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Heljan LNER 2-8-0+0-8-2T U1 Garratt


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  • 4 weeks later...

Lovely to see this. But is Heljan doing anything about the valve gear? I bought one of the second batch, with lovely motors.  However on its second/third wheel clean in 3 years (good) one of the 4 the return crank/eccentric rod pins flew out, never to be seen again (bad).  I have tied the eccentric rod out of the way while trying to work out a solution.  Can I trust the 2-8-8-2 to be any better? I had already placed on order, but don't know whether to proceed  with it.

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Sorry for this PS: I suspect the flying pin resulted from the excessive throw of the return cranks, which was enough to push some of the expansion links upside down on occasions!!  On most models this can be adjusted, e.g. Hornby, which often have zero crank throw, and even the Ellis Clark Black Five seems to be the same!!!  About 2mm fore-at travel is mostly OK, but the return cranks on the LMS Garratt seem non-adjustable.  If I only knew how they are attached, I could possibly do something to reduce the throw, there is no point in forcing things of course.

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Hornby lack of crank throw annoys me a lot.  With the plastic-centred older wheels this can be lightly 'tweaked'.

The other way is to slightly adjust the profile of the crank, to increase / decrease the throw that way.

Al.

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22 hours ago, StuartGWR said:

Lovely to see this. But is Heljan doing anything about the valve gear? I bought one of the second batch, with lovely motors.  However on its second/third wheel clean in 3 years (good) one of the 4 the return crank/eccentric rod pins flew out, never to be seen again (bad).  I have tied the eccentric rod out of the way while trying to work out a solution.  Can I trust the 2-8-8-2 to be any better? I had already placed on order, but don't know whether to proceed  with it.

Hello,

For the avoidance of doubt, as there seems to be a perception that the LNER Garratt will somehow be a rehash of an older model, our new LNER U1 Garratt is a completely new model of a different loco that has nothing in common with the LMS model. It has been designed from scratch to our specification (as opposed to the specification laid down by the customer, in the case of the LMS Garratt) and it will be produced in a different factory which has a reputation for good quality. There will always be the odd 'rogue' among a batch of mass produced RTR models (no-one is immune from that), but this model will not go into production until we are entirely satisfied with its quality and performance. 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Ben

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I'm hoping to be a 'proud recipient' of one of these, when they're finally available.

I'm currently busy looking for extra squirrels to help me!  Don't want to miss out.

 

Al.

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14 hours ago, zr2498 said:

Ben

Just thinking about storage of this monster.

Could you please advise the total length?

 

Dave

It will be a shade under 350mm long - the real thing was 87ft 3in over the buffers. 

 

We haven't designed the packaging yet, but expect the length to be something akin to a medium sized O gauge diesel box (but not as deep). 

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That was quite a fair question to ask, and thanks for the reply!

I suppose my poor garage will be in a similar situation - finding an appropriate space for storage!

Next will be what length of train I can realistically run on my own layout - won't remotely approach scale operation, but could be fun!!

 

Al.

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1 hour ago, 61661 said:

It will be a shade under 350mm long - the real thing was 87ft 3in over the buffers. 

 

We haven't designed the packaging yet, but expect the length to be something akin to a medium sized O gauge diesel box (but not as deep). 

Thanks Ben

Just shows how easily assumptions can be made about the length according to the wheel arrangement. The 2-8-0+0-8-2 is 7 1/2 inches shorter than 2-6-0+0-6-2. Of course the LNER U1 has smaller driving wheels.

Fortunately, I had made a couple of extra storage cradles when constructing for the LMS Garretts.

These are extended Peco SL-43s. Such a pity that Peco changed the design as these were much better for OO gauge.

 

DSC05061.JPG.0d5f5647f3f9e6dfd9f06ce5c5aa5334.JPG

 

It would fit the DCC Concepts MPD-360, but that is quite an expensive option.

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I read the last post and was wondering how on earth a model could be 7.5" shorter - but Google and Wiki put me right.  The LMS Garratt was 7.5" longer than the U1, which I admit surprised me!

 

At least the U1 was 30 tons heavier!!  Both fascinating models.

 

 

Al.

 

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