Heljan ES1 exclusive for Locomotion and Rails of Sheffield

[Porcy Mane]

1 hour ago, Red Devil said:

No, far better and easier to use tram overhead fittings are available for from Mark Hughes nowadays.

 

Thanks.

I think the PC etch was a slightly better match for the Tyneside knitting but at least the Mark Hughes stuff is available.

 

 

[GoingUnderground]

I love the look of the model, but what puts me off buying one is doubt over how well the panto runs under the wires.

 

Heljan's feeble attempt at working pantos for the EM1/Class 76 and EM2/Class 77 were worse than useless, to put it mildly, IMHO.

 

Yes, I know the answer is to fix the pan so that when raised the head doesn't touch the wire, or to do without the wire and just add 3rd rail, but that doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Red Devil]

Just now, Porcy Mane said:

 

Thanks.

I think the PC etch was a slightly better match for the Tyneside knitting but at least the Mark Hughes stuff is available.

 

 

There's more on there, but it is a pain to use. Plus my understanding is that the UK rights to it did not go to Andy Reicheart....I may be wrong on that so don't quote me!

What I do know, is that if that is the case, there won't be any coming from the source that claims it. So it would have to come from the US.

[PaulRhB]

15 minutes ago, Matabiau said:

Can anyone explain the difference between the original and preserved versions?

It’s in the video, the handrails are different. Note how they step up away from the bonnet on the early one at one end. 

[Matabiau]

7 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

It’s in the video, the handrails are different. Note how they step up away from the bonnet on the early one at one end. 

Thanks for the info.

[stuarttrains]

the earlier version also has a NER crest which is a separate item that fixes in places on the door of the loco which will be available in the accessory bag

 

[Michael Hodgson]

I can't see any mention of the minimum radius it will take,   The undustry standard now seems to be 2nd radius, but this has a short wheelbase and people may want to run it over tighter courves than usual.  1st radius? maybe?

[New Haven Neil]

Cripes, who would have thought.

 

I still think it is a shame they repainted the preserved one, it was in York museum for years in the BR Green livery. 

There has been a lot of talk about preservation of some locos as they were leaving traffic, but not this one apparently.

 

It is pricey, but that's life nowadays. Looks very detailed too, I just may have to get one, having a soft spot for old electrics, having grown up next to the Westoe system.

[micklner]

4 hours ago, HonestTom said:

According to the video on Hornby Magazine's YouTube channel, the original collector was only there very briefly, so they didn't think it was worth it.

According to attached it was fitted for a "few" years , hardly briefly.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_ES1

 

A unusual choice by Heljan et al.

Only two locomotives that run hidden in Tunnels. There are so many Locos of the NER that would be good sellers, and  been ignored yet again . As said earlier one for the bargain bin in the future, time will tell. Not for me.

[PaulRhB]

12 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

still think it is a shame they repainted the preserved one, it was in York museum for years in the BR Green livery. 

There has been a lot of talk about preservation of some locos as they were leaving traffic, but not this one apparently.

Bit of a quandary there 😉, if everything is preserved as it left service you don’t get to show the story of the constituent companies.

Personally I think it’s nice to see the old colourful liveries rather than mostly dark green or black to tell that story. I get it that most are modified from the time they carried the early livery but I do think the colourful pre grouping and grouping liveries are important to show as most carried them for as long or longer than the BR livery. I don’t know when they repainted them exactly but roughly, 
1905-23 NE 18 years. 

1923-46 LNER ? 23 ish years. 

1946-64 BR ? 16-18 years. 
 

But then I get a bit bored with all BR green and black on some preserved lines too 

 

[New Haven Neil]

2 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Bit of a quandary there 😉, if everything is preserved as it left service you don’t get to show the story of the constituent companies.

Personally I think it’s nice to see the old colourful liveries rather than mostly dark green or black to tell that story. I get it that most are modified from the time they carried the early livery but I do think the colourful pre grouping and grouping liveries are important to show as most carried them for as long or longer than the BR livery. I don’t know when they repainted them exactly but roughly, 
1905-23 NE 18 years. 

1923-46 LNER ? 23 ish years. 

1946-64 BR ? 16-18 years. 
 

But then I get a bit bored with all BR green and black on some preserved lines too 

 

 

Well it was LNER green, not BR green!  I just think it was a shame in that particular case not to have kept it as it was.  Personal thing possibly, but I take your point.

[PaulRhB]

1 minute ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Well it was LNER green, not BR green!  I just think it was a shame in that particular case not to have kept it as it was.  Personal thing possibly, but I take your point.

I agree to an extent when they’d made an effort to restore the original style but that in itself was a livery only carried for around 4 years so the shortest of the lot. One case where painting one side back to NE so there’s one in each style would have worked quite well. 

[Tim123]

Going to order one in as preserved at Locomotion livery. Used to do cab guides on the loco until asbestos was discovered at the end with the rheostats.

[Fair Oak Junction]

Lovely looking models of an interesting loco, what's not to like? Can't justify one myself given my other modelling commitments but I really hope it sells well.

Hopefully if it does it might spark more of an interest from manufacturers for other early electric locos. Well I can always dream! 😉

Edited October 28, 2022 by Obsidian Quarry

[thohurst]

This model looks brilliant!

