One fun fact about the Class 59 is that it was based on the EMD SD40-2, which were for many years considered the "gold standard" for locomotives here in the US.

Dapol's quality control has seemed to increase a lot recently. I wonder if this is going to be a turning point for the company, dare I say, reaching the same standards as Rapido! Great video and loco sam!

Bought 2 of these before watching your review and I’m really happy with them. Whilst the speed at 50% in your video demonstrates to be quite slow, as you mentioned it has the capacity to run quite a lot faster which is how I run them with a long rake of wagons. Another great review Sam

To be honest, if a company wants to save a little money, I'd rather them cut costs on documentation and keep the model at a higher quality. It seems Dapol have cut costs with the documentation in this one, but overall the model seems to be pretty decent. I know it doesn't match Accura, but it also doesn't match the price of Accura either :). I think this is quite good for the price point. :)

Great review Sam. I have the sound version of the DB 59 and it’s absolutely fantastic. The speakers that dapol supply in the sound versions are not your typical sugarcube or anything but are large bassy speakers that suit the 59 perfectly. As for the Lima version you mentioned and ran, Hornby have been producing a model of the Lima 59 pretty much since Hornby bought Lima all those years ago. Obviously they have updated the model in areas such as a better motor with more pickups, NEM couplings on the newer versions and slightly better decoration. Detail though is exactly the same. They are 8 pin DCC ready also

Looks good, a great improvement of the hornby/lima 59 that's been the modeller's only option for the last 3(?) decades. Also looks comparable to the bachmann 66s, although slightly better, and better quality than the similarly priced Hattons 66s. I might consider one, although I have no idea which. I have the hornby model of 59001 in Aggregate Industries livery, so I'll probably get a /1 or a /2 in a livery not carried by any other mainline class, although 003 in GBRf is tempting me a lot too. The 59s have a top speed of 60mph, which they regularly run at with heavy trains, so since most modellers run trains at greater than 50% speed, this is absolutely fine. The 66s used the 59 bodyshell to push them into service very quickly (18 months between the first batch order and the first being delivered), but they were quite different internally, sacrificing torque for speed since most 66s run at 75mph (although some, like the freightliner /6s, are geared for 60mph so they can haul heavier loads).

when I saw those things under the bogies, I thought, "Surely Sam hasn't brought a 3 rail loco" lol

Hi Sam, I recently started watching your channel. Happy that I came across same and thanks for the info you provide. In this particular one, you were being very kind to Dapol. I did not like the paint work at all. On one side the SHENKER has a bad N with the right corner having extra paint making it pretty wide! It is almost like the paint dripped and created a smudge. There were several other places where the surface under the paint was not smoothed out etc. Even if the price is low, the paint job has to be clean... in my opinion. Enjoy the channel. Will catch up with the rest of them. Thanks and regards. Ananda from the Bay area US

This new Class 59 diesel locomotive from Dapol is very nice. Even though it may not have that much detail but it is decent and reasonably priced Sam. It is a perfect budget model.

Sam, I've gotta say thank you for your good honest review from the unboxing to the conclusion. I've seen some reviews of this loco and that a person went full ham and made it out to be a Buyers Beware. He literally kit bashed it right out of the box and "fixed-it" his name is Richard at Everard Junction. He said he had rewired it, did some body corrections and did some paint corrections. I didn't see what the model looked like before right out of the box on his channel though. He also did that to a Heljan model prior to that and said "it wasn't worthy of a review on his layout" out of the box. Therefore we didn't hear or see a proper review until after he hastily corrected it. Thank's again Sam!

Great review Sam! Might have to get me hands on one of these! Stay safe mate :)

Here! That giant brakeman is giving the finger to that loco.

Sam, I am really enjoying the 4k video quality. Its a very nice upgrade for your channel.👍

A thorough fair review, great video. I might get one of these as it'll just at a stretch fit in my era window, I love the ARC livery version.

I have not purchased the Dapol class 59 but have a number of their class 68 which in my personal opinion is one of the best diesel loco models avaliable today. May look to buy Class 59 in GBRf livery later in the year as have other preferable models I am looking to purchase or have on order for the first half of the year.

Hi Sam, another fair and frank review of an excellent addition to the motive power fraternity. I have the National Power one. Tell you what, it's solidly made. All of those additional 'separately fitted' items actually stay there - my A/S Deltic has moulted parts like a Persian cat does fur in Summer!! I've had the body off perhaps 5 times and no collateral damage at all - which is unusual with the 'latest additions' available nowadays. Al.

