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Black is black I want my loco back (Heljan Night Owl)


Silver Sidelines

1,894 views

Black is black, I want my loco back


It’s gone away for exchange they say, Ooh-Ooh


What can I do? 'Cause I-I-I-I-I-I'm feelin' blue




I am really very pleased with my black Heljan 47xx. I think it is becoming one of the best ever locomotives to grace my layout. It has been a long journey which will not suit everybody. However ‘job done’ and I am well pleased.

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Heljan 4706 BR Black 'Night Owl'

When Heljan announced their 47xx I preordered a BR green model. I read with interest the associated thread on RMweb and noted the trials and tribulations with 4706 the ‘black’ model. I dithered. I cancelled my preorder. Then I reordered and took delivery – ‘Shades of Green’.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/880/entry-21211-shades-of-green-2018-version/

I was well pleased with my green model; it ran like a sewing machine and arrived mostly in one piece. (It was only after I had written my last Blog Post and I was reviewing the pictures that I noticed that one of the lamp irons had ‘fallen over’ - now sorted.) I was so impressed with my green engine that whilst new models were still available I would purchase 4706, the BR black engine. Sadly all the stories I had read, about models arriving damaged and bits hidden in the cardboard packaging proved to have been true. Hattons must be very patient. I returned two models (plus an empty box). I could have returned the third model. However given the state of the first two rejects I realised that this third model was unmarked and whilst they were not all actually attached, all the bits were present and correct. The model was worth fettling.

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Engine No.3

Having handled three black engines and one green engine I have gained the impression that there are two issues with the Heljan models. There is evidence that the consignment of black engines was subject to great trauma – dropped from a great height? The 47xx is a weighty model and a lot of the detail seems to have been added using super glue with minimal mechanical keying. Bits have shaken free, I would say before arrival at the retailer. Probably due to location within the consignment, some models appear to have been driven down into the vacuum plastic packaging with such force that the cab steps have been deformed or broken off. Butanone is wonderful stuff.

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Glued joint

The second issue relates to the footplate in front of the smokebox. I received two models where the front section was loose (but still attached), and one model which was complete in one piece but where the buffers pointed skywards (it also refused to run but I chose not to investigate that aspect any further). On the third model, the one that I chose to keep, the front section of footplate was loose and one of the stays beneath the smoke box had popped out. However much pressure I exerted I couldn’t get the footplate to lie level. Was it excess dried glue, or is the shape of the Mazak chassis wrong?

‘robmcg’ in a Post on RMweb has some better pictures of the problem and solution where his model arrived with the footplate sheared off.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/92905-Heljan-gwr-47xx-night-owl/?p=3127512

Because my footplate was still intact I set about dismantling the engine. This proved more difficult than I had imagined but I did eventually gain better access to the underside of the footplate and the top of the chassis, sufficient to be able use a small blade and to pare some material away.

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Exploded diagram

The cab on the engine is a completely separate item and has to be released first by removing two screws on the underside of the chassis. The boiler with its weight enclosing the motor can then be released by undoing two further bigger screws. Beware - the weight inside the boiler is amazingly heavy and slides in and out like anything (as per Winnie the Pooh). I had thought that the footplate could then be lifted clear of the chassis. Sadly not, the footplate is attached to the pipework beneath the cab which in turn is glued to the bottom plate that retains the driving wheels. Too much flexing of the pipework and it starts to lose its coating of brass paint. On my green engine the footplate in front of the smoke box is glued down to the chassis. Seemingly this joint had failed on my black engine. I did try reassembling without glue but reluctantly the only way I could make a permanent fix was to reattach using super glue. Replacing the two metal stays beneath the smokebox was a bit like one of those Chinese Christmas puzzles. At the finish I lightly glued the stays into the smokebox before refitting the boiler and finally pressing the other end of the stays into the footplate. I tend to agree with ‘Coachman’ on RMweb who thought the Heljan stays are too short. He remade some to be longer and hence better able to press the footplate level.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/92905-Heljan-gwr-47xx-night-owl/?p=3127859

My black engine is not perfect, but then on close inspection neither is my green engine.

