Heljan GWR 47xx Night Owl

[JamieR4489]

Where's the 'sorry sir' button?

[robmcg]

No need to be sorry, everyone gets to give their view, especially DON'T MENTION GWR GREEN   

 

Edit; actually your two photos posted are very good and give a very good idea of what the two models look like, as studio photos go. Pity Heljan didn't have a good one of the BR 47XX  from the word go.

Edited September 2, 2018 by robmcg

[robmcg]

Based on a picture in the Great Western Society 4709 page, it's the Heljan model with a few slight edits...  grateful acknowledgements to the photographer and the Society. Primarily its the smokebox front and stays adapted, all else is pretty much exactly the model. Oh, and I coloured it in, as it were.

 

The original photo showed all the skills of the old large format film photographers, the difficulties in 'stopping' the train, achieving depth of field, and so on. People have it too easy these days!   The original was of an unknown 47XX before 1930. Small tender, high top front lamp.

 

magnificent engines these, and very fine models in my humble opinion

 

Edited September 8, 2018 by robmcg

[Re6/6]

That is one superb picture Rob. I'm amazed how you do it!

[Silver Sidelines]

I was so impressed with my BR Green model that I thought I would purchase 4706 in BR Black.  Three models later (plus over half a day of fettling) I have a nearly very good model.

 

 

 

Heljan 4706 BR Black 'Night Owl'

 

 

BR Green left, Br Black right

 

 

http://youtu.be/Sok2wILhmGE

Edited September 3, 2018 by Silver Sidelines

[Forester]

4706 looks great.

 

But big black locos really highlight the substitution of maroon for proper a Carmine finish on the coaches.

[robmcg]

Some edited pics of three versions of Heljan't 'Night Owl'; pristine 4706 BR Black, Rails lightly-weathered BR lined green 4705 and TMC-weathered G W 4707.   I so like these models!

 

 

 

 

Gives an idea of the various ways these models can look, very little done to the appearance of the actual models with editing. I have bought a second 4706 to weather.

 

cheers, will remove if asked.

Edited September 8, 2018 by robmcg

[Re6/6]

.... cheers, will remove if asked.

Why would anybody want these removed? They are very enjoyable to view!

[robmcg]

Why would anybody want these removed? They are very enjoyable to view!

 

Large numbers of serious modellers, notably several very prominent RMweb contributors, don't like my pics in the context of information about models.   In 2014 Andy Y asked me to stop putting edited pics up in ordinary product threads, he wrote that he had received more complaints about my pics than anything else on RMweb.  Recently the same serious modellers expressed their dislike, and that I should have dedicated thread for modified photos, which I have never done, nor do I recall ever committing to do.. I said I would consider something.

 

For what it's worth I have a Facebook page with a couple of thousand followers, and curiously in four years I don't think I've received a single complaint other than the odd correction to fact or typo.

 

Each to their own

 

A lot of people I suspect steer clear of this site because of a kind of bullying feeling, certainly many new contributors phrase things in apologetic tone, but it is a marvellous resource and funded by BRM and Andy and others' work.

 

Moving quickly along, I truly admire the Heljan 47XX in spite of its propensity to loose bit in transit, and the long list of possible or actual faults so usefully compiled by Stationmaster, 'washout plugs possibly not quite right' and similar errors, but finding faults is what people like to do.

 

cheers

[bike2steam]

Large numbers of serious modellers, notably several very prominent RMweb contributors, don't like my pics in the context of information about models.  

 

 A friend of mine, a professional model maker, has always insisted the reason he doesn't get invited to some shows is because certain club members are jealous of his work. I've always doubted his claim, but knowing some people, I'm coming round to understanding it!!??

[Silver Sidelines]

Two pictures which might be instructive.

Night Owl and Abergavenny Castle - contrasting greens.



Look what came out of the Hornby box - so similar to Heljan?



Yes the smokebox dart, and the centre lamp iron from the rear of the tender.  A good couple of hours and they are all glued back on.

