No.66 Dapol County of Merioneth – some comparisons

Some time past I had the good fortune to ‘win’ Dapol County of Merioneth. It came from that well known auction site. The engine was ‘new’ and would need ‘running in’-this is some thirty years after it was made

Dapol County of Merioneth – complete with original lacquer finish.

In due course the model arrived through the Post. It looked splendid –provided you like a lacquered finish. Oh and it was not a happy mover. As I suspected – no amount of ‘running in’ would improve matters. This was not the first Dapol County that I have owned and as I had guessed, the main drive gear was cracked where it had been forced onto the driving axle.
Cracked drive gear

I bought my first Dapol County, County of Stafford now renamed Count of Hants, back in 1984. It came Mail Order from the Oxford Publishing Company for the princely sum of £34.50. It never ran well and I think it probably had a cracked drive gear from new - one of the hazards I feel when buying by post.  I solved that problem by converting to tender drive and inserting an Airfix mechanism from Pendennis Castle into the Hawksworth tender body.
Dapol Hawksworth tenders fitted with Airfix Castle drive units

How to repair County of Merioneth? Inserting a tender drive unit was not an option. I wanted to keep the engine in ‘as new’ condition. If you are in a hole you should stop digging. Not heeding this advice I purchased another ‘working’ Dapol Castle, this time the BR green version. I would swap the mechanisms with the intention of keeping County of Merioneth as ‘engine driven’ and if necessary converting the BR green County of Stafford to ‘tender drive’.

When Dapol introduced their County of Merioneth it was marketed for the staggering sum of around £56.00. I cannot remember the advertising details, but the cab or the boiler was a different and more accurate moulding to the previous BR green and GWR versions.  The mouldings are certainly different as the views below show.
Dapol County of Merioneth
Dapol County of Stafford

The fire box for Merioneth has wash out plugs. However what is perhaps less obvious is that the boiler / firebox is a different shape and that the top of the Merioneth box slopes down to the cab.
Merioneth Motor block showing ground off corner.

It follows that the Merioneth motor block has had the top corner ground away to fit inside the lower profile fire box. This really becomes obvious when you try to fit the County of Stafford Mechanism into the Merioneth body – and it will not go! So plan B – you cannot just swap the mechanisms – you have to retain the correct motors.

Hornby Wheel Set – Part Number X8560

I guess the good news is that you can purchase a replacement wheel set from the usual suspects, Hornby part number X8560.

However the not so good news is that the replacement wheels have factory blackened tyres. Also the wheel set comes without rods which have to be prised off all the existing wheel set – tricky if you do not want to damage the crank pins.

New Hornby Wheels minus tyres

My solution was simple, push off the factory blackened tyres from the pair of wheels with the new main drive gear and replace them with the shiny tyres off the original pair of Dapol Wheels.  The tyres are a force fit and as far as I can tell do not need glueing.
Rejuvenated Dapol Driving Wheels

This way there is minimal disturbance to the original wheel set and all the wheels match each other in appearance.
Dapol County of Stafford

So the challenge now for next week, what to do with an ‘as new’ BR green Dapol model of County of Stafford?

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