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HELJAN UNVEILS ‘OO’ GAUGE 25/3 AND ‘ETHEL’ FOR 2019


Andy Y
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Looks like my sizeable stud of Danish Bo-Bos is about to grow by a few more %  :angel:   ...just when I thought that was it!

 

I will happily replace my small Bachmann stud of these to reflect the modest presence of the type on Waverley route metals.

 

A route to recreating this scene featuring D5233 would be wonderful!

 

http://www.langholmpicturearchive.com/album/2998.jpg

Edited by 'CHARD
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Can Heljan confirm whether the Ethel's will be non-motorised so we don't have to pay loco prices for what is essentially a wagon (a la Bachmann!).

 

Overall great news, will have Ethels and a Tamworth.

 

Anyone want old Hornby 25's that I was going to convert!

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Can Heljan confirm whether the Ethel's will be non-motorised so we don't have to pay loco prices for what is essentially a wagon (a la Bachmann!).

 

Overall great news, will have Ethels and a Tamworth.

 

Anyone want old Hornby 25's that I was going to convert!

To be fair they only remove the motor and gears so it's not going to be much less!
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Can Heljan confirm whether the Ethel's will be non-motorised so we don't have to pay loco prices for what is essentially a wagon (a la Bachmann!).

 

Overall great news, will have Ethels and a Tamworth.

 

Anyone want old Hornby 25's that I was going to convert!

Edited by brian daniels
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Can Heljan confirm whether the Ethel's will be non-motorised so we don't have to pay loco prices for what is essentially a wagon (a la Bachmann!).

 

Overall great news, will have Ethels and a Tamworth.

 

Anyone want old Hornby 25's that I was going to convert!

 

Essentially the cost difference between a powered 25/3 and unpowered ETHEL *should only* be a motor and gears (so relatively a small amount in the total cost).

I would expect pickups and a circuit board so sound can be fitted.

 

Cheers,

Mick

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I would much rather have had a Heljan Class 120 DMU. I'm happy enough with my Bachmann Class 25/3s and won't be parting with any cash for the Heljan variety. I can't help thinking that manufacturers are mining a rapidly thinning seam of BR diesels. Now we have Bachmann, Heljan and SLW all competing to sell us varieties of the same basic loco. Maybe Hornby should revive their old Class 25 into the Railroad range just for the sake of completeness?

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This is like waiting for the bus.....

 

You wait around and nothing happens, then you get potentially 3 brand new models all Turning up at the same time....

Helijan 25/3, Bachmann 25/1&2 and the still possible SLW class 25......

 

 

Last time we had such competion, I think was with the 37’s, Bachmann, Hornby and Vi Trains and with the 47’s, again Bachmann, Hornby, vi trains and Helijan.....

 

I doubt the market is big enough for potentially 3 high end models....

Edited by Andy Mac
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Considering Heljan have the Class 25/3 being released in O Gauge, this is not a surprise.

They have the research in place, and the CAD work can be scaled and then reworked for the details that become too small to be viable on an OO gauge model.

We have seen this a lot with N Gauge Farish and OO Gauge Bachmann releases in recent years, the Blue Pullman, LMS Inspection Saloon to name a couple.

 

There has been a lot of criticism of the cab shape of the Bachmann model, and the underfame is poor too. The SLW model is quite a bit more expensive so there is probably a hole in the market for this.

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few months we get an announcement of an OO Gauge Class 50 from Heljan as well from their reserach into the O gauge release.

Jamie

Edited by Jamiel
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Interesting . Heljan choosing to bring out a model that's already a mainstream release. You could argue they did that with the 47 and 52, but at the time of introduction the existing models were Hornby and Lima  and the Heljan models brought a new level of detail with them. Not so sure about this one , as I thought the Bachmann one was a pretty decent effort. So it seems a shame its a duplication .  That said they are bringing out lots of livery options in one go, which Bachmann don't do and of course an Ethel . And I'm sure they are capitalising on the design work being carried out on the O one, so perhaps this is a low risk venture

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Interesting . Heljan choosing to bring out a model that's already a mainstream release. You could argue they did that with the 47 and 52, but at the time of introduction the existing models were Hornby and Lima  and the Heljan models brought a new level of detail with them. Not so sure about this one , as I thought the Bachmann one was a pretty decent effort. So it seems a shame its a duplication .  That said they are bringing out lots of livery options in one go, which Bachmann don't do and of course an Ethel . And I'm sure they are capitalising on the design work being carried out on the O one, so perhaps this is a low risk venture

It has parallels with Hattons 66, other than Heljan leveraging existing design work (Hattons O gauge 66?). I think we may well see more of this as the market gets more crowded with manufacturers/commissioners. Offering lots of liveries at once is probably part of this process of shutting down potential competition. Good for us as more choice but things may toughen up for manufacturers. I also hope that this leads to less of the 'buy it now or else pay a fortune on Ebay later' approach to releases that has become the norm. With lots of liveries for say the 25's and Hatton's 66's we may have more time to buy things.

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Looking at the CAD, they appear to have at least got the cab side taper, missing off the Bachmann model (which results in the face/cab roof being wrong). Also, looks like the curve across the cab front is there. Will be interesting to see the final version when released.

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Essentially the cost difference between a powered 25/3 and unpowered ETHEL *should only* be a motor and gears (so relatively a small amount in the total cost).

I would expect pickups and a circuit board so sound can be fitted.

 

Cheers,

Mick

I'm not sure that is the case. Dapol's dummy locos and DMU's are a lot cheaper than the powered versions - it is not just the parts but the time taken to assemble those parts into a functioning drive train, which is quite fiddly. The dummies are less than half the price of the powered versions.

 

https://www.Dapol.co.uk/shop/n-gauge/dmu/class-121

 

This pricing differential is also replicated at well known retailers, so perhaps other manufacturers have sought to maximise profits but pretending they are not much cheaper to produce?

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