Heljan Beyer garratt

[cheesysmith]

Has anybody heard anyhting more about this? The original date was for release this year in time for crimbo, has this been kept? Only asking because there has been sliping of release dates with anything coming from china lately, and was wanting one for my farther as a present.

[Free At Last]

Have you tried asking here ?

Scroll to the bottom of page to enquire.

[(The) Youth]

There is an article in the current Hornby magazine about development of the model including details on drive/motor arrangements and a few CAD images

 

Simon

[cheesysmith]

The same article with the hattons team also said something about release being put back until january. I wonder if it will use the normal HJ b2b, bit of a pain if you model 00-SF.

[polybear]

I wonder if it will use the normal HJ b2b, bit of a pain if you model 00-SF.

 

Certainly the B2B on my two most recent Heljan locos seem to have been increased to more "00-sf friendly" dimensions.

 

polybear

[JZ]

Considering how fast the Bachmann LMS 3F sold out, I have a feeling there will not be enough LMS Garratts to go around.

 

Not exactly your everyday loco on a rural branch though.

[brian777999]

Not exactly your everyday loco on a rural branch though.

 

Really ? Do you think it would look out of place on a Great Western branch line ?

[coachmann]

Not exactly your everyday loco on a rural branch though.

What hope is there for the Blue Pullman, Southern Belle EMU and the Beattie Well Tanks then ha ha...

 

It seems to me the Beyer Garratt is too good a model to resist, modellers licence 'an all that.

['CHARD]

Has anybody heard anyhting more about this? The original date was for release this year in time for crimbo, has this been kept? Only asking because there has been sliping of release dates with anything coming from china lately, and was wanting one for my farther as a present.

 

Farther Christmas?

[stewartingram]

Really ? Do you think it would look out of place on a Great Western branch line ?

 

And didn't they work across the M&GN to north Norfolk somewhere? Somewhere I'm sure I have a couple of pics, one where it is looped to let the BP past on a footie special, preceeding the other one which is GT3 on a Leicester-Yarmouth saturday train...honestly if you were a modeller they would say you were making it up.....

 

Stewart

[MarkSG]

If you modelled a section of the Midland route through the Peak District you could plausibly run both Garratts and BPs on the same layout, although obviously not at the same time. Provided you took care to avoid obvious anachronisms, it would be fairly easy to build something that can be operated in multiple eras, including 30s LMS and early 60s BR.

 

Given the potential for spectacular scenic modelling, plus either Garratts or BPs depending on the timescale, that would probably be a very effective - and popular - exhibition layout. (Not dissimilar, of course, to Chee Tor which recreates a similar area in N scale).

[7013]

In this months Model Rail Hattons are predicting some EP bits by the end of July/August

[Colin_McLeod]

How about a Garratt hauling a failed Blue Pullman!

 

 

Where is my coat?

[7013]

Something that has been going round in my head, Hattons/Heljan have done a lot of testing with twin motors and apparently they synchronise very well. However, will the decoder socket be connected to both motors? I assume it will be. If it was only connected to one then they would go out of synchrony when CVs were changed. Another query, if both motors are connected to the DCC socket the current draw will be large as Heljan motors do tend to have a big current draw, two will have a huge draw and will surely limit what decoders can be used

[Chameleon]

Plus, what about back EMF? Does that work with two motors? I presume you will need a fairly heavy duty chip, good job there will be plentyof room in a beastie like that.

[stewartingram]

I've got to admit that I'm a bit puzzled by questions about mismatched motors. I can see where they are coming from, but practical experience doesn't bear it out in my experience. If the situation was say a HST set with 2 power cars, and the rear one was more powerful, in theory the worst case would be the coaches being pushed off the track, or at least wheelspin from the rear loco? My experience is that the 2 actually work to match one another, with the more powerful one being held back in performance by the lesser one. Even double heading, with 2 different locos, I don't seem to get any problems. A big wheeled pacific, say, with a small wheeled tank loco, and in worse case a 'well thought out' tank with low speed gearing, coupled to a 'toy' express loco, the two work together. As for back emf; my controller is a 70s design from Wireless World, adapting the then new technology of drill speed controllers with back emf and shaped pulse width. Biggest problem I find in general is poor electrical pickup. I add pickup to as many wheels as possible, and rely on solid soldered connections rather than wipers (such as in recent Bachmann dmu bogies to underframe) to give the best possible pickup.

