Heljan Class 26 In Original Condition - A Few Quick Piccies

[Baby Deltic]

My three arrived this morning. I took a few quick shots of D5300 during my lunch break:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

['CHARD]

Oh it's not gonna be a kind period for my wallet now is it....

[pheaton]

tut tut Heljan.....the unmolested 26 did not have the gravity catches on the battery box

 

I do like the way they have done the marker lights though!

[31A]

D5309 arrived at Finsbury Square from Liverpool today, and so far I'm very impressed with it.  Lovely smooth, almost silent running, and seems to have plenty of power.  As pheaton says, the marker lights are good, being a 'warmer' colour and more subdued than those of other Heljan locos I've got.  The cab interiors are mainly filled with a 'box' section to the level of the fronts of the cab doors, but the desks are modelled; when I get it apart I'll paint the superfluous bits black or dark grey to make them less obvious, and fit a crew.  The buffer beam details are already fitted so I'll have to find out by experimentation which bits need to be cut away to allow use with automatic couplings - the screw couplings will have to go unfortunately, and possibly part of the moisture trap on the steam pipe fitting, and maybe also part of the vac pipe.  Comparing it with what few decent pictures I've got of these (they don't seem to have been much photographed during their brief stay on the GN!), there seems to be some pipework, mostly painted white when new, missing from the top of the bogie side frame on the second man's side; possibly connected with the LT Trip Cock apparatus, and if so I would imagine quickly removed when the locos emigrated?  The bag of bits contains snow ploughs which won't be needed in London, and otherwise just the discs to fit and then it can join the queue for some light weathering attention.

[31A]

Investigated mine a bit further today; took the lid off to fit a crew, and extinguish the tail lamps.

 

The latter was easy-small pieces of black insulating tape over the aperture in the mechanism block through which the red light shines.  It appears the lights on this one are provided by bulbs rather than LEDs?  In any case, the headlights give a nice subdued yellow shade.  Getting the cab interiors out was quite easy, but getting them back again was one of those jobs that needs four hands - the 'light pipes' for the tail lamps keep falling out; I resorted to glue to keep them in place, but not before I'd managed to break one.  Not that I wanted them to work anyway, but thought the tail lamps would look better with lenses in!  I was pleased to have got the cab interiors back in without damaging the lamp irons or windscreen wipers, but do seem to have damaged the green paintwork on the no. 1 end slightly.

 

In the meantime, I'd painted the 'spurious' bits of the interiors matt black and highlighted the controls with same, and provided a crew from Hornsey's Preiser link.  Having eventually reassembled, I fitted headcode discs and after a while realised the mouldings are cunningly 'handed' in respect of the securing lugs for left handed, right handed and central positions to take account of the curvature of the cab front (and there are also white 'closed' discs for the middle upper position).

 

I then fitted tension locks either end.  The mounting is the usual Heljan version of the NEM pocket which seems to be prone to 'up & down' slackness which sometimes allows the couplings to droop; on this example, this was more evident at the no. 1 end than the other end.  I can't see what can easily be done about this.  I thought about substituting Bachmann couplings which seem to work better (the hook is more restrained), but decided this would result in a bigger gap between loco and train.  To allow the bogies to swing with tension locks fitted, I had to remove the nice screw couplings by clipping through the pin that passes through the drawbar.  I also had to crop off the bottom of the steam pipe mounting, and the vac pipe bracket where it passes beneath the buffer beam.  The vac pipe now being unrestrained, could be bent out of the way of the coupling as could the steam pipe, and the other fittings were all left in place.

 

 

[stewartingram]

Lights - remove them. Much more realistic.

Heljan coupling slack - get a sliver of thin plasticard and push that in the slot below the coupling. Seemed to work for me in the short time I used them, before deciding to go for S&W couplings.

 

Stewart

[31A]

Lights - remove them. Much more realistic.

Heljan coupling slack - get a sliver of thin plasticard and push that in the slot below the coupling. Seemed to work for me in the short time I used them, before deciding to go for S&W couplings.

