7 mm scale Western: Heljan vs JLTRT

[JeffP]

Had chance at Telford to do a comparison. My feelings were as follows:

 

Heljan: exquisite mouldings for the body, unsure about the "face". You'd have to live with the gaps between body and front valances, and body and fuel tanks, or modify. The window surrounds, grilles and wipers are all excellent, as good as they get.

The bogies, however, are another story. The brakes are a representation at best, lacking the detail of the JLTRT ones, but the biggest let down is the front profile of the wheels, it's not there at all . Given that the wheels on a Western are so visible, what were Heljan thinking? One wonders how difficult it would be to retro-fit Slater's wheels?

 

JLTRT: Let down by what we used to think was a beautiful moulding of the bodyshell, now shown up by the higher quality Heljan moulding. However, dimensionally correct, the face looks right, and the fuel tanks and valances are correct too. High marks for JLTRT, it's just the grilles that let it down compared with Heljan. The window surrounds look a bit on the heavy side, but Pete Harvey does some very nice etches.

The bogies are much nicer than those of Heljan: the brake detail is present and well-executed, and the Slater's wheels just look right.

 

My conclusions? I'd love to see a Heljan body, modified so that the valances and fuel tanks have no gap, riding on JLTRT bogies.......

Neither is 100%...maybe we will be surprised by one from Dapol?

 

[mopar]

What we need are pics.....

[two tone green]

Your right. Surprised by Dapol. It won't happen

[bagpipes331]

What we need are pics.....

Here's my JLTRT Western....

 

 

 

 

 

Bear in mind , I bought the Western RTR, added decent motors/gearboxes and sound. All in just under £2,000