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Dapol FEA Spine Wagon review & defects


mick
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DAPOL FEA 'Spine Wagon'

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I've owned my short rake of FEA wagons for quite a while now but they've remained in their boxes since purchase. The problem for me is that once the wagons are permanently coupled together in pairs I don't have anywhere to store them and of course, they won't fit back into their boxes without uncoupling them again.

The wagon depicted here is a standard Dapol issue in the green 'Freightliner' livery. The first thing you notice when opening the box is how well packaged the wagons are. They are held in place by two clear plastic mouldings, one of which fits over the other, and the two sections are cellotaped together on each edge and side with the wagons held securely within. It does take some time to remove all the cellotape to get at the wagons and great care has to be take when removing them from the plastic moulding as they have a wealth of very fine detailed pipework that is easily damaged by clumsy fingers if you're not careful. The wagons come packed as pairs and require coupling together by means of the included plastic coupling bar and 2 small screws. In fact Dapol kindly supply 2 coupling bars and 4 screws so that you have some spares which is a very welcomed idea. Also included in the detailing pack are 2 screw couplings, 2 brake pipes and a spare handbrake wheel as well as two sheets of moulded plastic spigots to hold the containers in place.

The photo below shows how the 2 wagons are coupled together using the coupling bar and 2 small screws. The screws simply prevent the coupling bar coming adrift and allow it plenty of free movement

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The bogie area is rather plain and uninteresting compared to other areas of the wagon.

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You see a lot of fine detail when admiring the wagon from a normal viewing angle.....

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..but it's when the wagon is upturned and you view from below that the attention to detail can really be appreciated.

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The wagons are nice and heavy, even in their unloaded state, and are exceptionally free running. As soon as they are placed on track or on a worktop you have to prevent them from running away! The painting is very nice and the lettering is very well applied and perfectly legible in spite of my rather iffy camera work.

The Dapol FEA is a welcome addition to the modern railway modeller scene and it's difficult to see how Dapol could have made this one any better. I've not been tempted by many Dapol products in the past but the FEAs really do seem to have set a new standard and they are certainly up there with the very best from the bigger manufacturers.

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  • 10 years later...

Almost 11 years to the day since the above brief review I can now report that 2 pairs of my Dapol Spine Wagons have cracked chassis'.

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As an indication as to the likely source of the problem my 4 damaged wagons are in 2 coupled pairs.

The wagons affected have the following catalogue numbers:

Dapol B724C with vehicle numbers 640213 & 640214

Dapol B724D with vehicle numbers 640353 & 640354

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The cracked areas are mainly confined to the underneath of the chassis but there is some additional cracking on the top surface of at least one of the vehicles.

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I must add that I have another 5 pairs of Dapol Spine wagons with different catalogue numbers to the above that appear to be unaffected to date.

Edited by mick
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These are the catalogue numbers of the remaining sets I have that appear to be unaffected:

Dapol B724F (640221 & 640222), B724M (640709 & 640710), B724N x2 (640499 & 640500), B913C (640163 & 640164) - all in Freightliner green livery.

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