The DB a logo looks awfully applied. Unless the N is supposed to look that blobbed? 13:47

Great video and review Sam ,this Dapol 59 looks great with what seems like a affordable price also I like that dapol VTG wagon which also include 4 representions of rolled sheet metal .. just for interest going back to around 2012 you could pick up a Bachmann 66 from hattons for around £55

Hi Sam, great review of a cool looking loco, i do like a lot of Dapol"s wagons.

Best Model Train Reviewer on KZfaq. Keep up the great work!

Strait forward quality and good value for he money. What more can one ask ? A modern heavy duty loc that will do its job on the model railway. Well done Dapol !! Thanks for sharing Sam. All the best, Filip

Great review Sam, nice model train 👍

I Love that finish and color. I believe it's spot on. Really Beautiful. Nice video Sam!

Great video Sam! As a long time fan of the class 59 i was very pleased to finally see the release of these models. however one thing that does bother me is the height of the silencer (the big silver metal thing on the roof). As on the real thing it hangs lower than the roof, but on the model it raises above it. Not a major problem but you would've thought they would've realized it in the designing stage. unless they assumed it would've been the same as the 66s! Those lights do also look a little scruffy, but all round the model does look nice. Thanks for sharing

If you got the Track Sam, you should of tested to see if it actually goes on the R1 Track by doing a small layout of the Radius 1 & see the results for yourself!!! 😉🤔🚂🚂🚂

Just bought one of these locos, will be doing some extra additions such as fitting some bufferbeam detailing to one end and acquiring an ESU Loksound V5 from Roads & Rails. I must say that Dapol have actually done a decent job with this loco, I just don't like the rather artificial looking headlights and the rather pointless cab doors which don't even open at all and an extremely plain looking cab. Apart from that it's definitely a welcome addition and finally replaces the outdated Hornby/Ex-Lima tooling model!

The color is butiful Sammy!!

Awesome video today Sam beautiful modle am going to a modle train show tomorrow can’t wait

The EMD HT-C (High Traction - Co) trucks on this model are the only trucks I have ever seen on an HO/OO model locomotive which have rotating bearing end caps!!! NICE!!!

Thanks Sam, balanced review as ever. I have a sound and smoke on order so keen to see what you have to say 👍

Awesome. thanks for the straight forward review. 👍

I quite like the crayon diagram. Shows the effort the kids put in at the factory, I mean adults

Well I will say your half right on the class history as the class 59 like the 66 was built in both Canada (London, Ontario) and the USA (La Grange, Illinois)

Hi Sam, Nice review, I wouldn't turn it down , looks a good engine, (can't afford the price these days 🙂) All the best Brian 😃

Good review but you need to compare this Dapol Class 59 with the Hattons Class 66, that will give you a truer indication of how things have moved on because the detail on the Hattons 66 is beyond what Dapol have produced here. The cab doors opening is a useless feature because it creates a massive gap between the doors & the loco body which isn't prototypical. For me the Dapol Class 59 is low rent compared to the Hattons 66 and don't forget the Hattons 66 was only £150 RRP regardless of the issues that transpired post release and certainly hope Hattons do a batch 2 fixing those issues. This is a good model but not great, remember that exhaust system sits proud of the body which is a fail.

Amazing class 59 sam!

Enjoyed your review. Of the four produced by Dapol, the DB is the one I did not purchase. I obtained the sound versions with the NP version with smoke. The sound versions are amazing.

Awesome! Looks like a great model. Picked up a Hornby Mallard today for £70. Also, are you gonna review Hornbys super detailed teakss?

Hi Sam. Great review as always. Even though this model doesn't have the bells and whistles of the Accurascale model, for the price you do get what you pay for. It does have a lot going for it. I might be able to afford it one day! Either eat or buy this! Lol. Very good product from Dapol. Best, Pete.

great vid Sam! will you be looking at any OO9 items or is that planned for the far future ?

Looks good and appears to run smoothly....

NIce video as always and yes hornby do make the class 59 in the past history.

I remember seeing Class 66's parked outside of the former EMD plant in London Ontario. It's a shame that the plant got shut down by CAT.

Good one sam. I hope their Manor class is on good par with Accurascales.

Great review as always Sam . . . Any chance of a review of Electrotren loco's?