Ray

Edited September 11, 2018 by Silver Sidelines

[robmcg]

Two pictures which might be instructive.

 

Night Owl and Abergavenny Castle - contrasting greens.

 

DSC00930.JPG

 

Look what came out of the Hornby box - so similar to Heljan?

 

DSC00909.JPG

 

Yes the smokebox dart, and the centre lamp iron from the rear of the tender.  A good couple of hours and they are all glued back on.

 

Ray

 

Seems a very common occurrence, the darts and small parts being vulnerable. I'd still rather have them on the model or at least in the box than moulded-on, except where moulded-on is indistinguishable.  I observe that Bachmann tend to put a lot of parts in an accessory bag for the owner to fit. When I was younger and took great eyesight and deft hands for granted, I would have enjoyed fitting them, nowadays it's a bit more of a challenge!.

 

I think the pale greens on several GWR engines by Hornby are clearly a bit light for a clean engine, but the photos I've seen published and on line suggest to me that lighting and grime could bring about something lighter than the deep lustrous Brunswick green on, for instance, some Bachmann engines, you cannot please everyone.

 

In particular it's hard for modern cameras to please everyone with their default colour characteristics/sensors. That's why I have never understood why editing a pic is so frowned-upon, albeit I sometimes draw and paint things on, being too clumsy and lazy to glue things on, which is different from say just editing false skies, but being absolutely honest about the rest of a photo.  For me the simplest thing is to simply say that a photo is edited, or not, the latter being an odd thing rather meaningless thing where you have 'set' the aperture and other settings, and perhaps stack-focused and cropped it, and changed the colour balance, tone, contrast, brightness and so on, but it is not 'edited'....    confused?  I am. 

 

btw that's lovely lighting and colour in the 47XX and Castle pic above.

Edited September 11, 2018 by robmcg

[Silver Sidelines]

Finally got my act together.

 

 

 

247 plates (and blackened wheel centres). It is all a bit of a compromise. Must write a Blog Post about it. 4706 plates were supplied black and I recoloured them red.

 

Cheers Ray

Edited September 17, 2018 by Silver Sidelines

[ppatch]

Hello all, I've just joined the site, so apologies if this has already been mentioned earlier.

 

Did the 47xx actually run with the Hawksworth G crest W livery in GWR days, as I thought it was reserved for express passenger engines, which this loco doesn't seem to have been until after nationalisation?

[County of Yorkshire]

Hello all, I've just joined the site, so apologies if this has already been mentioned earlier.

 

Did the 47xx actually run with the Hawksworth G crest W livery in GWR days, as I thought it was reserved for express passenger engines, which this loco doesn't seem to have been until after nationalisation?

 

Hi there, welcome to RMweb. 

 

The quick answer to your question is yes, and we have indeed had this 'debate' before on here. Please see this post and a the following few posts (made on this thread no less) here. Unfortunately the conversation about copyright became a bit fractious and so the image was taken down, but rest assured it very much showed 4707 in G-Crest-W livery. 

 

It is also believed that there were 47xx's running around in the immediate post-war period in G-W-R livery too, so it's a reason to snap up more than one Night Owl!

 

Cheers,

 

CoY

Edited September 23, 2018 by County of Yorkshire

[ppatch]

Hi there, welcome to RMweb. 

 

The quick answer to your question is yes, and we have indeed had this 'debate' before on here. Please see this post and a the following few posts (made on this thread no less) here. Unfortunately the conversation about copyright became a bit fractious and so the image was taken down, but rest assured it very much showed 4707 in G-Crest-W livery. 

 

It is also believed that there were 47xx's running around in the immediate post-war period in G-W-R livery too, so it's a reason to snap up more than one Night Owl!

 

Cheers,

 

CoY

Thank you for your reply - that is helpful!  SO a good excuse for 4 Night Owls then (all the GWR liveries) unless they do a black one, so then I will need 5!

