" is untrue (or they maybe have extremely ineffective communication within the company) - it makes it very difficult to take anything else at face value too.
Hi Jonathan - I've got 3 HST'S - run fine in one direction but make a God awful grinding noise in the opposite direction! Must check the dummy power car as I've never really checked them out before. Thanks for the info. Cheers Euan
Hi Euan, some of mine make a sort of grinding sound in one direction too - I wonder if the power cars also have wheel rub but with the extra weight and vibration of the motor thrown in. I'll have to take a closer look at it all - so far I've just lived with it.
Hi Jonathan, I found that adding some lubrication to the cogs in the dummy power cars bogies made them run more freely, just don't over do it.
It's good to know though that I am not the only one who Dapol refuse to seriously communicate with. Their heads must be a good 6 foot into the sand by now !
Hi Mark, thanks for the suggestion, but the cogs in the bogeys of the dummy cars that I've got don't mesh with anything, so there won't be any resistance from those. The replacement that Dapol sent me must have been for a motor car because it had a full set of cogs, so I removed them to take the resistance away. I think the problem is that wheels rub the underside of the cab "floor", so I'll need to file that down a bit at some point.
Yes, Dapol were polite, but didn't exactly keep me up-to-date and overall were worse than useless in terms of sorting the problem, so I'll have to be very desperate to consider using that "no quibbles" guarantee again. I find it hard to believe they didn't know there was an issue.
Who knew you'd get prototypical corporate reliability with a train company
It's been a while since I regularly travelled on what is now GWR, but I'm pleased I don't need to use trains in general these days, because of what I read in the media and in Rail magazine about service reliability. I like watching the trains go by though :)
Interesting - I have three N gauge Dapol HST sets and have not noticed this. I do run them at a scale speed of 200km/h (measured with software). Remember - N gauge is 1:148, so 1mph in real life is 148mph in N gauge. Walking speed is 3mph - so an HST at full speed should be less than a third of walking pace.
A good way of testing if you don't have software is to find a video of an HST of the same number of cars as yours going past at full speed, time how long that it takes to pass, and see how long that your model takes to pass at its full speed.
I'm glad you haven't had ones that have the drag issue. Thanks for the tips there :)
By the time of your comment I had actually done some measurements - I filmed the train going past a 60cm ruler in two directions and then used the frame rate of the footage to work out how long it took to go past. With the necessary scaling maths it came out at 121 Mph, which really surprised me!
Ultimately, my perceptions of real HSTs at full speed are from much closer to the railway (in scale terms), so I suppose I haven't really seen them going through large amounts of scenery, and on the model railway they just don't look like they're flying along, but in scale terms they actually are.
@@endoorrailway It's an interesting lesson about how scale speed perceptions can be distorted! That deserves a video of itself, I think.
It is indeed! I don't have my own video footage of full-speed HSTs, but I do intend to do a short follow-up video about the scale speed, and talk about my perception versus reality.
Well done 👍🏻
Thanks :)
defitently issues with dummy power cars not rolling, have a number of sets Hunts magnetic couplings defitently help keep your rake from seperating. I have a kato 800 which is the best train in my collection, the difference is night and day.
Hi Dean, I have heard Kato are very good, what type things have done that make them run better?
@@ngaugefouroaksstreetstatio6932 Not sure tbh, they certainly have better connecters, the 800 seems just run smoother, quieter. The light are good, I had hst's lights fail very early in the cab and like yourself hst's which have been sluggish from new. Don't get me wrong I'm still a fan of Dapol and grafeful for the strides they have made in N gauge over the years.
@@deanwhite6980 Interesting, i think the brass wipers are a weakness and on my Dapol western they have a different method using the axles in brass bushes which is a more durable method.
Hi, thanks for sharing that - I was pretty sure by now there'd be other people who've experienced this. I have a Kato 800 too, and mine also runs extremely well - quieter, smoother, faster, looks great, and not much more expensive for a 5-car train. It shows what's possible.
someone posted a fix for this on n gauge forum ages ago as I recall. i think it was a few simple cuts to the chassis or bogie.
Thanks, yes I definitely came across a forum post about it before I contacted Dapol so will have to find that again. I wasn't (still aren't!) keen on doing surgery to locos, but will tackle it at some point :)
Hi Johnathan, that would be an interesting subject to calculate the scale speed. What type of decoder have you fitted?
Hi Chris, I thought I'd give measuring it a go, just for you ;) To my great surprise it comes out at roughly a scale 120 Mph!! So I think that pretty much obliges me to make a short follow-on video at some point! I used Dapol Imperium 2 Next18 decoders.
@@endoorrailway That's a great result and i do think the look better going a bit slower and at board level they look faster than standing above. Excellent