DRS Class 68

[martin_l_jones]

Dapol have announced in this months Model Rail that they will produce the DRS Class 68.

No launch or release dates given..

Also the Low Liner IDA Wagon, similar to a spine Wagon.

No confirmation of the Class 88, but it would seem likely to follow.

[Phipps]

Shame nobody has responded yet, but having seen a pair of these for real yesterday, I'm quite impressed with this loco. Have to save a bit for this especially.

[Bigmet]

Dapol reported they had taken a laser scan of one of the first delivered in late July this year. They hope to have CAD files to show by year end, and possibly some EP samples. The usual best rate of progress from taking the scan to having the model on sale is a calendar year. So that's August 2015, if all goes smoothly.

The 'dog's breakfast' of the ends which look like they have been 'designed' by at least three different committees and then mushed together are going to be a real challenge to get right. It's one thing having all the data, and quite another cramming all that compound curvature in the correct proportions onto a 4mm body shell that can be moulded, assembled, painted and detail fitted as a factory production job.

[Phipps]

I bet it's going to be much better than the retooled class 67.
As a one-off item, Im very tempted.
Least there's plenty of time to decide if I prefer a DRS Compass or a Chiltern Railway silver version.

[Bigmet]

I'd play wait and see on the livery choice, until samples are shown. Whatever the prototypes look like, there's always some possibility that a livery doesn't scale down well, or that between the livery design and the body shape there is some problem in application; which then leads to a compromise simply to make the item manufacturable.

The devil really is in the detail in respect of livery application, and this class looks set to test that every way it can. The DRS loco they scanned shows colour break lines running right over compound curvature in multiple locations on the ends. Cannot see that being easy, first to map, and then to devise the tools to apply it. Might be interesting to look at the mainland European locos that are running and compare to any HO models that are available.

[Bigmet]

... Least there's plenty of time to decide if I prefer a DRS Compass or a Chiltern Railway silver version.

No sign of any Class 68 CAD's on Dapol's clunkfest of a website, and with only a few real working days to go and all the focus doubtless on getting current product to retailers to make it for the Christmas splurge, we are now unlikely to see a progress report before 2015. I think there's a good chance one of those liveries will have disappeared from the real railway, before the model emerges...

[linuxyeti]

Hi

I asked at the dapol stand at Warley, and the estimation was for Q3 2015

Outof curiosity,whywill one of those liveries disappear?

Cheers

Tony

[Bigmet]

Tony, heavy handed joke. If you look a ittle further down this page there's a thread on the Dapol D600, started in 2010.

http://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/Fo ... 47&t=27873

That's a model which was announced in 2008, for availability 2009, and there's a couple more that were announced before 2010, and still to appear, listed in that thread. Although Dapol have successfully got some OO locos out since their 're-entry' to OO in 2008, the list of loco announcements that they haven't got out is longer...

Five years and more from announcement is plenty of time for any TOC to lose its contract, get taken over, or decide on a livery change.

[luckymucklebackit]

Hi

I asked at the dapol stand at Warley, and the estimation was for Q3 2015

Outof curiosity,whywill one of those liveries disappear?

Cheers

Tony

DRS change their own livery on a regular basis!!

[martin_l_jones]

Another livery to add now is the Scotrail !!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/neil_sutt ... tfB-se1XPq

[martin_l_jones]

Hi

I asked at the dapol stand at Warley, and the estimation was for Q3 2015

Outof curiosity,whywill one of those liveries disappear?

Cheers

Tony

Looks as though this is unlikely to happen as it's still showing in CAD/CAM on the Dapol website and I presume the focus has been on the Class 73.

[Bigmet]

Another livery to add now is the Scotrail !!

http://dapol.co.uk/index.php?route=info ... ews_id=121

No brainer that they would want to put as many liveries as possible on this model. As the text in the link promises an update 'in the next few weeks', I'd hope that will be the CAD, which hasn't AFAIK been shown yet. So at best a model on sale is still a year away. And that livery looks like another 'testing' design, all those patches to be applied all over compound curvature...

[martin_l_jones]

Interestingly if you look on the page for the Class 68 it states:-

'In Tooling Now. Awaiting permissions before confirming models.'

[Bigmet]

Well, real progress. There is a report on today's MREmag of Dapol's open day, with a picture of a running EP of the class 68, and EP body shells of the N and OO versions on display, among much else. It goes on 'decoration in progress, samples of the OO class 68 are intended to be shown at Warley'. So, if the livery application is approved on the basis of those samples, that suggests possible availability in first quarter 2016. The N class 68 reported as roughly 3 months behind the OO model.

Makes a better looking model than I thought it would. I'll await the reactions of the cognoscenti who have seen the actual animal as to how well all the compound curvature around the cab is represented. And then the reactions once the liveries are applied; this one could be a classic for 'looks well in the Freightclonker scheme, but doesn't look quite right carrying Powerhole's livery'. (You'll realise that these TOC's are hypothetical.)

[martin_l_jones]

Positive news from the Dapol website, a lot of OO stuff is progressing well...