I'll be honest, I was a little bummed it wasn't a Class 84, however this is a good pick too - Though not something I'll be purchasing, Looking at the photos the finish quality and detail looks phenomenal.

[Compound2632]

Better dust off the Slaters P20 hoppers and finish those D&S NER 6-wheelers! I fancy a micro Newcastle third-rail layout with a Class O standing in for a failed electric passenger unit... Perhaps the petrol railcar could put in an appearance?

[friscopete]

I have an overwhelming desire  to pull the buffers off ,install kadees and paint it yellow.Mercifully I cant afford it .

[johndon]

A couple of years ago I drew up a plan for an EM cameo layout based on Newcastle Quayside to run my Judith Edge ES1 on.  I got as far as getting the baseboard and the track and then dropped the ES1 and one of the bogies exploded in to a hundred pieces most of which were small pieces of shattered resin.  Now that I've just ordered one of these I may resurrect the plan...

 

 

Trains enter and leave via the tunnel which is at the top right.  The centre road is for arrivals, top road for departures and the lines at the front give somewhere for wagons to be shunted to on the quayside.  Black lines represent walls (with the one at the rear being a very high retaining wall), buildings are in green and the blue at the bottom is the River Tyne.  The whole thing is a little less that 6*2 so can be built as a single unit.

[298]

5 hours ago, GoingUnderground said:

I love the look of the model, but what puts me off buying one is doubt over how well the panto runs under the wires.

 

Not just that, but there isn't much travel so all of the wire would have to be at the same height, so you wouldn't see the pan moving up and down. And the narrower head width means lots of pull-off wires to keep the contact wire in position. Nothing that isn't too much of a problem really, but running it at a fixed height might be better.

[Chris116]

The current economic situation will undoubtedly have an effect on all of us and therefore on our ability and willingness to make purchases of any model railway items. However, the people who I come into contact with who are screaming loudest about prices going up are the ones who have new mobile phones, laptops and 65" TVs they seem to replace every nine months. Having started work in 1972 I have seen what inflation can do to your wages. It is not fun but by keeping things for longer before buying replacements it is amazing what you can save. This means that £220 for the ES1 is a more likely purchase than replacing a 9f from one manufacturer with a new one from either the same or different manufacturers.

 

If all the prices have gone up 20% then only have four locomotives instead of five on your new layout or find good quality secondhand ones instead of new ones. There are choices to get around the situation and if you find yourself in the position of having no funds for buying models then start improving the ones you already have with some modelling. If you don't know how to make the improvements you want then ask here and I am sure you will find lots of help.

Edited October 28, 2022 by Chris116
Fat fingers!

[PhilJ W]

19 hours ago, JSpencer said:

There is a similar shunter on the EKR when I recently visited.

There was four of them, each one slightly different. A good subject for a model?

[Jol Wilkinson]

14 hours ago, micklner said:

According to attached it was fitted for a "few" years , hardly briefly.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_ES1

 

A unusual choice by Heljan et al.

Only two locomotives that run hidden in Tunnels. There are so many Locos of the NER that would be good sellers, and  been ignored yet again . As said earlier one for the bargain bin in the future, time will tell. Not for me.

I suspect that the decision to make this model was quite strongly driven by the NRM who like to be able to sell models of things in their collection. As preseved items they are also available for scanning, measuring, etc.

 

It has also probably been in development for at least a couple of years, so may have been aimed at a cheaper RRP but has been overtaken by more recent economic events.

[No Decorum]

1 minute ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

I suspect that the decision to make this model was quite strongly driven by the NRM who like to be able to sell models of things in their collection. As preseved items they are also available for scanning, measuring, etc.

 

It has also probably been in development for at least a couple of years, so may have been aimed at a cheaper RRP but has been overtaken by more recent economic events.

i suppose one advantage for manufacturers in announcing things at the last minute in these dodgy times is that they are not committed to a price announced years earlier. Of course, some try to hold their prices whereas others do not. I know that Bachmann produced a relatively small number of fan spinners but they are the ones which seemed to sell out first. Not everyone is put off by high prices, it seems.

[Nearholmer]

Fascinating choice.

 

These were effectively American locos, designed in the US, with the core parts built by British subsidiaries of American firms, BTH being GE, and near-identical locos were built by GE subsidiaries in France and Italy, so open your mind to a model of Gare D’Orsay in 4mm/ft scale!

 

Regarding pricing and affordability: I think we tend to get stuck in thinking of a paradigm of huge volume, low unit cost toy/model trains for every man/boy, the 1950-80s picture, or its 1990s run-on while Chinese people were happy with very low wages. It feels to me as if 00 is fast going to a place where volumes are low, unit prices high, and the intended customer base is the % of the population who do have discretionary spending power. To use a slightly extreme analogy: think Ferrari, not Ford.

 

The peril for the model train industry, which is what SK identified well in his TT launch video, although reading comments on here people seemed to misunderstand, is that maybe things become unsustainable under a really small volume, high unit price business model.  

 

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by Nearholmer

[D6332]

It's definitely being converted to 1500volts DC and joining 26510 as a Wath banker... looking at her the other week you can still see the 26500 number clearly under the paint and the lion too. The flamecut numberplate from 26501 turned up on a dig recently and was auctioned too! .mmm think 26500 in green and a renumbered black 26501 are they not doing any 26501?!?