Just a PSA; Though I’m American, I had always wanted an N scale Flying Scotsman. The only one I found was from Dapol. I ordered from RailsofSheffield in the UK. Foolishly, I didn’t do a YouTube search until I had already ordered and found out after the fact that multiple Dapol engines have issues with the linkage on the drive wheels breaking almost immediately as well as a very poor design with the driveshaft running from the tender, where the motor is, to the engine. It pops in ball and socket-style at each end and doesn’t like to stay connected and is a bear to pop back in.
After receiving the engine yesterday, I immediately encountered the driveshaft issue, it wasn’t properly seated out of the box. After fighting to get that back in place, literally within 5 minutes of starting to run it, the drive wheel linkage did indeed break.
It’s a shame, as it really is a beautiful train, and I in no way blame RailsofSheffield. They contacted me to warn me of possible tariff charges and asked if I wanted to proceed and then shipped it right away. I just contacted them regarding a refund so we’ll see how that goes.
However, I’ll never touch another Dapol product unless they make serious changes to design and mechanical quality. And I’ll certainly remember to do my due diligence PRIOR to ordering from a company in future.
Just FYI.
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For what it might be worth, Dapol says this on the Web page for the A3:
Time may be of the essence.
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Yeah, not only is it Friday the 13th (
), it’s obviously end of week and Rails is in the UK so they may not even see my email until Monday. If I don’t hear from them that day I may have to call Dapol on Tuesday.
I would call Dapol ANYWAY, and get it established that the thing was defectively assembled as received and failed so quickly.
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See Sam’s Trains on Youtube for reviews of British models in general and Dapol in particular
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That’s one of the videos a found after placing the order but before receiving it. 
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Good news! Rails of Sheffield has authorized a return for refund.
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