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Dapol Black Label Gresley A4


mick
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Riddles said:

Mick, I am wondering whether you might be adding a Dapol A4 to your collection? I have Silver Fox on order although I would have much preferred a valanceless BR version. If sales are good, that will be coming next, I have been told....

I decided to proceed with my expression of interest in the Dapol Black Label A4 locomotive and submitted payment this morning. I was informed that models were due in next week so hopefully it shouldn't be too long before we're able to decide whether these really are worth so much more. If Silver Fox arrives before Mallard or Bittern then let me know what you think.

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There's a decent video of two Black Label A4's on YouTube featuring Mallard and Silver Fox. However, it appears that the operator has failed to couple the loco correctly to the tender on a couple of occasions. That aside there's good footage of the synchronised smoke effect which looks especially good with the double chimney Mallard.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
mick said:

If Silver Fox arrives before Mallard or Bittern then let me know what you think.

I thought I should tell you that Silver Link was delivered by courier at 4.30pm today. I've not had chance to unpack it properly yet but the instruction booklet is very comprehensive. Lots of different DCC settings to play with if you are that way inclined. I haven't seen any way of turning off the back lamp without turning off the front lamps which is not good but I have only flicked through the booklet so far.

Riddles

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Gents

Ive just watched Matt Slades review of 4468 Mallard, on YouTube, and Ive got to say, it looks a big disappointment :(

The smoke and some of the sound functions look / sound poor and seem completely over the top and un-necessary.

Apologies for the negativity, but I don't understand why Dapol are wasting time producing sub-standard products like this (my own opinion) when there are plenty of already announced models, years behind in the production process....

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ba14eagle said:

Gents

Ive just watched Matt Slades review of 4468 Mallard, on YouTube, and Ive got to say, it looks a big disappointment :(

The smoke and some of the sound functions look / sound poor and seem completely over the top and un-necessary.

Apologies for the negativity, but I don't understand why Dapol are wasting time producing sub-standard products like this (my own opinion) when there are plenty of already announced models, years behind in the production process....

I agree with you there Iain. It's certainly not seen at its best in Matt's fairly comprehensive review. The smoke effect while the loco is stationary is disappointing and unrealistic in my view, and he never really gives the loco free reign to show the effect when its running at speed. Difficult to judge the quality of the sounds on a video and I'm not a big fan of all the gimmicky ones anyway so there's several I won't be using.

There's another video posted today by a Malcolm Braithwaite that gives a much better view of the smoke effect while the loco is running at speed and it looks impressive. I can just imagine that running over my viaducts.

Much like yourself, I'm also surprised that Dapol have decided this is a worthy subject matter when the market is already saturated with perfectly good Hornby and pretty good Bachmann A4s. Ok, the Dapol gives us something else but I would much sooner have seen someone produce the LNER Coronation coaching stock or even the Silver Jubilee coaches, either of which would compliment the current flood of A4 loco's.

I'm a little uneasy because I'm still not convinced that I've done the right thing by ordering the Black Label A4 and I guess only a run out round my layout will help me decide.

In my most recent correspondence with Dapol I was informed that some Dapol Club Members had ordered all six models so I wonder if they've had prior viewing or are taking a bigger punt than I am myself.

Riddles said:

... I thought I should tell you that Silver Link was delivered by courier at 4.30pm today...

That's good to hear. I've been reading reports from several people who have taken delivery of their models over the past couple of days. I'm still waiting for mine so maybe I'll see them tomorrow?

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  • 2 years later...

Today, after I'd spent a couple of hours soldering droppers to the power bus I was really keen on running something just a bit different. It had been a long time since I'd had the opportunity to run one of my Dapol Black Label A4's and on the rare occasion where I had I'm not sure the whole circuit of the outdoor layout was available to test it out. So an A4 it was and I decided on 4464 BITTERN.

I really wish I hadn't bothered. It sounds very weak, very poor, despite the claim of 'multiple speakers ensure accurate reproduction of sound' and I can't believe I spent good money on this. I've even just been back to some of the YouTube reviews to see if I've missed something. Maybe I need to have a mess around with it when I feel in a better mood but right now I'm truly disappointed, in a foul mood, and I feel like it's just another one of those occasions where I've ended up purchasing a model that simply isn't to the standards we should expect. Perhaps the fact that Dapol haven't progressed with these models is a sign of how good they are despite all the promises of them 'setting a new benchmark for OO gauge models'! Yes I know it's entirely my fault - I should have tested them thoroughly straight away and sent them both back but I didn't really have anywhere to test them out properly at the time. I hope I can do something to improve things later when I've calmed down a bit.

Iain had it perfectly correct in post #4 - I wish I'd taken notice.

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