[Vulcan]

Question in the title really - I'm in the market for a pair of Voyagers, one in Cross Country livery and one in Virgin Trains livery. On inspection of photos both seem like a safe bet, but is one manufacturer's effort better than the other?

It seems that the Dapol version are 10% more expensive, is there an obvious reason for this?

Thanks all.

 

[upnick]

QUOTE (N Gauge James @ 28 Dec 2008, 22:53) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Question in the title really - I'm in the market for a pair of Voyagers, one in Cross Country livery and one in Virgin Trains livery. On inspection of photos both seem like a safe bet, but is one manufacturer's effort better than the other?

It seems that the Dapol version are 10% more expensive, is there an obvious reason for this?

Thanks all.

Hi N Gauge James,

I know Kain (Harkins77) had the Dapol Voyager and sold it on .... and purchased the Bachmann/Grafar one and is far happier with it if that helps ... no doubt he can tell you more the characteristics of either one in comparison.

 

[harkins77]

Hi James

I can confirm the Farish one is a far superior runner in respect to at all speed ranges and coupling arrangements and the chipping of it is a doddle except for having to put some tape ontop of the chassis on the dummy unit to stop it from touching the chassis block. The only gripe I have about the Farish one compared to the Dapol one is that the Farish one doesn't seem to have a crisp finish where the red swoop of paint mixes with the white on to 2 powercars. In that respect the Dapol one is far better.

The only other thing I've found with the Farish one which was also a problem with the Dapol one but for different reasons is that when you couple the rake together that I find that the 3rd car in the rake seems to de-rail quite easily possibly due to lack of weight. I'm going to investigate this after the new year as I've got some leave coming up and try and solve it. I think it might be down to the fact that the rear powercar which is a dummy is still heavy even though it doesn't have the gubbings inside of it to make it go, it still has the weight of the chassis block and the coaches are quite light. It may just be a case of adding a little weight to them to try and solve the problem. Apart from that they are a cracking little unit.

 

[Edwin]

If you aren't already then you need to be clear whether you want the Voyager (class 220) or the Super Voyager (class 221). Virgin no longer runs 220s so only 221s are in their livery today. Some 221s are now in Cross Country livery, for those interested in the prototype the tilt mechanism has been disabled on these ones. Only Dapol does the 221 (in both liveries) and I believe it is a better runner than their 220. I have seen some criticism of the colours on the Dapol Cross Country livery so if you want one of these then you should check you are happy with its looks.

My experience with the Dapol 220 is similar to harkins77's. Dapol only produced this in VT livery. It looks great but mine runs very poorly with insufficient weight to get it up even moderate inclines. Some of the later produced models were heavier but I've never tracked down details on which ones. Modifying the pickups to make the lights work properly increases the rolling resistance. I don't currently have the Farish Voyager but based on forum posts and owning similar Farish mechanisms I would expect this to run very well.

 

[Vulcan]

Thank you all! Food for thought...