Probably one of the more interesting units considering it’s coming from the us, I do find the db branding a bit odd, did it run in the ui or Germany? Either way very nice review

I have two which I ordered it seams like years ago when first announced, I did at first order the sound and smoke version but changed my mind and just got dcc fitted versions instead and I am glad I did as I've seen a example of the smoke fitted version and tbh not impressed with the smoke at all

WOW! Amazing locomotive! Keep it up! I have a question, how do you become a channel member? Is it a private thing or is it public. Please answer my question, reply if you can! Thanks, I love your videos, your the best!

While not my interest, I am hopping Dapols O gauge Class 66 (the successor of the 66 sort of will be of good detail) will be good. I do hope you review one Sam.

Great video Sam, is the odd one out the GWR diesel railcar?

About you said you were thinking of putting a loop or two of N gauge track inside your TT gauge ovals on your layout, have you thought of using flex-track for the curves, Atlas and I think Peco make flex-track in N gauge, and like I said before get the N gauge track in code 80

If you think the slightly opening doors are cool, you should check out a Proto 2000 E8 or PA

If so, then it’s an interesting (re)design, as the SD 40-2, like most locomotives for the North American rail network, were single-ended; with a cab, a short nose (hood), and a long hood. Most ran short hood forward, but some railroads like to run them long hood forward, in case of a crash at a grade crossing. So I wonder if they (EMD) lengthened the frame to make room for a cab on the other end, or if they used a smaller diesel engine, and just crammed all the internals forward to make room?

The odd one out is the Class 128, since it was manufactured by Heljan and not Dapol. Cheers.

Born and raised in America and I have a fondness for the American styles of locomotives. But this one is something I really like. Just like the class 8 shunter. Is there a D in there somewhere? I just may have to come up with a plausible explanation and back story to get one for my model railroad...

👍It might be silly , but I do enjoy the "slicker" manual. Part of the experience such as proper packaging, graphics ,the unboxing , a detail bag , etc . (I know ). Warley version did seem speedier . Good one Sam , Thanks !

Eleo Sam. What a beautiful train. I still got to send u my pic of my layout. Anyway ur so awesome. And I had to fix my Henry cause the pick ups were causing issues and and I just added wires to only in the drive wheel and took off the pick ups and only used the wires to the motor and it worked after that but it can only use 2 wheels to work not all 3

I'd really love one of these in Yeoman colors. Unfortunately, that would require a full rake of hoppers to go with it, and THAT I can't afford. :/

Great review here am, must admit I was surprised t see you get the db version, I thought you would have gone for one of the different ones, I have the db version myself and to be honest I have mixed emotions about it, I’m very happy to finally have a class 59 in my fleet but there are a few things that I don’t like, one thing that I don’t like is the flickering lights on dc power which happens at low speed, also one of the lights doesn’t work on mine but I can forgive that because it’s on the ed where stock is going to be coupled up to, must admit while I have had mixed emotions about this db version I am thinking of picking up the EWS one that dapol announced recently.

Sam now that you have a DCC controller will you be updating some of your locos to DCC

On the subject of your silver bullet wagons. I bought eight of them last year. When I fitted Kadee couplings to them I noticed that on four of them the couplings were not self centring. On further inspection I noticed that the coupling brackets were fitted upside down so the centring springs were not connected. Hope that this helps.

I have one of these and ran it in yesterday. I have no complaints except maybe that coupling that is pointing down. I would rate it a bit higher than you and I think it is fairer to compare it to the Hornby 59 and maybe the Bachmann 66.

Hi Sam, i was wondering if you could take a look at one of Hornby's retoolled Class 43 Hsts. I've watched many reviews of them and they are apparently fantastic when it comes to detail and running. I hope you take this recommendation into account, thank you.

Fairly decent for the money, but not sure if Dapol’s class 59 would make it passed our assessment tbh. The engineering of the bogey internals would be an immediate no-no (clipped and no bearings in 2023...?). Some niggles we could perhaps live with, e.g. the exhaust unit sitting too high compared to the prototype and sloppy fitting of the cab grill..., but then the enormous seams around the doors would really annoy us too much. The latter evidently because they can open, but we’d rather not have that design at all tbh since they make those rather nasty unrealistic gap around them. Overall, certainly somewhat decent value, but those bogey internals... Not quite keen on that... Cheerio.

I have a hornby railroad one of these, its quite cool

Hi Sam. You said that the loco had no bearings. Wouldn't the axle boxes be within a bushing - a kind of bearing?

Is Dapol a good brand like Accurascale or Bachman?

