Heljan OO Newton Chambers Car Transporter

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

44 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

...the ER got them, but why did the ER need UIC registered, tiedown and brake fitted car carriers for a London to Edinburgh service ?.. There must have been an original intention that failed to materialise that dumped them there.

The original primary intention as I understand it was fulfilled: the small number constructed were always intended for the ECML London to Scotland services. 

 

But there was a hope that this concept might be extended to provide motorail by train ferry, thus the design was 'ferry ready'.

 

48 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

Which begs a further question.. what about the passengers ?

Regular carriages.

[cctransuk]

4 minutes ago, Porcy Mane said:

 

"Which were used".   Specially importing Fiats direct from inside their "Italian Job" factory in Turin.

 

 

 

Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.

 

Although I suppose it depends on how one defines accuracy.

 

The TIERWAG was clearly intended for the international transport of new cars when built, and was subsequently used for that purpose.

 

Perhaps you'd care to itemise the ways in which Tri-ang's model misrepresented the TIERWAG?

 

CJI.

[adb968008]

1959 was a hot time for new motorail traffic across Europe…

 

BR was advertising international car sleeper services, under the brand “British Railways Continental car sleeper service” from Manchester to Bolougne  perhaps an expansion of this style of service was in mind when ordering this stock. It would be fascinating to know.

 

i’m not sure I buy the “lets just go out and buy some international compliant stock and register it for european running”  just because we can argument… money was still money in 1959… if it were that free flowing why not register all the hundreds of guvs being built in 1959 too ? Newton Chambers was hardly a mass supplier to BR..

 

this was quite a specialist purchase, niche and quite small volume. Ruling out buying it for enthusiasts entertainment… Then Buying it on a whim seems too obscure. If there was no intention behind it, then its either something backhanded or cackhanded.

 

A good idea of the general intentions of motorail in 1959 here…

 

https://retours.eu/en/42-car-sleeper-expresses/

 

 

Edited October 10, 2023 by adb968008

[aureol40012]

4 hours ago, E100 said:

 

The implementation on coaches you can see into makes some sense for putting in passengers / lighting but honestly this made no sense. Just seemed like a feature for the sake of it as the skylights don't reveal anything anyway. The only thing would be to add some extra weight which I sincerely hope these wouldn't require.

How come? Do you have gradients which would cause excessive loads on locos if extra weight is required?

[E100]

11 minutes ago, aureol40012 said:

How come? Do you have gradients which would cause excessive loads on locos if extra weight is required?

 

The weight comment was because I would hope that for the price these would run extremely well and be correctly weighted and not require weight adding to get reliable running. I was struggling to think of reason for the rood and still am beyond it being due to ease of assembly based on the screws being visible but no internal detail.

[aureol40012]

5 hours ago, E100 said:

 

The weight comment was because I would hope that for the price these would run extremely well and be correctly weighted and not require weight adding to get reliable running. I was struggling to think of reason for the rood and still am beyond it being due to ease of assembly based on the screws being visible but no internal detail.

The price point to me is average for hyper detailed coaches these days.  It’s not anything special or unusual in that sense.

[E100]

24 minutes ago, aureol40012 said:

The price point to me is average for hyper detailed coaches these days.  It’s not anything special or unusual in that sense.

 

I entirely agree, however I do also firmly believe that should also correspond to a general increase in quality, including running qualities. There's no excuse for that in 2023. Anyway, we can probably safely move on to finding out how people are finding them as those who ordered the triple packs should be receiving them now. 

[Dominion]

I can confirm they are quite weighty and glide along very nicely.

Tom

[jessy1692]

Mine arrived yesterday, very pleased with my 3. Not often I buy new stuff but couldn't resist these.

 

Very well packed and the liveried box is a nice touch too. 

 

Detail and finishing I think is superb, feels a quality model. Not sure why roof is removable but they are a very good fit. All in all I'm very very happy with mine- worth the wait.

 

Cheers

James

 

[Michael Hodgson]

2 hours ago, Dominion said:

I can confirm they are quite weighty and glide along very nicely.

Tom

Yes, no need to take the roof off and load with cars to give them a bit more weight 🤩

[Phil Bullock]

Got my 6 from CMC today. Can’t comment on running yet but they do look superb … except maybe the grey is a bit too “pearly” . Weathering will probably help ….

 

And removable roof will make tail lamp installation a breeze….

[BluenGreyAnorak]

Mine arrived yesterday and very nice they are, too. I'm surprised that so few pictures or videos are being shared so I put together this little whistle stop tour of my very much work in progress layout:

 

 

[Phil Bullock]

9 hours ago, BluenGreyAnorak said:

Mine arrived yesterday and very nice they are, too. I'm surprised that so few pictures or videos are being shared so I put together this little whistle stop tour of my very much work in progress layout:

 

 

Nice! Are those Bacchy Mk1s? Not a bad colour match if so

[BluenGreyAnorak]

Yeah, that's right. They all look pretty good together. The rake was thrown together with standard couplings to make the vid as I was impatient to see them running but eventually they'll be fitted with fixed and/or magnetic couplings and live in two 3ft long cassettes. The Heljan tension locks are a bit poor anyway, to be honest, being relatively thick when compared to the Bachmann ones.

