[boxbrownie]

Accurascale’s Irish Diesel locos run as good (if not better) than anything on the market, the detail is outstanding.

My choice would be Accurascale as I have had many problems with Dapol locos in the past with very poor customer service after, I am putting my money where my mouth is and have pre ordered both the AS Deltic and Class 37 and have no doubt whatsoever they will be “on the money”.

And although completely wrong for my modelling period I have been soooo tempted by the As Manor after seeing some samples.

 

[boxbrownie]

Yes there is indeed no rush . Most of my engines are Hornby which seems ok. It would good to see others doing well as it gives us all more choice .

Seem OK really isn’t good enough at the price of models nowadays IMHO, I used to pay 60-70 quid for a 4-6-2 years ago and it ran OK, detail was OK and it felt like reasonable value for money, I have recently paid over 200 squids for locos which have had very basic engineering cock-ups which really should have been sorted in development, and having been in vehicle R&E for over 40 years it’s the making or breaking of a reputation.

 

[boxbrownie]

OK not to overdo the word but when I say ok I mean they seem ok in the fact that I can not run them as there is no layout to run them on! Maybe when I have a layout then I will know for sure . Yes the detail is much improved and so the prises rise but you can't realistically expect them to stay the same however I do agree just as the prise rises so should the reliability . So how else can can I describe my experience with the models I possess is seems ok!

That’s fair enough, my point was the prices as they stand are the correct level, providing the models run much better than they did 30 years ago, and should not need “fettling” by the purchaser which really is a requirement on a lot of the models to get them to run reliably, just a look through the many pages of the forums to discover some very basic problems which should never have been there in the first place.

 

[boxbrownie]

This requires standards work to define the required 'better' of reliable running. This would have to be a DC test, because there was no provision for DCC on UK RTR in 1992.

My personal opinion, if it were possible to 'time travel' to perform a side by side comparison, by sampling and testing N samples new in 1992, and comparing to N samples from 2022, the latter would significantly outperform the 1992 product, simply because of the superior mechanism design's delivery of such as:
more reliable starting,
lower starting speed,
smoother and quieter running throughout the speed range.

Now, whether there's been sufficient improvement, there's another question.

Take them out of the box, put on the track (maybe require a running in period) and then turn controller on and the model crawls from a smart smoothly and very slowly without stuttering or finger prodding, it runs at mid speeds quietly with no “jockeying” along the rails.

Too many times (usually with steam locos) I have run them in on a rolling road at mid speed as instructed then on the track they either start and stutter a bit at slow speeds, or just jump from stand still to maybe 4-5 mph scale speed without the smooth accel between, also some sound like they have a mixture of brass and sandpaper gears installed

Ironically I have DMU and Steam locos in 2mm scale from Kato which are now over 20 years old which run beautifully and have done since day one.

 

[boxbrownie]

I find the rolling road extremely valuable for setting up sound decoders, and as all manufacturers I know say run in on D.C. before fitting a decoder for me a rolling road is the only option for me.