I think I get an ARC one as a 59/1. Would be interesting to see your review of the Cavalex Models Class 60 when it comes out in 2024 Sam. In truth, Dapol models are not expected to be another Accurascale but they are better made than the tosh I was given by Hornby in exchange for my hard earned money. I will get a Dapol Class 59 as it is superior to the older Lima model that Hornby charge for that is not much cheaper than this.

I never bother to watch Sam's reviews, as he always puts his conclusions in the title. Saves me loads of time.

Thanks Sam for a great review. Could this be the first time ever a manufacturer had got the right gearing for the right loco? Regards Terry.

The void between the bogie and body is quite noticeable, not sure if that's prototypical

Good looking loco thanks lee

Hi Sam, when Bachmann comes out with the Daylight Special starter train set, (item 00776) will you do a review to see if Bachmann have done any updates on the GS4 Southern Pacific Daylight? It was that orange red and black split chassis locomotive You did a review on several years ago. I'd love to see you do a review on the set.

If you had the money to review a trix class 66, which is Ho and Dcc sound with smoke would be interesting

Sam I like this class of diesel and the details are good but I have problem with the livery to me it looks very toy like . You look at other manufacturers livery’s are so much vivid . The rest of details are fine. The most important thing to me will be how long it will last before having a problem like a few of my Dapol engines that have failed. Great review Sam.

Awesome review, Sam. From what I’ve heard about Dapol in the past, they have come quite a way to being one of the top brands in the hobby. In my opinion anyway. Oh how Hornby have fallen… A loco built in America for the British market… if the same was true about the model, that would be an interesting parallel 🤔 37:25 Such a shame your Rapido saddletank just vanished without a trace 😆

Hola buen dia sam excelente video muy bueno el modelo te mando un abrazo grande y segui asi 😃👍👍👍

Hey Sam what ITV station did you live through when you were young

33:39 Note the passenger on the platform who is absolutely knocked out by the performance... 😉

I think which one it is, the brown, yellow stripped with white top.

Knowing you. Surprised you missed the dodgy N in the Schenker on the side

Awesome video Sam's trains

Was the odd locomotive a dapol GWR streamlined railcar?

I am in india how can i buy it .. and i have so many doubt .. if i want to buy this product i will order track, electric switch,and coaches individual? And they all in same gauge ratio?

There’s a controversy going on with TT:120 set curves. Have you experienced any issues?

Great review Sam. But to be honest if mine had glue or a dodgy light they would have been sent back. If we keep hold of faulry goods then they will still keep on selling them and not sorting out the QC side of things.

I'm not a big fan of diesels but great review Sam ;) Cheers Jasper & Willow

Sam, the class 59 has been in Hornbys catalogue for the past few years...

It's a shame that there is some easy to fix downsides on this engine (bogies conception, ease of opening, even if far better than anything from Heljan, instruction manual) because everything else is spot on for the price. And, as with recent Dapol models (including N scale ones, I'm happy with my class 22 and 35 !), it's not overspeeding. Halve the weight by removing every diecast you can, remove the little nice details like the opening doors and the rotating axleboxes, replace etched grills by molded ones, simplify to the bare minimum the lighting (white forward, red backwards, and go flux yourself for anything else), put an anemic motor without flywheel geared for an HST, and sell it GBP 220 retailer's price : now, you have an Hornby model... It's not an ultra top level model, but the price is not ultra top level too : looks nice, works fine, and does not require to sign for a mortgage to buy one. If you are in modern engines in OO, it's a must have. Some downs, but nothing that is a no-go considering the price. You can't remove from me the idea that Dapol is becoming a major player in the market, at the detriment of Bachmann and Hornby. If I would model UK trains in this scale and period, I would certainly buy one on the spot.

Yay another modern image loco, 3 out of 4 OO loco reviews you've done this year were of diesels or electrics, so nice to see something other than British steam. Please try to keep this up Sam. 😉 Now Kelly will come and kill me lol.

Can you review the bachmann Paxton from Thomas and friends?

How come the big diesels always have clips and not screws? Cheers Jasper & Willow

I have heard some feedback that the mechanism in this loco is quite noisy, especially under load

Not sure I agree that the schenker name has been well applied. There is a weird splodge on the "n"

The Booklet only comes with steam locomotives I think :)

What is the T-shirt in the start

Hvg just watched your HM7000 review, can you tell if their 21 pin decoder will fit into this class 59 ie enough space?

But i Though That The Rabido 16 In Tank Engine Was Ranked 2nd Place?

Cool video!

Odd one out is the zeppelin (gwr diesel car)