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Heljan Spares


Captain Cuttle
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29 minutes ago, D1051 said:

Heads up for you all . Disintegration of gear on oo railbus see picture . Can any one decipher parts diagram on gaugemaster/Heljan spares web site ? For replacement wheel set thanks 

 

Looks like they do "gears", "wormgears" and "spurgears". Can you work out from the mechanism which is which or post a photo (or safer still ring Gaugemaster!) 

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3 hours ago, D1051 said:

Thanks Hal . So Worm gear is on motor shaft.Spur gears are straight cut & 2 float on shafts . See picture in front of unit . Now I’m certain that gear on the axel of wheel set is not in that list . Reason the gear on the axel is a “press fit” other wise there will be no propulsion by the rail bus .                                                 To me the easy option is a replacement wheel set . 

 

 

Yeah if there is a worm not shown in the photo, since those other two are different designs, that would account for the three types they list. I couldnt see wheelsets offered though.

Edited by Hal Nail
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It seems that gaugemaster, or should that be gaugerobber are cutting all the parts from a sprue and selling them for at least a £1 each, so what used to cost about £4 from Howes is now well over £20. I'm not impressed Mr Gaugemaster, I'll be avoiding you from now on. 

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12 hours ago, peteskitchen said:

It seems that gaugemaster, or should that be gaugerobber are cutting all the parts from a sprue and selling them for at least a £1 each, so what used to cost about £4 from Howes is now well over £20. I'm not impressed Mr Gaugemaster, I'll be avoiding you from now on. 

To be fair to Gaugemaster I doubt if they are actually making much more money from this approach. They need someone to cut the sprues, and they have a much broader inventory to record and store as a result. It seems to me a very odd way to have gone, given that the actual cost of the plastic in the sprues is pennies, if that.

 

If you find another supplier, I'm sure we'd all be delighted to know.

 

John.

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4 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

To be fair to Gaugemaster I doubt if they are actually making much more money from this approach.

They made even less than not much from me as they sent what I needed for free.

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Peter's Spares say "coming soon" for Heljan spares.

I find the Gaugemaster approach a bit baffling as well, going to take time getting a mixed order together by someone who hopefully knows what they're looking at. The complete sprues even if they were a bit dearer would seem to make more sense.

Stu

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As I see it Gaugemaster are trying to supply just what customers ask for.  Heljan spares are available in limited quantity very often just from the end of a production run and if a customer wants one or two parts from a spru they supply just those leaving the rest of the spru available for a n other. That's surely the best way to eek out the limited availability.  I have a draw with quite a few Heljan spares from when Howes supplied complete sprus.  If you wanted say one window you had to buy the complete window spru with perhaps 10+ mouldings. Gaugemaster have only been supplying Heljan spares for a short while and no doubt there will be a learning curve, so please cut them some slack.  I have found them very accommodating.

 

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On 29/04/2020 at 15:37, Hal Nail said:

They made even less than not much from me as they sent what I needed for free.

Indeed, today I was told that my missing part is being provided free of charge. Top service. 
 

Roy

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On 24/04/2020 at 13:59, D1051 said:

Thanks Hal . So Worm gear is on motor shaft.Spur gears are straight cut & 2 float on shafts . See picture in front of unit . Now I’m certain that gear on the axel of wheel set is not in that list . Reason the gear on the axel is a “press fit” other wise there will be no propulsion by the rail bus .                                                  To me the easy option is a replacement wheel set . 

201F48C8-E7BF-474E-AB40-A4FB2DD7677F.jpeg

34E3F7B7-C1DB-4917-8FEF-D8B9D452B413.jpeg

 Hi

 

I've had exactly the same problem with my railbus.  I contacted Gaugemaster and they don't have any spares.  They even referred me to Howes!

 

Chris

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IIRC Heljan use mod 0.5 metric gears on their 00 models. If after replacement gears, might be worth looking on evilbay for the gears from china, usually available for pennies (or less than a fiver for a bag full anyway).

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2 hours ago, D1051 said:

It never rains but it pours .My Heljan hymeck has now developed crawl (went like a dream before) along mode ...Coupled to a electrical burning Oder . Just a long shot before we go in dismantle mode .Any ideas on if its the same motor used in a clayton ? As i have a spare chassis

 

I doubt it's the same as in a Clayton, as the Hymek was one of the earliest Heljan models and should have a larger motor like a 47. The Clayton type were developed specifically for the narrow bodyshell locos classes 15,16 & 17.

 

In your Hymek the issue may be that the gears trains in the bogies were too heavily greased in the factory, and with time this has thickened up increasing the running resistance. With luck, and assuming the loco does have the older and larger motor, you may not have burnt it out, just made it a bit cross! I'd try inspecting the gear train to see if my prognosis is plausible, and at the same time whilst dismantled try to get test leads to the motor terminals to see if will work without the load of the gears.

 

John.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Has anyone had any luck finding the OO Heljan Diesel Wheel sets on the Gaugemaster site?  Howes sold them in 4 or 6 axle packs.  I'm overseas, so calling isn't my first choice, if someone knows where they are on their website and can provide a link...

Edited by TheEngineShed
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8 hours ago, TheEngineShed said:

I'm overseas, so calling isn't my first choice, if someone knows where they are on their website and can provide a link...

Theres a link on their website to drop them a message and they will e mail back.

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18 hours ago, TheEngineShed said:

Has anyone had any luck finding the OO Heljan Diesel Wheel sets on the Gaugemaster site?  Howes sold them in 4 or 6 axle packs.  I'm overseas, so calling isn't my first choice, if someone knows where they are on their website and can provide a link...

 

I asked them about these and gave them the Howes product code.  They told me that they can't get them

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  • 4 weeks later...
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On 21/06/2020 at 17:21, jay*bobble said:

Looks like gaugemaster will not be selling replacement gears for o gauge .expensive door stops 

Don’t you mean Heljan will not be supplying Gaugemaster with replacement gears to sell?
 

They can’t sell what is not available :nono:
 

Roy

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3 hours ago, Roy Langridge said:

Don’t you mean Heljan will not be supplying Gaugemaster with replacement gears to sell?
 

They can’t sell what is not available :nono:
 

Roy

Indeed so, therefore not Gaugemaster's fault, unless of course they've said they don't want them.

 

Howes did sell the errant gear part that failed on 7mm Hymeks and 47's, I know this as I bought a few of them for a rainy day.

 

If Heljan don't supply spares I suggest two things will happen. One is that if there is enough of a problem someone will manufacture same and sell them, in that case folk will be happy to pay up to make their "doorstops" operational! The second is that folk will tire of Heljan's attitude and their products and their present strong market position will be eroded, as other entrants come in, grab the ball and run with it, to take the product offering further and make it better as a product, and better value for money. Arguably we're seeing this already.

 

John.

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Currently, as I understand it, Gaugemaster have only been supplied with the injection moulded sprues of parts left over from recent production runs. Transmission parts (or anything other than injection moulded buffers, tanks, hnd rails, etc.) are out of bounds.

 

Suggest send an email to heljanuk@gaugemaster.com as is mentioned on their website!

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Ultrascale are already offering a replacement gear service for many RTR models. Including some Heljan models. Those items look like they are from stock, avoid the long lead time. They are willing to make up new gears to customers requirements so that sounds like a better solution than replacing a defective Heljan plastic gear with another potentially defective Heljan plastic gear....

 

https://ultrascale.uk/eshop/products/CAT015#RTRRG

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