If you have a direct admission that it is the pattern that is at fault (not that it could really be much else if both castings were identical) and to their knowledge it has been so since 2001 then they have knowingly been selling goods not of merchantable quality for around 18 years. I doubt you would find the modern equivalent of trading standards would be the slightest bit interested in following it up though, especially as they gave you a refund on one and you chose to accept the other.

Looking at the other side, a lot of suppliers to this hobby are small businesses with limited staff that do not have a massive profit to distribute. It doesn't excuse poor service or knowingly selling drawings with errors or duff castings but corrections and patterns cost so it's understandable why issues do not get addressed when they only sell small numbers each year. It would be nice though if issues that are flagged up were addressed or even if not properly corrected, buyers were advised of potential issues…………..

Look on the bright side though at least you got the casting, there are people out there that paid for castings months or years ago from suppliers that apparently have never recieved them, nor had a refund.

Paul

Which engine was it?

I've been thinking of the Centaur as a possible next project. Surely in the last 18 years, Reeves has sold this casting to a number of customers who have gone on to make satisfactory models. Why hasn't this issue been raised before?

So now we know thanks to AJW, that if you build a Centaur you will be getting a known faulty Cylinder Head casting from the casting supplier, a good reason to haggle for a discount on that item, or ask the supplier to rectify the problem before sending out.

I built the Centaur and rectified the fault on the head casting which I thought had been dropped, at the time I didn't know it was a casting fault.

Michael.

They have got us all by the bol***ks, either we buy their very experience and/or incorrect castings or we go without. Trouble is that a lot of these castings are exclusive to one company, makes it impossible to go elsewhere.

I complained to the same company (I believe) that their ratchet teeth on a lubricator gear I purchased were far too shallow to work properly, this was the response:

"Hello

Thank you for your email.

We are aware that the teeth on the ratchet wheels are not particularly deep however the same one has been sold for over 17 years now. Builders have mentioned it however that is as far as its gone.

Unfortunately we are unable to offer a different one so if you are not able to use it please return it for a refund.

We are very sorry we could not be of more help."

The original company was really good…….run by enthusiasts for enthusiasts……nothing too much trouble. How times change!

I am building the Don Young Aspinal. I bought a complete set of castings from Reeves because they were on discount. The tender axle box castings when I came to use them were under size for the drawing horn spacing BEFORE any matching. The horns were well oversize so I worked out it was just feasible to use the castings with a narrower horn spacing. I set to and started machining only to find the castings in other areas would not clean up to a standard I was happy with. So I binned them and machined steel axles boxes at the same time putting in needle rollers. Let's hope the remainder of the castings are better. It has put me off buying castings again and I would consider either fabricating or machine from solid. Why did I not send them back, to be honest it was 18 months after I had bought them and I could not be bothered with the hassle, so decided to take the financial hit

Dave

I never had a problem with the original company, but I accept nothing is ever perfect and some customers would have had experiences different to mine.

I would like to warn anyone contemplating buying a new boiler from the new company (that's if they still supply them). I bought a boiler off someone who had commissioned it from the said company. Still brand new and shiny, never been into a loco etc, and complete with all paperwork. It didn't take me long to discover the boiler was short by about 3/8". When I contacted the owner of the company he promptly told me the boiler was correct and as I wasn't his customer nothing could be done! I don't know who makes boilers for this company, but I would have thought an item of that value would have been checked by the company before sending on to the customer. I got over the problem, but as I said before, will never use them again unless absolutely necessary.

My advice to anyone buying ANY product from them would be to check everything without delay and don't assume they are correct. Unfortunately because of the very nature of model engineering, we tend to work slowly, so the castings that have been sitting in the workshop for months/year's might have blow holes/dimension problems etc. How this company would deal with that I don't know, but I guess they would fob you off and say you're too late to complain. Customer service isn't their strong point!

If the company was interested in it's model engineering customers it would from time to time monitor this and other modeling forums, and even if they didn't join in they would take action on improving customer relations, and the quality of stock. The company is probably too small for the regulatory body to take much interest.

Ian S C