The Ghost of IKB II

I will never understand your obsession with the need for a shunting horse! Can't you just use a trained hamster like everyone else?

No one seems to have mentioned the fact that the tail lights are the wrong design.

The door is wrong......but the loco as a whole is so significantly better than the old Bachmann 25s in my fleet that I personally think its well worth upgrading to this Heljan version. In an ideal world both new models would be released at the same time and we could pick our favourite, but thats not going to happen, so there's three choices, stick with the very outdated bachy 25, suspend disbelief and while squinting convince yourself that it does look like a 25 even though you know that its only good point is the motor, which is both hidden and 100% incorrect and save your money for the next wonder model from accura, which will probably be far more accurate, but not in any way a 25, or gamble that the new Bachmann will be the better of the two, and probably miss the chance to get the Heljan when you realise that the new Bachmann is also TOTALLY WRONG because it is 0.5mm out in some vital dimension. I'm being facetious, but some of this criticism is somewhat histrionic, and reading the constant bleating is a drag. It looks like its a good model, I'm buying several.

One day, Heljan might make locomotives that are genuinely dcc ready, user friendly and that dont require either heavy duty decoders or extensive head scratching rewiring. On a brighter note you're building up an attractive fleet of locos. I suspect your oo fleet might be getting neglected now you've entered the world of big trains!

Hi Peter, I wondered how you got on with wiring the 25, did you manage to sort out control of the lights and roof fan? I'm about to attempt to fit the decoder from one of my SLW 24s after removing one of the motors, so I'm looking for tips before I bodge it completely.