 

Dave

[Silver Sidelines]

For those with a passion or is it an obsession for Night Owl I have just added a Post to my Blog relating my experiences with 4706 - Heljan's BR black 47xx.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/880/entry-21354-black-is-black-i-want-my-loco-back-Heljan-night-owl/

 

Ray

[OnTheBranchline]

For those with a passion or is it an obsession for Night Owl I have just added a Post to my Blog relating my experiences with 4706 - Heljan's BR black 47xx.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/880/entry-21354-black-is-black-i-want-my-loco-back-Heljan-night-owl/

 

Ray

 

The whole hobby is built on obsession

[peteskitchen]

 I bit the bullet and bought a model of 4705 in BR lined green. It seemed well put together with non of the issues that have been noted. However it didn't run particularly well, seemed to need a lot of power to get it moving, but then it seemed to go quite fast. Not easy to control at all on DC. I good look over it and the front axle seemed quite stiff so I lubed up all the axles and this seemed to improve things somewhat. However pulling a train, even gentle curves slowed it right down, and hills very much so. It wasn't lack of traction, just lack of grunt. The tender seems ludicrously heavy, to the point that I've chopped out the centre section of the metal weight in there. It was considerably heavier than an old Margate tender drive! I also nobbled the pickups on the front tender axle as they were super draggy. Wow what a difference it has made! Corners don't slow it down at all, and hills slow it only as you would expect. After all it is a very heavy loco. An hour of running has freed it up the front axle as well. Anybody else find theirs a bit lacking power wise as standard?

 As a footnote... I wish Heljan (and Hornby) would adopt Bachmann's method of making the tender draw bar adjustable. The one you get with this is just way too far apart or way too close to be useful. No in-between.

[Ian Hargrave]

As a footnote to this and all that has been posted by me and a number of other forum members,I did request that when I bit the bullet ,Rails examined and tested mine prior to posting. Mine had none of the issues you describe.IMHO you should return it.

[peteskitchen]

As a footnote to this and all that has been posted by me and a number of other forum members,I did request that when I bit the bullet ,Rails examined and tested mine prior to posting. Mine had none of the issues you describe.IMHO you should return it.

 It's getting better and better each time I run it, plus I've hacked a great lump of cast out the tender!

[adb968008]

Ive got to admit for the loco it is, i expected the haulage on my rather steep gradients to be at least as impressive as the Heljan O2 is, and found it a little lacking.

I may follow Petes lead here in reducing the tender weight as it does seem disproportionatly heavy than it need be.

 

Mine settled in nicely since i got it.

Edited November 24, 2018 by adb968008

[peteskitchen]

Ive got to admit for the loco it is, i expected the haulage on my rather steep gradients to be at least as impressive as the Heljan O2 is, and found it a little lacking.

I may follow Petes lead here in reducing the tender weight as it does seem disproportionatly heavy than it need be.

 

Mine settled in nicely since i got it.

 Its very easy to do. The tender top is held by three hidden screws, and underneath by four. That releases the metal weight. Cutting it is the hardest part as it's horrible stuff to cut.The dcc gubbins is just lightly stuck to it. When you chop the middle out just leave the ends with enough metal for the outer screws. When you've reassembled the dcc bits can just sit on the top of the chassis. Check the tender picups whist you do it as mine were like hard on brakes! Mine will easily pull 16 Hornby Railroad Gresleys up a 1:100 now it's totally freed off. Shall I pop a picture up later of what it looks like under the tender body?

Edited November 28, 2018 by peteskitchen

[Garethp8873]

I need a replacement tender buffer for my GWR Shirtbutton 47xx. Looking at the pamphlet, I can see several listings for buffers but I cannot tell which one I would need to order.

 

Can anyone help please?

[RMH]

I am glad some of you managed to receive a complete model , every single one we have been supplied with (9) was damaged , it looks a decent model , but broken buffers , footplates detached , stanchions in box along with various other bits . Not damaged in transit packages always arrived in good condition , given up now .

Edited July 2, 2019 by RMH