I was very pleasantly surprised on 2 August, after all the Accurascale Deltics appeared to have sold out, and with a few at silly prices appearing already on eBay, to spot a few DCC ready versions of 55 003 Meld and 9012 Crepello on the Accurascale website which I had visited to look something entirely different (!), and acted quickly to add them to the collection. Crepello arrived two days later by DHL. Unfortunately as he exited his van, the delivery driver dropped the package. The result I'm afraid was inevitable. When I got it out of the packaging, there were lots of little bits that had fallen off and the chains on both sides, fortunately only at one end, had not just come adrift but had snapped. While the little bits and pieces that had fallen off are not a problem as a result of the excellent exploded diagram provided with each loco, the chains are another matter, and I'm not sure yet how I'm going to tackle those.
Having several of these now for some time, the running at very low speed has greatly improved, particularly after a thorough clean of all the wheels to remove the offending tiny and not so tiny blobs that were giving the effect of wheel flats. The buzzing of the speakers in the sound fitted examples I'm sure is simply down to the fact that none of the securing screws for the speaker clamps were in place, although when I raised this, Accurascale kindly offered to supply these, and I will be requesting the total I need shortly.
With little niggles when the first ones arrived, I confess I wasn't entirely sure of these at first, but having lived with them they are truly stunning models. I'm really looking forward to their 31s, and am also very keen to see how Bachmann's new 37 stands up against what will doubtless be their superb 37. Does anyone want to buy a brace of sound equipped Hornby 31s ?