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Heljan announce Class 104 DMU in OO gauge


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I think, for the class 104 it needs to keep the saloon free of motor and gears, along with the undeframe, so myself I’d prefer the Bachmann and Realtrack answer which is a small, low slung motor and associated gears. You get the best of all worlds then, with an excellent performing model too. I hope they don’t fill the DMBS with a huge slab of metal surrounding the motor as in the first batch of Bachmann’s class 150’s. Time will tell.

 

Rob.

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2 hours ago, Market65 said:

I think, for the class 104 it needs to keep the saloon free of motor and gears, along with the undeframe, so myself I’d prefer the Bachmann and Realtrack answer which is a small, low slung motor and associated gears. You get the best of all worlds then, with an excellent performing model too. I hope they don’t fill the DMBS with a huge slab of metal surrounding the motor as in the first batch of Bachmann’s class 150’s. Time will tell.

 

Rob.

 

On 07/11/2020 at 13:21, AY Mod said:

 

This one's certainly going to cost me. Ben told me in the interview that it has low-floor mechanism etc. which is good news.

 

 

 

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Like most other people I think this is fantastic news.  I have very fond memories of these units. 

As a young trainspotter we used to buy tickets at Longport every Saturday morning to Crewe return.  Then spend the day at Crewe train spotting and marking off the Ian Allen lists in the books. 

The view into the 104 cab when passing through Harecastle tunnels was amazing, and the purple / blue engine lights appeared really bright in the gloom (you could hardly see them in daylight).  The tunnel still smelled very smoky back then (mid  60's) since there were a few steam locos around.  It was every young boy's dream to sit up front behind the driver and such a disappointment when it turned out to be first class in the direction of travel.  

In my mid teens (early 70's)  I used to catch the Crewe Works train every morning at Longport - almost invariably a 104, and back again in the evening. 

I'll buy at least one, maybe two. 

And I have my fingers and toes crossed that Heljan might scale it up and manufacture a 2 or 3 car unit in 7mm / O Gauge.  One of these plus the Swindon cross country class 120 if it comes to fruition would be sublime.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 27/11/2020 at 08:19, SirBud said:

Like most other people I think this is fantastic news.  I have very fond memories of these units. 

As a young trainspotter we used to buy tickets at Longport every Saturday morning to Crewe return.  Then spend the day at Crewe train spotting and marking off the Ian Allen lists in the books. 

The view into the 104 cab when passing through Harecastle tunnels was amazing, and the purple / blue engine lights appeared really bright in the gloom (you could hardly see them in daylight).  The tunnel still smelled very smoky back then (mid  60's) since there were a few steam locos around.  It was every young boy's dream to sit up front behind the driver and such a disappointment when it turned out to be first class in the direction of travel.  

In my mid teens (early 70's)  I used to catch the Crewe Works train every morning at Longport - almost invariably a 104, and back again in the evening. 

I'll buy at least one, maybe two. 

And I have my fingers and toes crossed that Heljan might scale it up and manufacture a 2 or 3 car unit in 7mm / O Gauge.  One of these plus the Swindon cross country class 120 if it comes to fruition would be sublime.

I think they said they would do a class 120 if the class 117 sold good but think they will probably do the class 104 as they made more of them.

I am hoping they scale down the class 120 and do it 4mm as if you can in 7mm and it sells well it is more than likely to sell well in 4mm and seems high up on the 4mm DMU wish lists

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A couple of Scottish ones for me. A Mexican bean and one other that will need to be renumbered, so I am hoping the destinations are easy to change. Just got to work out which one is best to renumber to represent one of the Scottish 3-car sets. 


Roy

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With Heljan 47 tipping £220 , the Class 104 when it arrives will not be cheap . It was only announced recently , so probably 2 years away . So I suspect there will continue to be 110 to 104 conversions

 

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Came across a reference in the Dec 1969 Railway Observer of the first 'white stripe' Blackpool units being observed at Preston, probably around August 1969 due to the publishing lag - which is quite a lot earlier than I would have thought.

 

The vehicles involved were 50471+59179+50523, 50477+59185+50526, and 50475+59183+50527.

 

 

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46 minutes ago, wombatofludham said:

Initial CAD is up on Faceache

Class 104 update

Looking really good so far.

 

Takes me back to cold evenings on Bletchley station as a teenager when the 104s were coming down from the Manchester depots to replace our Craven 105s!

 

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Oh wow. It looks superb, with, amongst other things, the first time the hand rails have been modelled on the cab/lead passenger saloon glazing. Also you can see the engine start/stop button panel on the drivers side of the cab, and the correct pattern of steps on the bogie below the cab. 
Then there are the seats which look very good with the distinctive head ‘roll’, very much a feature of these BRCW units. I’m most confident that we are in for a first class model from Heljan with these class 104’s. And all the basic shapes of the body and roof look to be correct too.

Rob.

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7 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Looks great but the pricing seems OTT.

I can't disagree with your comment, but it always comes back to the old adage of Heljan need to make margin and if that's how they've structured the price there isn't much we'll do to change it. It's a tough balance for any manufacturer to make an item affordable enough that people buy it but not put people off at the same time. I'd like to see more first gen DMUs but at these prices I'd struggle to buy many.

Nonetheless, it looks very good. Start saving up I think!

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1 hour ago, 37403 said:

I can't disagree with your comment, but it always comes back to the old adage of Heljan need to make margin and if that's how they've structured the price there isn't much we'll do to change it. It's a tough balance for any manufacturer to make an item affordable enough that people buy it but not put people off at the same time. I'd like to see more first gen DMUs but at these prices I'd struggle to buy many.

Nonetheless, it looks very good. Start saving up I think!

 

Completely agree! I've always liked the one in NSE but will be waiting till the project is further down the line to see whether it's worth saving up for.

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For me It just moved from a must have for at least 4 /5 units, down to “lets a wait and see”.

£349 RRP (£296 after discount) for a loco and coach, £449 (£85 after discount) for the extra 3rd coach is quite strong.

Its making Bachmann look cheap, 4 car BEP £499 (£399 after discount).

 

Ive been comparing this to Pikos 4 car PKP EN57 which was announced the same time, beginning of 2021

 

https://www.modellbahnshop-lippe.com/Drive+trains/Electric+Railcars/Piko-51450/gb/modell_367126.html


its priced at 349 Euro RRP inc tax, (though Gaugemaster wants £390 for it).

Almost  similar specification, I never thought i’d see the day European modelling becomes cheaper than UK modelling, especially niche models such as Polish railways, but this is 50% cheaper, or your getting twice as much unit, depending on your point of view.


The Heljan IC3 3 car DMU works out £285, though it is a re-release, its still £165 cheaper than the class 104.


It is what it is, and suspect its less about China and more about the UKs new way of doing things, both companies are European, with factories in China.

 

Dissapointed but we move on, its the first one I really want but cant justify, i’d already pre-ordered 4 of these back on announcemnt, but will now roll back.

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5 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

For me It just moved from a must have for at least 4 /5 units, down to “lets a wait and see”.

£300 for a loco and coach, £85 for the extra 3rd coach is quite strong.

Its making Bachmann look cheap.

 

 

I know there is the continual moan about prices, but things are getting worse with every new release, and often older tooling just moves up in price to match. I was on for 2-3 104s, like you @adb968008 I will wait and see (not that I ever pre-order Heljan any more). The 104 is going to have to be very special for me to part with my money.

 

Heljan's prices for the Class 47 seemed a step up from their normal price structure, and the 104 seems to follow on.

 

Roy

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