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Gaugemaster Collection - class 86s.


Ian_B
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has anyone had sight of the Gaugemaster re-run of the Heljan 86? Have they fixed the problems with the underframe caused by bad injection molding resulting in plastic not flowing fully through the frame that supports the compressors leaving the whole framing horribly fragile and impossible to repair?

Ian_B

 

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Gaugemaster/Heljan will be using the new re-tooled Class 86 that Heljan has had in development for a few months. 

 

The new Heljan Class 86 is pretty good, under Ben's watch they've made sure that it has certainly been an improvement over the previous one. There's a few minor errors with the pantograph but nothing major. 

 

So yes the Gaugemaster Collection Class 86s are going to be the best Class 86s on the market 

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On 14/04/2022 at 09:39, Matt said:

I wonder if a second batch is coming and if so, what else might be in it…. I’ve only bought 6 so far😀

I’m hoping for 86/2’s myself to follow, i also bought quite a lot of 86/4’s…

Edited by adb968008
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I often wonder why a class 86 got the NSE livery. There were no overheads until a decade or 2 later and then only on HS1 and the loco in question spent a lot of time around Glasgow, hardly an NSE territory.

 

It looks very nice, and I love NSE, but this was hardly ever going to operate there.

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20 minutes ago, JSpencer said:

I often wonder why a class 86 got the NSE livery. There were no overheads until a decade or 2 later and then only on HS1 and the loco in question spent a lot of time around Glasgow, hardly an NSE territory.

 

It looks very nice, and I love NSE, but this was hardly ever going to operate there.

 

Wasn't it painted in NSE to publicise the electrification to King's Lynn?

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1 hour ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

Wasn't it painted in NSE to publicise the electrification to King's Lynn?

 

No , I think Stewart hit it on the head with earlier post . It was repainted to run on the Euston - Northampton  "Cobbler" service  (presumably they make shoes/boots in Northampton). There were Mk1s repainted at the same time for the service . 

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2 hours ago, JSpencer said:

I often wonder why a class 86 got the NSE livery. There were no overheads until a decade or 2 later and then only on HS1 and the loco in question spent a lot of time around Glasgow, hardly an NSE territory.

 

It looks very nice, and I love NSE, but this was hardly ever going to operate there.

 

1 hour ago, stewartingram said:

Euston - Northampton was electrified. I believe it operated there.

 

1 hour ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

Wasn't it painted in NSE to publicise the electrification to King's Lynn?

 

25 minutes ago, Legend said:

 

No , I think Stewart hit it on the head with earlier post . It was repainted to run on the Euston - Northampton  "Cobbler" service  (presumably they make shoes/boots in Northampton). There were Mk1s repainted at the same time for the service . 

From 1983 British Rail was reorganised into business units. The regions became production structures, 'delivering' the business requirements set out by the Provincial (later Regional), London & South East (later Network SouthEast), InterCity, Parcels and Freight sectors. Part of this process was to start moving away from 'common user' assets and to link these to specific businesses or primary users. This is why the post-1983 liveries are called 'sector' liveries.

The reason that 86401 got painted in NSE colours was because NSE had a loco haulage requirement for the London - Northampton peak hour loco hauled 'cobblers' equivalent to one locomotive, the cost of which was allocated to them. Therefore, they asserted their right to have one loco painted in such colours. In reality, it sat in the 86/4 pool so was as likely as any other (depending on the proclivities of control) to end up on one of the actual Northampton services, but it was useful for publicity.
The next reorganisation (1992) saw the abolition of the regions as production centres with the delivery now associated with business sectors. This led to a much more focused allocation of assets, but by this time the use of locos by NSE was almost at an end, with successive EMU/DMU builds replacing loco haulage to Northampton, Exeter, Oxford etc.

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On 14/04/2022 at 08:39, Matt said:

I wonder if a second batch is coming and if so, what else might be in it…. I’ve only bought 6 so far😀

 

Hopefully there will be! I thought I was bad with 4! Im looking for modern Era ones, 86259 would be one for me! 

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86401 wound up in the Parcels sector and in due course received RES livery.  Prior to that, the pairing of NSE loco and Royal Mail red stock was a particularly eye-catching combination.

