Since changing over to British OO I have purchased 4 locos. 1 45XX small prairie, 1 64XX pannier, 1 15XX pannier and Iford Manor 2-6-0. The 45XX and 64XX were both Bachmann whilst the 15XX was a new release Rapido and the Manor was an Accurascale model. All four are very nice models except the Rapido and the Manor were exceptionally detailed. But...
The 45XX and 64XX were bought from my local shop - Orwell Model Railways.
The 45XX was an indifferent runner and had no traction at all. It seems that, with these prairies the front and rear wheel sets often were badly adjusted and kept the main driving wheels a bit too proud losing traction. Eventually, it barely moved so I have decided to sell it. Rails of Sheffield have offered an indifferent price but they keep their word so it's off to them tomorrow.
The 15XX was bought from Rails. First off, the front steps fell off - no I didn't break them, they just fell off so I had to glue them back on. Then it stopped running and was returned to Rails. They sent me a new one. On removing the body, the smokebox fell off - same comment as above. The glue area had a solid line of white glue around it so it obviously had never been glued properly. Then the 2nd loco stopped working. On exchanging e-mails with Rails, I sent them a video of the 64XX and the 15XX to show how the track was clean and fit for purpose and how the 15XX didn't work. I told them that I was rejecting the model as I wasn't prepared to have this one returned to Rapido with all the delays that would happen. They accepted this very nicely and I am getting a credit note. I think that I will use it to get a 94XX Bachmann pannier. It is a pity because I had it fitted with an ESU sound chip that I was given at the Warley show.
The 64XX is a nice little runner and I have been able to use that as a yardstick against the 45XX and the 15XX so not much more to say. The Manor is a lovely piece of kit and seems to work fine on my 8' long station layout. As I now have a Next16 sound chip going spare, I am off to Coastal DCC tomorrow to get Kevin to set it up for the Manor.
Lastly, as a replacement for the 45XX, I used some Christmas Amazon vouchers to purchase a Dean Goods 0-6-0 from Oxford Rail. This is a nice little loco but the only one that I could get on Amazon was a War Department version. I need to get all of the markings off and renumber etc. for a 23XX. Railtec have a nice scheme where they print on demand after asking me lots of questions to which I didn't know the answers. I got there in the end so we shall see how it comes out. When I bought the loco, I also ordered an 8 pin wired decoder to go with. Unfortunately, the space in the tender for the decoder is very small and the decoder that I purchased didn't fit. Fortunately, being Amazon, it is going back and I will, again, take this up with Kevin tomorrow as I think that a tiny Zimo will fit.
So, all this started in September last year and, hopefully, might be over in a few days.
Two comments - about Rapido and Accurascale. Rapido's 15XX is a nice little loco with wonderful valve gear but manufacturing needs a bit of look at as bits fell of and the mechanisms didn't work at all well. Accurascale make wonderfully detailed models but you do pay for them. The Manor looks to be worth the money but we have to wait and see when I begin to run it regularly. I have also bought one of their Siphon G vans. This was expensive for a van and all I got that seemed to justify the price was some hugely detailed undercarriage. As most of this can't be seen, it seems to me that it could have been made cheaper but then I am not fully into modern demands.
That's it. Hopefully, in a few days, I will have a full compliment of locos that all work as expected. Let's wait and see.
No comments:
Post a Comment