Hi all again, Sorry I was not aware of all the courtesies in my first post so--- Hope you all had a great Xmas and
did not receive any Dapol wagons and wishing you all a great New Year . It is most gratifying to find that there
are some readers of this forum and they appear to want to know what is wrong with these wagons and have
picked up on some of the remarks made "In another place" It appears that fuller details of errors would be of interest, at least to some. so hear goes with my second post, just dealing with the brakegear.
1) The brakeshoes are an unacceptably long way from the wheels for no good reason. Being plastic they cannot
cause shorts.
2) The safety loops are solid, the words "Loops" says it all. and they are in the wrong position because of 1)
3) The left hand pushrod is directly in line with the lever pivot and would therefore not move when the
brakes were applied.
4) Both pushrods finish on the lever pivot line instead of being about 3mm longer to allow for wear adjustment.
5) The brakeshoes are not the correct post '23 design but are a bit like the earlier designs with only one hanging
eye which was discontinued to avoid having handed brakeshoes.
6) The inner Vee hanger is much to far in, it should be only about half as far away from the outer Vee and in
addition is about 4 times thicker than scale.
7) The outer Vee does not have the distinctive joggle inwards below the solebar
8) The models have a brake cross shaft all the way across which means when one lever was put on the brakes
would,in theory go "On" that side but "Off" the other. the shaft is also only about half the correct diameter
and if the brakegear had been properly designed would probably not have been needed at all !!
9) The brake lever is truly farcical, it is basically flat with a slight change of thickness near the handle end and
has nowhere near the correct profile either in plan or elevation. It is also more or less in the ON position
which might be fine parked in a siding with a slope or in a heavy train descending a steep bank but would
be better in the off position. Better still moveable, which would not have been a first, as I have a semi
mass produced prewar (WW2 0f course) wagon which not only has moveable brake levers but working brakes
AND a pin on the end of a bit of chain attached to the lever guide. I have not tried pinning the lever
down as I need a magnifying glass and fine tweezers to do so !!
10) The lever pin guide is rather weedy and not the right length, the bottom, where the two parts are rivetted
together being absent.
Thats all for now folks as it is time for my beauty sleep (No wisecracks please) but if there is a clamour
for Chapter 2 -" The solebars and buffers " I will try to drag myself away from the mince pies again.
Your obedient servant Adrian