Jump to content
 

Lynton & Barnstaple OO9 Loco from Heljan


Mike Bellamy
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Gold

Rust? I think it's called Indian Red ;)

They haven't said what's first but I suspect the a Southern and L&B liveries will all be covered. I prefer the Southern but may have to have one of each for the transition period as the L&B coach livery is beautiful.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Price point, to use a modern idiom, is flexible.  In the US Bachmann DCC equiped On30 locos are priced on the Bachmann web site at $300+ , but available from an ebay official dealer for less than half, and auctioned for even less.  All brand new in original boxes.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Heljan kindly provided the details to the 009 Society for display at the Convention, which I pulled together into the display along with the CAD images. They mentioned that the the price is APPROXIMATE, but all other mentions of price have been in the same ballpark.

 

£185 seems perfectly reasonable to me when you consider that a Backwoods Miniatures kit (which is the most comparable in terms of quality based on the details Heljan have provided to date) costs £92 and that requires lots of soldering of bodywork and chassis and lots of time invested in it before you get it to run, let along paint, details etc.  

 

It's a bold venture by Heljan, and from the details provided so far they seem to be heading in a very good direction in my opinion. 

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

Re the  Price  £185 is  very  acceptable  no doubt  there  will be  discounting,  As  mentioned   above by PaulRhb,  there  are  lots of  NG locos  out  there, some around  3  times  the  proposed  Heljan RRP,

 

Theres a  BEMO  Saxon Meyer in a retailer in Lancashire  ( saxon Meyer 0-4-4-0T articulated loco)

 

its  around  £500.00  beuatiful model  but  the  line  has  had   to be  drawn somewhere!!

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

Hattons  announce  their  price  £146.00   quite  reasonable  when  you  compare  that  a  ROCO  H0e  0-8-0  will set  you  back  £250.00 ish

 

3  variants  listed  as  well  so  that  will set  me  back  £438

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

If I remember correctly they are due out some time next year

I beleive  some  retialers  quoting  QTR  4  2014  Some  good  prices  offered  also  lowest  so  far  £146.

 

See also  my  other  post  re  PECO  00-9/H0e  setrack.!!  re  info.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

In the News section of the December Railway Modeller there is a bit about the livery sheets for the waddles. They show No 1361 Yeo in L&B livery (9950), and No 760 Exe (9951) and No 761 Taw (9952) in Southern Railway olive green livery. Delivery is still expected in 2015 but no date is suggested. I suspect a little more information well be available at Warley in a fortnight.

 

There are a couple of images accompanying the article, but I suspect there would be copywrite issues if I were to post them on here!

 

Cheers

 

J

Link to post
Share on other sites

Not my scale or scene, but it is sure good to see someone else are making a move into RTR narrow gauge, the other being Bachmann with their Baldwin in 009.

However to give you guys some idea as to the minimum numbers that have to be manufactured in order to get a decent turn around for their investment.  I was told by Precision Scale about the number of  MMI models they needed was 5000 units and they needed to achieve a certain number of pre-orders before they started cutting metal.

They failed to achieve enough pre-orders to go into production with the C-21 and the other D&RGW models announced to be viable concerns and the MMI division was shut down.  The same could happen here if Heljan or Bachmann fail to see a sizeable number of pre-orders.

So if you want one or two, stop speculating and put your money where your mouth is or it won't happen.

 

Loconuts

Link to post
Share on other sites

That seems a little negative. The fact that we are still getting updates from Heljan 18 months after the project was first announced suggests they have invested a lot already, and are unlikely to back out at this stage. In addition PECO have announced more products in 009, so their initial venture with the L&B stock must be paying off nicely - and that's before there's an RTR loco to go with them! And Bachmann are planning to enter the 009 market.

 

As for minimum production runs, Minitrains are clearly thriving with new HOe (and 009-ish) models but I doubt their production runs are near 5000. Several SG models have been released in recent years with (initial at least) production runs much smaller than that. Modern CAD/CAM manufacture of the moulds seem to make viable quantities way below what they where even 10 years ago.

 

I'm not sure that Heljan are even taking pre-orders, though retailers are advertising them. Anyway I'm sure Heljan have done their homework and will know it's a viable venture without having to threaten customers with having to pre-order.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Ixion have made it pay with their On30 'Coffee-Pot' based on an obscure Australian prototype where I understand the production run was 1000 followed by 1500 Hudswell Clarkes which have almost all gone and a re run in a different delivery is on its way.

 

Perhaps Heljan (and Peco) are hoping to cash in on visitors to Woody Bay in the way that 'Coffee-Pot' sales were boosted by the fact that one is preserved and some sales were to tourists - but then again the same could be said for the K Class MMI locos - perhaps they were just too big and too expensive. I remember Paul Martin (EDM) saying that the recession hit the USA harder than the UK and many proposed developments from a number of manufacturers never happened.

 

.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I suppose 009 is a bit more affordable than 0-16.5 but I'm a little surprised that Bachmann has not introduced a more internationally used or adaptable steam loco into the On30 range, like the Baldwin - I'm sure it would sell quite well.  Yes, there are scale and gauge compromises but so are there in many popular scale/gauge combinations.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Ixion have made it pay with their On30 'Coffee-Pot' based on an obscure Australian prototype where I understand the production run was 1000 followed by 1500 Hudswell Clarkes which have almost all gone and a re run in a different delivery is on its way.

 

Perhaps Heljan (and Peco) are hoping to cash in on visitors to Woody Bay in the way that 'Coffee-Pot' sales were boosted by the fact that one is preserved and some sales were to tourists - but then again the same could be said for the K Class MMI locos - perhaps they were just too big and too expensive. I remember Paul Martin (EDM) saying that the recession hit the USA harder than the UK and many proposed developments from a number of manufacturers never happened.

 

.

Hi Mike

 

I agree with your comments to a degree, however I did not consider the MMI K class locos too expensive.  The quality was superb and having worked in 7mm SG the price was no different than a Martin Finney kit, yet these came built and painted.  Also the MMI models came from South Korea and used lost wax castings which Precision Scale had the patterns for.  I don't consider them too big, they are no longer than a SG 4-4-0 in 7mm scale.

The recession hit the model market really hard in the States after 2008 and still affecting them.  I have two PSC vestibule coaches on order, they have been on order for 7 years and I don't expect to see them in my lifetime.

It is about time we had some British RTR so good luck to the ventures, but manufacturers please don't forget there are a lot of 7mm Narrow Gauge modelers out there.

 

Loconuts

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...