Heljan western

[peteskitchen]

 I don't know why Heljan don't do more runs TBH. The last run they did coincided with Dapol's release which was heavily trumped as super perfect, yet the Heljan ones sold out fairly quickly and the price of second hand ones wasn't effected at all. It's not like the class 86 which took years and seriously heavy discounting to shift. Personally I prefer Heljan's drivetrain on this to Dapol's, which to me seems incredibly power hungry and not as controllable on DC. However the last run of Heljan's Wizzo did suffer from badly built drive trains on some which required rebuilding. (IIRC somebody on here described how to rebuild them) I bought a Desert sand and green on from the last run, the green one was fine but the sand one was very noisy indeed.

[Gwiwer]

I can hazard an educated guess as to why they have said “No more.”

 

There have already been many versions released. There is another brand which looks more like a Western (specifically it does not have that baseball-cap front) and many versions of that have also been released.

 

I would expect Heljan would have had a long hard look at the sales figures, spotted a downward trend, and have decided enough is enough. Better, commercially, to quit while you are ahead.

 

Westerns are still available in most of the liveries they wore. Should you wish to represent a different locomotive to those produced this is easy with Dapol since they do not pre-fit the name or number plates. Alternatives are readily available - I use Fox - and the position is even lightly marked on the bodyside for you.

 

To re-christen a Heljan Western you start by removing the existing decals.

 

It is a few years now since I decided no more Heljan Westerns would be purchased. That in a small way might have played a part in their withdrawal.

[Silver Sidelines]

You might think the Dapol looks more like a Western, I might think the Heljan runs more like a Western!

 

..There is another brand which looks more like a Western ..

 Cheers Ray Edited September 17, 2018 by Silver Sidelines

[Gwiwer]

You might think the Dapol looks more like a Western, I might think the Heljan runns more like a Western!

 

 

Cheers Ray

On a good day!

 

On a bad one the real ones didn’t run at all. Dapol’s and even Hornby’s do better than that almost all the time.

Edited September 17, 2018 by Gwiwer

[adb968008]

I can’t think of many classes that have been tooled up five times in model form... not even the Deltics have managed that.

 

Trix, Hornby, Lima, Heljan, Dapol.

 

Interestingly, D1004 Western Crusader seems to be a firm favourite in BR Green..

 

Trix 1165

Lima L104800

Heljan 5207

[Silver Sidelines]

An old video to remind ourselves.

http://youtu.be/BmLOPdkKqjg

As an aside my last two purchases were Heljan 'Night Owl' and Hornby 'Abergavenny Castle'. The former is mechanically superb ( https://youtu.be/Sok2wILhmGE ), the latter arrived minus tender centre lamp iron and smoke box dart.

[adb968008]

I am thinking about buying a cheaper western to do in Foster Yeoman livery, as this is something that had a high chance of occurring in the late 1970’s., when several were sidelined from the scrap lines at Swindon., for this possibility.

 

Thing is would they just be BR Blue, Yeoman Blue (like SW1001) or would they last long enough for silver to appear ?

[lee74clarke]

*** Please ignore this post, all sorted now ***

 

 

 

Hoping someone may be able to give a bit of advice on this one please.

 

I have 4 Heljan Western's, 5203 Champion, 5024 Enterprise, 5210 Emperor, and 5201 Empress. (think I have Heljan codes correct)

The variants are probably irrelevant, expect in maybe identifying different batches, but the first 3 run perfectly, with the exception of one point on my layout, where they derail. This happens running the loco in either direction. (so, if bogie number 1 derails running one way, bogie number 2 derails if taking the loco off, turning it through 180 degrees and trying again)

That would of course normally point me to the track, but the forth loco runs perfectly fine across that section. Typically, that model doesn't run very well at all generally, but that's another matter. (just runs intermittently)

 

The place where derailment happens is on a radius 4 curve and no other models derail there.

 

I haven't had chance to look into the issue closely yet, but if anyone has any obvious pointers, that would be greatly appreciated.

Edited December 23, 2018 by lee74clarke