Heljan OO gauge 0-6-0 diesel shunter

[orford]

Does anyone own or run a Heljan 'OO/HO'(?) 0-6-0 diesel shunter of the kind shown in the picture (any livery)?

 

I am trying to find out how reliable these are, particularly in terms of pick-up, general running quality, reliability, etc., before parting with my 'hard-earned'.

 

I would be planning to run it on DCC.

 

Any help with this would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

 

Don Mason

Edited July 31, 2018 by orford

[bennyboy]

You'll probably find out in this thread.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/65792-hunslet-class-05/

[PenrithBeacon]

I have one and it ran perfectly straight from the box

[Vespa]

I bought one a while back and it's fine. Hattons have them on massive discount. I just got an 02/3 and 02/4 for £89 each thats £90 off list.

[orford]

It's the reliability of the pick ups which I am worried about. I once bought a Bachmann Class 03 shunter and had no end of trouble with it, which I put down to it having a short wheelbase. Even though I use live frog turnouts. In the end I had to run it with a permanently coupled match truck which also had pickups (see photo), after which it was very much better.

 

Given that the Heljan Class 05 is presumably similar in size I am worried about getting the same problem.

[John Tomlinson]

I bought two of these a few weeks ago in Hatton's sale, calling into the warehouse in person.

 

My layout is DC with Peco electrofrog pointwork, and both locos run perfectly smoothly without a glitch.

 

Like Vespa I picked up an 02/3 at the time, plus a Metropolitan Railway Bo-Bo electric. Both of these are perfect as well. An expensive but high value afternoon!

 

John.

Edited August 1, 2018 by John Tomlinson

[Izzy]

 They do look nice. I am sure there are many exGE region modellers like me who wished they had produced the earlier version that ran there, and especially at their current price.

 

Ah well.......

 

Izzy

[Butler Henderson]

It's the reliability of the pick ups which I am worried about. I once bought a Bachmann Class 03 shunter and had no end of trouble with it, which I put down to it having a short wheelbase. Even though I use live frog turnouts. In the end I had to run it with a permanently coupled match truck which also had pickups (see photo), after which it was very much better.

 

Given that the Heljan Class 05 is presumably similar in size I am worried about getting the same problem.

I have four Bachmann 03s and never had any problems with them on live frog points, quite often set one at slow crawl plodding down the layout whilst sorting the fiddle yard out. Are you sure the pick ups are correctly aligned?

[Izzy]

 Sorry, just a thought, meant to add it to my previous post that as you are DCC adding a stay-alive would most probably cure any running issues re pick-up, always assuming there is space inside. They are quite cheap and easy to make yourself so long as the decoder has the connection wires/pads to add them. Several of the Zimo decoders have the circuitry on board - mainly the sound versions MX645/MX644D etc.

 

Izzy