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Heljan 4706 BR Black 'Night Owl' (right) 4705 BR Green (left)

Now what about the other issue, the elephant in the room?

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Cab side number plates

There is the small matter regarding the size of the cab side number plates, not forgetting the red dot. Heljan’s small moulded plates had to go, and I purchased some etched plates from 247 developments. I bought plates with a black background and recoloured them using some Humbrol ‘signal red’ paint from long past.

With the cab removed from the engine I set about grinding off the moulded number. The task is helped by the Heljan number being smaller than the finished engraved plates.

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Black Cab?

Working on the ‘kitchen table’ I held the cab with a heavy G clamp and used a Proxxon drill fitted with a diamond coated grinding bit. The Proxxon is a relatively new purchase and it is worth noting that it runs beautiful and true – unlike the rather cheaper variant that I previously used.

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Tools of the trade

Black on black is difficult to see and I cannot over emphasise the importance of some good natural light. Also the need to clamp the work leaving two hands free to steady the drill. I have to own up wrecking my first cab when I used a craft knife to speed up the grinding process. Luckily Heljan have had a few models returned and would sell me a replacement cab - although mine arrived with bits missing (fancy).

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Job done

To avoid lots of repainting I attached my etched plates over the area of the original Heljan plates. Is this correct or should the new plates have been positioned centrally?

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Courtesy of Mr Roche

Thank you John Tomlinson, on Flickr, for checking some David and Charles illustrations. These are reported to show the middle of the cabside number plate directly below the most forward part of the curve of the cab cutout, as mine have turned out.

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A good outcome

The red dot lives on for another day. Black engines and crimson and cream coaches are a very distant memory but I am well pleased with the combination below.

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Heljan 4706 BR Black 'Night Owl'

There is a video on YouTube prior to fitting the plates and blackening the wheel centres which confirms the excellent mechanical performance of the Heljan Model.



- Now what about Black is Black:

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  • Like 15

13 Comments


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  • RMweb Gold

The Doctor makes his diagnosis

Cuts, drills and reassembles

The patient rises

Feeling better

Than a newborn!

 

Excellent post Ray. I'm intrigued what that "great trauma" might have been. A fall from great height as you say. I'm imagining a Chinese crane operator reaching over the levers for his lunch box...

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  • RMweb Premium

I question whether the retailer should have dispatched a new item in this condition. I wouldn't have been too pleased to have received it like that. However, well done on your excellent repairs. 

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Thank you Mikkel

 

A fall from great height as you say. I'm imagining a Chinese crane operator reaching over the levers for his lunch box...

 

Now what about the crane operator working though his lunch on the Farthing Layout?

 

Cheers Ray

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Lots of unanswered questions, Hattons were certainly willing to accept returns.  I would say their Help Desk operator was also puzzled as to why they had sent out the third item in an obviously damaged box after two previous returns - which is why he was willing to replace the box with the crushed end.

 

I question whether the retailer should have dispatched a new item in this condition. I wouldn't have been too pleased to have received it like that. However, well done on your excellent repairs. 

 

Cheers Ray

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  • RMweb Gold

Thank you Mikkel

 

 

Now what about the crane operator working though his lunch on the Farthing Layout?

 

Cheers Ray

 

I certainly need a crane to lift all the removal boxes on top of the layouts :-)

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The Doctor makes his diagnosis

Cuts, drills and reassembles

The patient rises

Feeling better

Than a newborn!

 

Excellent post Ray. I'm intrigued what that "great trauma" might have been. A fall from great height as you say. I'm imagining a Chinese crane operator reaching over the levers for his lunch box...

 

Hi All,

 

This was my feeling too - a drop from a great height (for a model at least!) is what I suspected. The packaging would have protected it in normal service so to speak...

