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Waggon und Maschinenbau railbus


JZ
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Just had an e-mail from Hattons to say that the first two numbers have been confirmed and a price.

M79964 with large yellow panels

M79963 with small yellow panels

Price is £88, which I don't think is too bad

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  • 7 months later...

Ideal bit of kit for the modeller of mid cornwall in the mid 60s :D

One of them on the passenger side and an 03 shunting the yard should get the Tweed twitching ....

 

Sorry but NO! The W&M's were based at Cambridge from new until withdrawn & stored there. 2 (may have been only 1?) were then moved to Derbyshire for a short period. They never worked anywhere else. Incidentally, Cambridge was a bit of a magnet for railbuses, as I saw 1 of most if not all types there (can't check numbers as I'm at work). We always thought this was for maintenance or comparison tests, as they were quite successfully used in the area until lines closed.

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Ideal bit of kit for the modeller of mid cornwall in the mid 60s :D

One of them on the passenger side and an 03 shunting the yard should get the Tweed twitching ....

 

 

The ones used in Cornwall were the WR's AC Cars built version Mickey - much nicer looking than those German ones I reckoned. And I even have a photo of one I took when changing trains at Boscarne Jcn :blink:

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So who is going to go to KWVR and record and do a sound chip then?

 

I suspect that the chip space will be the guards central area but the motor will also be in there!

 

Not a bad price when you look at the Dapol Park Royal one and fit a chassis from one of the advertisers and it's decorated for you.

 

 

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the fact that they are painted up is well worth an extra £40 on the 'Dapol kit package' in my eyes, if this varient did Speyside then Bobs my Uncle for the next plan!

You do not have an Uncle called Bob yet then Russ. Bide your time for one of the next variants, the W&M version didn't come North (the only version that didn't IIRC).

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I've been assisting Howes/Heljan as much as I can with railbus information. I think it's unlikely that the WMDs which went to Buxton would have got M prefixes. As far as I can tell none of the cars that went late to Scotland (ACs and Park Royals)had their prefixes changed. There are pictures of PRs in Scotland still with M on the side and certainly AC Cars W79976 still has its W prefixes visible without any sign that they were ever altered.

I believe the Heljan model announced with an M prefix will, in fact, have the 'E'. However, I did suggest that a bit of modellers licence might allow them to put Buxton etc in the blind boxes even though its unlikely that the blinds got changed. If you look at pictures of the ACs running in Cornwall, they still show the Kemble destinations or nothing at all. Lots of pictures of railbuses in Scotland show them running with plain white - no blind at all - but I think it would be disappointing if Heljan chose not to put anything in the destination box.

CHRIS LEIGH

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I've been assisting Howes/Heljan as much as I can with railbus information. I think it's unlikely that the WMDs which went to Buxton would have got M prefixes. As far as I can tell none of the cars that went late to Scotland (ACs and Park Royals)had their prefixes changed. There are pictures of PRs in Scotland still with M on the side and certainly AC Cars W79976 still has its W prefixes visible without any sign that they were ever altered.

I believe the Heljan model announced with an M prefix will, in fact, have the 'E'. However, I did suggest that a bit of modellers licence might allow them to put Buxton etc in the blind boxes even though its unlikely that the blinds got changed. If you look at pictures of the ACs running in Cornwall, they still show the Kemble destinations or nothing at all. Lots of pictures of railbuses in Scotland show them running with plain white - no blind at all - but I think it would be disappointing if Heljan chose not to put anything in the destination box.

CHRIS LEIGH

 

How is your 1:1 AC project going Chris?

 

Jon

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have two of these on order and will be interested to see how they stack up against the Silver Fox model of the same that I bought a few years ago, which I still rate very highly, despite its un-prototypical top speed of about 150mph!! I have photos (in a book) of all 3 of Heljan’s planned ‘E’ prefix versions at work on my local branch (Saffron Walden) in the early 60’s, in various liveries of the period.

 

Was there any evidence of the progress on this model at Warley last weekend and does anyone know if delivery is still planned for early 2011? Also, what about the other railbuses they announced last year? I haven’t heard anything about them for a while now and Heljan hasn’t updated its ‘Products to come’ web page for over a year, so no clues there either.

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They had a 'grey' example on view at Warley which looked ok to me but I'm the first to admit my acquaintanceship with the WuM railbuses is no more than looking at the pages of a book. But at least there are signs of progress and hopefully they'll get the bugs sorted on this one before moving on to the variant more suited to my tasteswink.gif

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I have two of these on order and will be interested to see how they stack up against the Silver Fox model of the same that I bought a few years ago, which I still rate very highly, despite its un-prototypical top speed of about 150mph!! I have photos (in a book) of all 3 of Heljan’s planned ‘E’ prefix versions at work on my local branch (Saffron Walden) in the early 60’s, in various liveries of the period.

 

 

I wonder if these models are going to cause a rush of models of the Saffron Walden branch. For me it's enough to pick up (almost) where I left off thirty-something years ago.

 

Long before the Silver Fox, I did start making bits of a W&M body to fit on a Piko CSD M131.1 railcar chassis - dimensions taken from a broadside photo at Weybourne - but like 90% of projects from those days it never came to anything. (Much the same these days, for different reasons).

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Was there any evidence of the progress on this model at Warley last weekend and does anyone know if delivery is still planned for early 2011? (quote)

 

There was a sample in 'works silver', complete except for the buffer heads. We borrowed it for photography. I don't think I'm giving away any state secrets if I say it weighs heavy, runs well, has drive to both axles and a full interior in the passenger saloons. The chassis is cast and largely hidden by the WMD's skirting. The other railbuses will require a VERY different chassis, presumably that's why they aren't progressing so quickly.

CHRIS LEIGH

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Many thanks for that Chris , it sounds very promising indeed.

 

My other local branch is (was) St. Margarets - Buntingford (Herts) where Wickham (of Ware) often used to trial new locos as I'm sure you well know, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Heljan Wickham Railbus model does come to fruition. I have video footage of one (SC numbered) leaving Buntingford on a test run!

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Guest Max Stafford

"The chassis is cast and largely hidden by the WMD's skirting."

 

Good Lord Chris, no wonder it's heavy! That description suggests the block is made from weapons grade plutonium...! ;)

 

Sounds promising though and like Paul's just said, that's not a bad price at all considering!

 

Dave.

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