Purchased and reviewed by Geoffrey Goddin SQL Server
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Dapol announced this new model at our first Virtual Guildex, back in autumn 2020, but an earlier generation of 7mm modellers did not have to wait so long. A Vulcan Kit had been available since the 1980s, a complete kit retailing then for around £150. I required only crew, lamps, coal, flywheel, paint, and a fair bit of solder to complete, so comparisons are worthwhile. As it happens, both are fitted with Adams boiler and stovepipe chimney.

Despite being the smallest Dapol tank, it comes in a larger box than previously, lined with moulded polystyrene and affixed to an acrylic base, so it survived the post well. An Owner’s Manual is provided.

The models are dimensionally identical and both weigh in at 720 grams, which equates to the prototype’s 33 tons, (taking my ratio of 1 kilogram = 50 scale tons). My Vulcan has a white metal boiler and fittings, but otherwise brass etchings and a nickel silver chassis. Mostly the body details are good on both locos, until you come to cab and backhead details, where clearly we expect much more nowadays.

In the 1980s, we were yet to be convinced by chassis compensation or springing (by the Model Railway Journal), so my Vulcan kit had a rigid 0-4-0 set up. I added a large flywheel for ‘stay-alive’ functionality. Dapol’s B4 has a sprung front axle, which runs faultlessly through my pointwork. Turning to the Dapol’s performance, the B4 can shunt at extremely low speeds. On my DCC version a speed setting 26 (out of 28) is necessary to achieve 15 mph. Despite its modest weight, my B4 station-piloted a rake of three Hatton’s Gresleys, some 2.7 kilos. If you have better than R2 radius curves then maybe another coach would be possible. The other B4 duty, post war, was shed pilot, for example at Guildford shed. If your other locos have skew or spur gear drives, you can enjoy dragging them about as per prototype! I presume the sound file comes from the Bluebell survivor LSWR number 96 with open cab. A couple of Southern liveries, and a pair of BR versions are available. All have Adams-style boilers, but all bar my number 91 have Drummond flared chimneys. The manual also tells you how to set up ‘Realdrive’, which adds realistic coasting to the menu.

I did have plans to convert my Vulcan B4 to DCC but for now it will remain analogue DC for use at my club. To think I can now buy a South Western liveried RTR loco, rather than attempt it and paint it myself, is remarkable.

1. The B4 Dock Tanks, Peter Cooper, Kingsway Railway Productions 1988
2. LSWR Locomotives-The Adams Classes, D L Bradley, published by Wild Swan Publications 1985
3. YouTube VideoLSWR B4 Normandy hauls a works train on the Bluebell Railway