Railroad Class 33

[orcadian]

Hi!

Just wondering if anyone has positive expectations about the forthcoming Railroad Class 33? It's just over half the price of the Hattons/Heljan 33's in plain green, but is this saving likely to be false economy? I intend to get at least one Class 33 with a Howes sound system. I've seen the thread re. the Howes method of fitting speakers, and other people's successful sound installations, (and many thanks to those who have posted their advice therein) but having seen how empty the Lima 00 33's were, and how full a Heljan one is, just wondering if the Railroad one would therefore be a doddle for adding sound?

 

If the difference between anything in the present Railroad range and 'proper' Hornby/Bach/Helj models easily outweighs the price differentials, I'm not going to be a cheapskate!

 

Richard

[frobisher]

Just wondering if anyone has positive expectations about the forthcoming Railroad Class 33? It's just over half the price of the Hattons/Heljan 33's in plain green, but is this saving likely to be false economy? I intend to get at least one Class 33 with a Howes sound system. I've seen the thread re. the Howes method of fitting speakers, and other people's successful sound installations, (and many thanks to those who have posted their advice therein) but having seen how empty the Lima 00 33's were, and how full a Heljan one is, just wondering if the Railroad one would therefore be a doddle for adding sound?

 

I seem to recall that opinion is that the Lima 33 was basically 33 shaped and could be turned into a decent representation of the real thing. And the roof profile is better than Heljan's 33/0. But I think side by side, roof apart you'll pick the Heljan as the better overall package as is, so much so you'll probably overlook the roof (it doesn't jump out at me, but you can see it's wrong).

 

There will be plenty of internal space for a speaker though.

 

If the difference between anything in the present Railroad range and 'proper' Hornby/Bach/Helj models easily outweighs the price differentials, I'm not going to be a cheapskate!

 

The big difference is the drive mechanism - Railroad diesels have a single motor bogie so hauling power will not be as good. Also most detail is moulded on but this could be the opportunity to do a bit of modelling/detailing. Modern central drive locos have much better underframe detailing (not just a box in which the loco weight sits).

[John M Upton]

Another thing to be aware of and presumably will reappear on the reheated Limby version is that the roof fan grille was too small. Easily replaced with a readily available etch mind plus a couple of quid for a flushglaze pack and a reasonable model starts to appear.

 

Should this thread be better sited in the Hornby products section?

[JohnR]

Another thing to be aware of and presumably will reappear on the reheated Limby version is that the roof fan grille was too small. Easily replaced with a readily available etch mind plus a couple of quid for a flushglaze pack and a reasonable model starts to appear.

 

Should this thread be better sited in the Hornby products section?

 

Don't Hornby put in flush glazing to their ex-Lima models?

[John M Upton]

Don't Hornby put in flush glazing to their ex-Lima models?

 

No - The Limby locos re-released so far were the 37 and the 73 with the 40 to follow and these all had flush glazing in their Lima days. The Class 33 was very much an older tooling (circa 1984 IIRC) and has a glazing unit that is flat against the inside face of the shell. Even just flush glazing the Lima 33 improved its appearance immensely.

[Colin]

My two penn'orth....

I went for what I consider to be the best of both worlds - a superdetailed Lima 33 body (separate handrails, a new roof grille, flush glazing and a decent paint job work wonders) will fit onto a Heljan chassis with very little fuss. I even managed, with a bit of surgery, to use the Heljan cab interiors and lighting system. It seemed the easiest way to get a mid 1960s era (ie pre refurbishment) 33 - I know the Lima cab windows are too small, but from normal viewing distance the overall body shape is definitely better than the Heljan IMHO and I avoided having to alter the roof detail.

[pete_mcfarlane]

The odd shape of the Heljan 33/0 doesn't take away the fact that it's a better model than the Lima 33. The Lima one has seriously undersized and wrongly positioned cab front windows, and the horn cover of the roof was made narrower to match. The whole front end looks totally wrong and it (to my eyes) just doesn't look like a 33 - unlike the Heljan 33/0 which looks like a (slightly wonky) 33.

 

It does have the early roof though, so can be legitimately done as one of the low numbered green ones.

 

Whatever it's faults, it's being sold as a cheap kids toy in the Railroad range, and not as a scale model, so we shouldn't be too critical.

[orcadian]

The odd shape of the Heljan 33/0 doesn't take away the fact that it's a better model than the Lima 33. The Lima one has seriously undersized and wrongly positioned cab front windows, and the horn cover of the roof was made narrower to match. The whole front end looks totally wrong and it (to my eyes) just doesn't look like a 33 - unlike the Heljan 33/0 which looks like a (slightly wonky) 33.

 

It does have the early roof though, so can be legitimately done as one of the low numbered green ones.

 

Whatever it's faults, it's being sold as a cheap kids toy in the Railroad range, and not as a scale model, so we shouldn't be too critical.

 

 

Thanks for all these replies - you've given me good points that I must weigh up.

 

I posted this here, rather than in 'Products - Hornby' as the RR 33 isn't yet available, and so to an extent we're still in 'perhaps' territory. Also I'm glad to see that it hasn't turned into a 'Railroad is useless toy rubbish' thread, which is most certainly NOT what I wanted to learn!

Many thanks!

Richard