[Great Waterton]

On 10/10/2023 at 13:35, adb968008 said:

Vac braked vs Air and Vac braked.

(1960’s-1980’s, vs 1980’s).

 

my plat 5 from 1988 only shows 2 left in service: 96294 and 96299 (both bounds green). As I only saw 1 of them that year, they werent working together. Also, shown as condemend: 96290,1,5.

 

My guess is 1988 the 2 were in service in name only.

 

going back to 1986 and 1987 stock books 96290,1,4,5,9  (5) were in service, all BN.
 

TCV btw… Two tier Car Van.

 

Heljan pack 9624 includes 96191,4 and 9 so that covers you for the final years…. Feasibly you can put a Blue, Large Logo, original Intercity or a Scotrail. 47 on. There is a picture out there of a Scotrail 47/7 on two of these in Edinburgh, though it may just be for the shunt.

 

 

 Thanks for that, very informative. 

[61661]

On 10/10/2023 at 09:26, Great Waterton said:

What's the difference between early and late BR Blue? 

Hello,

Just catching up on a few queries here about these new vehicles. Firstly, the early TCVs have Rail Blue roofs and brown-grey running gear, as per the standard for early corporate era repaints around 1966-ish. Later Blue/Grey NVV and NVX vehicles have standard dark grey roofs and black running gear. 

[61661]

On 10/10/2023 at 14:03, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Perhaps the triple packs aren't selling as well as hoped?

 

Mike.

Quite the opposite in fact. Almost all the triple packs were pre-sold before the stock arrived at our warehouse. The only ones we have left currently are small quantities of the factory weathered maroon and blue/grey packs, which are likely to sell out soon too. Pleasingly for us, pre-orders increased significantly in the last couple of months, despite events elsewhere.

The decision to offer individual vehicles was in response to feedback from customers. Fortunately our factory was prepared to be flexible and supplied the single vehicles as quickly as it could. In the end, they arrived from the factory not long after the packs - much more quickly than we expected. 

Edit - just been informed that more than 75% of the singles have also been sold from the warehouse, so we're running low on all versions - packs and singles. 

 

Hope this helps. 

 

Ben

Edited October 12, 2023 by 61661
Update

[61661]

5 hours ago, BluenGreyAnorak said:

Yeah, that's right. They all look pretty good together. The rake was thrown together with standard couplings to make the vid as I was impatient to see them running but eventually they'll be fitted with fixed and/or magnetic couplings and live in two 3ft long cassettes. The Heljan tension locks are a bit poor anyway, to be honest, being relatively thick when compared to the Bachmann ones.

Thanks for the feedback about the couplings. We will look into this as they should be produced to NEM standards. I've checked the couplings in my sample pack and can confirm they are a bit tighter than I'd like. I very quickly ran a flat needle file over each side of one coupling and it fits much better now and can be removed more easily. However, it may be that the tooling for this part is not quite right so we'll ask the factory to check and adjust as necessary for future production. 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Ben

 

[Phil Bullock]

Hi Ben

 

Is there a standard for couplings? My spares box is full of nonstandard ones if so! 
 

Phil

[61661]

55 minutes ago, Phil Bullock said:

Hi Ben

 

Is there a standard for couplings? My spares box is full of nonstandard ones if so! 
 

Phil

In theory, yes! The coupler prongs and pocket should conform to NEM norms in terms of dimensions. However, as you suggest, the reality is that there's lots of variation across different manufacturers and coupling types, even where moulds are perhaps getting worn out. We have a couple of different tension lock sizes to cater for differing buffer lengths etc, plus cranked and straight versions to meet the NEM box height norm on different models.

I model Swiss/German HO and there's endless variation there - some couplings fit the boxes perfectly, others are a real squeeze or the prongs are over-sized.

[Southernman46]

Aye - Fleishmann 6516's and a large mallet spring to mind .....................................

[96701]

Drooping couplings are my bete noir, with I'm sorry to say, Heljan diesels at the top of the frustrating list.

[61661]

53 minutes ago, 96701 said:

Drooping couplings are my bete noir, with I'm sorry to say, Heljan diesels at the top of the frustrating list.

I think that was certainly the case on some of the older models from 10-15 years ago, but less so now as we‘ve changed the way the NEM pockets are mounted. 

[zr2498]

On 09/10/2023 at 11:27, zr2498 said:

Really good news as wanted to have a rake of 4 car carriers with a couple of MK 1 Maroons. I seem to recall up thread, that this was occasionally protypical.

As I ordered pack 2, it looks as though I will have to renumber one, as the singles are same as pack 2!

Even better news. TMC were good enough to change pack 2 for pack 1, plus ordered a single numbered from pack 2 - no renumbering needed 🙂

Thanks Ben for hearing what we requested.

[Dominion]

I am just experimenting with the magnetic couplers that came with these. 

It turns out they handed for polarity. Each pair has one north and one south.

Not a problem but it means the carriers will only couple one way around. 

I have got used to the Hunt Elite and Hornby couplings that work either way around.

 

The Hornby buckeye seems a bit long for these. ( R7398 )

The Hunt Elite ultra close is a little shorter than the Hornby Buckeye and seems good.

 

For context, my mainline minimum radius is 34 inches but as there is a close coupling mechanism I don't think that matters much.