I'm not saying it won't occur, and have no practical experience of DCC, though have fitted a few hundred Zero1 chips in my time. Just my musings and practical experience so far.

 

Stewart

[Colin]

Apologies if this has been aired before (haven't read whole thread) but might this open the door for a Stanier Mogul one day, now Heljan have the chassis?

[7013]

I agree with you Stewart and whenever I have stuck a couple of DC locos together on the track to double head it usually works, however with DCC and two motors in the same chassis it could be a recipe for disaster if only one motor were connected to the chip. as I pointed out before if one started altering performance CVs in one chip it could go horribly out of sync with the other motor, perhaps an email to Hattons is in order.

Edited June 18, 2012 by 7013

[clecklewyke]

Apologies if this has been aired before (haven't read whole thread) but might this open the door for a Stanier Mogul one day, now Heljan have the chassis?

I am planning to motorise an old Kitmaster Garratt (badly made up by me in my teens). I was planning to use a couple of Comet Fowler 2-6-4T chassis (modified of course) but is the Stanier mogul a closer match?

 

Ian

Edited June 18, 2012 by clecklewyke

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Apologies if this has been aired before (haven't read whole thread) but might this open the door for a Stanier Mogul one day, now Heljan have the chassis?

Surely no more than the current existence of the Horwich mogul, some ten years or so available from Bachmann?

 

Take one 8F body, cylinders and gear, one Horwich crab chassis and tender, apply modelling skills to blend together and there's the basis of a decent looking Stanier mogul. Tim Easter showed how on this site some years ago.

[jonny777]

And didn't they work across the M&GN to north Norfolk somewhere? <snip>

 

Stewart

 

I don't think so. Garratt's certainly worked to/from Pain's sidings east of Saxby on trains of local iron ore, but technically this is not quite the M&GN which had an end-on junction with MR at Little Bytham. There were quite severe restrictions on the section from Sutton Bridge to South Lynn which precluded large locomotives, but in any case the goods traffic could be handled quite adequately by much smaller classes.

 

It would be nice to think that during the dark days of WW2, special exception was given to a Garratt on a heavy train of ordnance or aviation fuel, but I am venturing into fantasy, as it would have been more logical to send it via Peterborough East and March.

[Porco Rosso]

Two Beyer Garratts hauling very long trains, meeting at one of the M&GN passing loops would be an interesting conundrum.

[The Stationmaster]

Two Beyer Garratts hauling very long trains, meeting at one of the M&GN passing loops would be an interesting conundrum.

 

But easily solved - it's well known 'shunting puzzle' kind of thing (there used to be a nicely animated GIF of it knocking around on the 'net. Mind you I've never heard of it in connection with either Garratts or the M&GN.

[Porco Rosso]

Yes, I must admit I am aware that even two holiday weekend passenger trains meeting at an M&GN loop was an interesting experience, with both trains likely to be longer than the loop itself. The solution is well described in one of the M&GN books - can't remember which though. Basically, one train stopped short of the loop. The other brought a loops-length of train into the loop, leaving the rest of its train behind. Then, the first train drew through the loop, coupling up to the back of train two. The front half of train two then carried on forwards beyond the loop for some distance. Train one then brought the rear half of train two into the loop, uncoupled it and left it there. It then reversed back beyond the loop and forwards through the empty road in the loop and on with its journey. The front portion of train two then backed up to recouple with its rear half before carrying on with its journey - or something like that anyway.

[The Stationmaster]

Yes, I must admit I am aware that even two holiday weekend passenger trains meeting at an M&GN loop was an interesting experience, with both trains likely to be longer than the loop itself. The solution is well described in one of the M&GN books - can't remember which though. Basically, one train stopped short of the loop. The other brought a loops-length of train into the loop, leaving the rest of its train behind. Then, the first train drew through the loop, coupling up to the back of train two. The front half of train two then carried on forwards beyond the loop for some distance. Train one then brought the rear half of train two into the loop, uncoupled it and left it there. It then reversed back beyond the loop and forwards through the empty road in the loop and on with its journey. The front portion of train two then backed up to recouple with its rear half before carrying on with its journey - or something like that anyway.

Exactly like that, very nicely described (I understand the method was also used on the Highland during WWI but have never been able to find any evidence of that (n.b. I believe a Garratt design was also proposed at one stage for the Highland mainline in LMS days so it's not totally OT).