 

Nice review by the way! There is a really nice model trying to get out amidst all the horror stories and I am not far away from adding a larger capacity DCC chip (mine has already eaten one of my usual selection!), testing and then adding weathering.

 

All the best,

 

Castle

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Thanks Castle

 

. a really nice model ..

 

It is a really very nice model, and very powerful as proven by your DCC fried chip saga (only DC analogue on my layout).

 

Good luck with the weathering -  I suspect that in their heyday as opposed to their end of life, they would have been kept very nicely spick and span.

 

Cheers Ray

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Well Ray, I finally bought one of these off Ebay. I doubt if it has ever run before, but it had suffered a resounding thump at the front to make the forward part of the runnnig plate wobble up and down!

 

On my test track it ran very well nonetheless. So if it won't go after dismantling it is all my own fault. I did the dismantling yesterday. It would have been a good idea if I had consulted your blog beforehand, rather than the day after.

 

It would appear that the designer had shares in the screw manufacturer, as a bewildering array confront the owner when the loco is turned upside down. I have undone all of them, and the entire thing has come to lots of bits. Let's hope no bits are left over after re-assembly.

 

I have glued the running plate with Butanone, and hope that curing overnight will have done the job. Your photo "Glued joint" shows precisely where my two cracks were in the running plate, just to the rear of the join of the curved and flat sections, and also along the curve - although the latter is a correct as there are two parts glued together - supposedly. One of the front irons was missing, so I've made a replacement from brass rod that I'll chemically blacken then paint.

 

Your tip on numberplate removal is very useful indeed. I started to pare with a knife and realised that would shortly be ending in disaster, so stopped. It is a green one, and very pretty. I like the green, although the lining is a bit bright.

 

Thank you again for the guidance. I prefer to work on locos when I have a second one intact for reference, not the case here. So I shall be glad of your pictures to see where the little fiddly bits go!

 

John.

  • Like 1
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2 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

 I prefer to work on locos when I have a second one intact for reference, not the case here. So I shall be glad of your pictures to see where the little fiddly bits go!

 

 

Good for you, why not outside gardening?  I shall wait to hear that it is successfully back together.  The orange lining on the 'green one' is a bit strange.

 

Coincidently I have just received a Hornby Britannia to put back together for a friend.  There is a bag of little bits in the box and I have just been upstairs to look at my own model to remind myself where they might all go!  Rather you than me putting the Night Owl back together.

 

Regards

 

Ray

 

PS There was a Shades of Green Post as well:  https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/21211-shades-of-green-2018-version/

 

 

  • Thanks 1
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33 minutes ago, Silver Sidelines said:

 

Good for you, why not outside gardening?  I shall wait to hear that it is successfully back together.  The orange lining on the 'green one' is a bit strange.

 

Coincidently I have just received a Hornby Britannia to put back together for a friend.  There is a bag of little bits in the box and I have just been upstairs to look at my own model to remind myself where they might all go!  Rather you than me putting the Night Owl back together.

 

Regards

 

Ray

 

PS There was a Shades of Green Post as well:  https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/21211-shades-of-green-2018-version/

 

 

Ha, thanks Ray. Yes, a nice day here, but the gardening is delegated to the Director for Outdoor Activities!

 

My running plate has repaired nicely overnight, and fits well. Unfortunately all the slide bars and supports fell off despite me hardly touching them. My model is a ref.4785, numbered 4709 (which I think is the new build). In contrast to yours there is very little glue at all from the factory, none holding the running plate to chassis, and it would appear next to none on the slide bars! There will have to be a smidge put on by me otherwise they won't hold together. It is the oddest design for slide bars I've come across, two separate pieces of "metal" that just push into the cylinders and a plastic motion bracket that glues at the top to the running plate.

 

Good luck with the Britannia, I have one and really like them as a model.

 

Best wishes,

 

John.

  • Like 1
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