Edited by 64F
typo
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2 hours ago, XChris said:

 

Hopefully there will be! I thought I was bad with 4! Im looking for modern Era ones, 86259 would be one for me! 

 

Heljan have not produced any 86/2s with their latest tooling, but I seem to remember them indicating they would if the 86/4s sold well enough.

They may as well get more from their 86/4 tooling first. I can't remember seeing any EWS & they carried several variations of InterCity/Mainline, only 1 of which has been reproduced. At least 1 carried the pre-RES post office livery too.

Is/was there many visible differences between 86/4 & 86/2 apart from the MU cable/blanking plates?

Edited by Pete the Elaner
Forgot about the Post Office livery.
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26 minutes ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

Heljan have not produces any 86/2s with their latest tooling, but I seem to remember them indicating they would if the 86/4s sold well enough.

They may as well get more from their 86/4 tooling first. I can't remember seeing any EWS & they carried several variations of InterCity/Mainline, only 1 of which has been reproduced.

Is/was there many visible differences between 86/4 & 86/2 apart from the MU cable/blanking plates?

 

I imagine they'll work through the remaining 86/4 and 86/6 liveries first and then modify the tooling.  For the period of my WCML models (1988-91) there were still the last of the BR blue examples, two main syles of IC Mainline/Swallow (full yellow front style and half yellow front*) with various lettering variations, the original Parcels livery and Railfreight General.

 

*edit - on reflection, I'm not sure if any 86/4s got half yellow front IC Swallow as they were being converted to 86/6s by that point.

Edited by 64F
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19 minutes ago, 64F said:

 

 

I imagine they'll work through the remaining 86/4 and 86/6 liveries first and then modify the tooling.  For the period of my WCML models (1988-91) there were still the last of the BR blue examples, two main syles of IC Mainline/Swallow (full yellow front style and half yellow front) with various lettering variations, the original Parcels livery and Railfreight General.

 

 

It is what I model too.

Wasn't 426 in Electric blue at the time?

Many of those carrying the earlier version of Inter-City also had the yellow ends extended up to the bottom of the window at the end only. I have not seen this but Heljan did acknowledge it when I mentioned it (earlier on this thread I think).

I only ever remember seeing 502 in RF general, but I think some others may have carried 3TG without the sectors.

Some of the Mainline ones also had black headcode panels.

Still plenty more variations to make & I don't see why any would have less selling potential than those currently released.

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9 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

It is what I model too.

Wasn't 426 in Electric blue at the time?

Many of those carrying the earlier version of Inter-City also had the yellow ends extended up to the bottom of the window at the end only. I have not seen this but Heljan did acknowledge it when I mentioned it (earlier on this thread I think).

I only ever remember seeing 502 in RF general, but I think some others may have carried 3TG without the sectors.

Some of the Mainline ones also had black headcode panels.

Still plenty more variations to make & I don't see why any would have less selling potential than those currently released.

Heljan have already done 86426 in its slightly unsatisfying retro livery (rail blue with white windows) - it never quite looked right to me, possibly because the yellow warning panels were too large, and the different shade of blue patch which the E3195 numerals were applied to grated somehow  That didn't stop me buying it in model form though!  I'd like to see more of the IC variants too, but maybe not all at once - months with Heljan releases can be pricey!

 

As you say 86502 was the only 86/5 to get General markings but several other 86/5 briefly wore unsectorised RF.  The first few 86/6s repainted into RF in 1989-90 received General markings  - 86602, 86613 and 86627, maybe one or two others (?), but subsequent repaints went straight into RF Distribution.  (Personally I'd prefer Heljan to avoid 86602 and to instead model it as 86402, the final 86 in rail blue).

Edited by 64F
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10 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

Heljan have not produced any 86/2s with their latest tooling, but I seem to remember them indicating they would if the 86/4s sold well enough.

They may as well get more from their 86/4 tooling first. I can't remember seeing any EWS & they carried several variations of InterCity/Mainline, only 1 of which has been reproduced. At least 1 carried the pre-RES post office livery too.

Is/was there many visible differences between 86/4 & 86/2 apart from the MU cable/blanking plates?

Iirc 86/2 Wheels were originally a different pattern but normalised, 86/2 and 86/4 ended up interchangable.

 

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