 

Stewart

Thanks Stewart.  As regards the lights, normally I would agree with you as they are usually far too piercing with the brilliant LEDs that are often used.  However in this case the headlamps just produce a dim glow, very reminiscent to me of the kind of light produced by the early diesels' headlamps.  In fact on conventional DC they're hardly visible until at least 'half power' is reached.  I tried to take a photo to show what I mean but couldn't get it to come out right!  I can't stand tail lamps illuminated when a loco is pulling a train, and they weren't often used on light engines either, as has been discussed elsewhere.   So I always 'disable' them but prefer to do it by sticking insulation tape over the source of red light a ) because the modification is then reversible should I ever wish to dispose of the loco and b ) because I don't like wielding cutters or soldering irons around the electronic bits of modern locos, in case I disconnect or damage the wrong bit!  Similarly, it's sometimes possible to break the circuit with a strategic piece of tape between contacts (e.g. Bachmann Deltic and 03 cab lights).

 

As regards the coupling mountings, it isn't the fit of the coupling into the NEM pocket which is loose, but the pocket is carried on an arm pivoted from above the bogie frame, which is where the slackness arises and seems to be inaccessible.  The classes 15 and 16 also suffer from this, but the 23 has the pocket moulded solidly as part of the frame, so I guess this part of the new 26 may be carried over from the versions of this loco modelled previously?  Potentially it might be possible to make a shim washer from plastikard and somehow push it over the pivot pin, but it's almost impossible to get at without taking the bogies off.  If anyone's carried out a mod which has cured this, I'd be interested to know.

 

On a lighter note I was looking at some more pictures of these locos when they were new, and was impressed to note that the very bottom of the upper headcode disc (reverse side) was painted green where it overlaps the body colour when closed - what attention to detail by BRCW, and scope to add a (very small) amount of green paint to the model!

[br-nse-fan]

Cracking photo's!  They look incredible!

 

Just one question.. has Heljan corrected the height of the coupling pocket, or are they still using a cracked coupler?

 

Thanks!

[SRman]

I usually replace te cranked couplings with straight shank versions from Hornby or Bachmann. These usually compensate for the droop.

[Mythocentric]

Just a note of caution! I popped into my local model shop to pick up a couple for my new layout on Saturday - D5300 (2660) and D5317 (2663) which I wanted dcc decoder fitted. Unfortunately that highlighted a problem in that in dc mode the locos run perfectly whereas with the decoder fitted the locos run but the lights refuse to work. He tried reversing the decoder with the result that the lights worked (but refused to switch off) but the decoders heated up very rapidly and burned out! He tried 3 different decoders (Hornby, Bachmann and TCS) with the same outcome. Whether it's a widespread or a batch problem we don't know until he contacts Heljan this week but I'll report back asap with the outcome!

 

Regards

 

Bill

[31A]

I usually replace te cranked couplings with straight shank versions from Hornby or Bachmann. These usually compensate for the droop.

I was expecting to have to do that, but on this occasion the cranked Heljan couplings lined up pretty well with the tension locks on other stock.  I may try again with straight Bachmann ones however - as you suggest, they may compensate for the droop, and would no doubt work better (the hooks are more restrained and don't tend to wander to the side).  When I initially offered up the Bachmann ones (36-027) it did appear that they would increase the distance between vehicles, though.  Oh for Peco couplings!

[pheaton]

Just a note of caution! I popped into my local model shop to pick up a couple for my new layout on Saturday - D5300 (2660) and D5317 (2663) which I wanted dcc decoder fitted. Unfortunately that highlighted a problem in that in dc mode the locos run perfectly whereas with the decoder fitted the locos run but the lights refuse to work. He tried reversing the decoder with the result that the lights worked (but refused to switch off) but the decoders heated up very rapidly and burned out! He tried 3 different decoders (Hornby, Bachmann and TCS) with the same outcome. Whether it's a widespread or a batch problem we don't know until he contacts Heljan this week but I'll report back asap with the outcome!

 

Regards

 

Bill

That will be the main circuit board shorting the DCC chip on the motor-body, its a common Heljan problem as there is nothing to keep the board in place bar two rubber clips and the board has probably shifted, either in transit or as a result of fitting the chip, Heljan normally have a piece of thick tape on the underside of the 8 pin socket, but this can be missing in my experience or pierced by the solder joints of the 8 pin socket.

Give this a check, because the Heljan uses grain or wheat bulbs they consume a lot more power than LEDs so the problem shows up quite quickly.....trouble is if the bodyshell is on it normally distorts it!

[AJCT]

Here’s my D5309, now renumbered D5303: about half an hour’s work to fit a set of Ultrascale P4 wheels and here she is working a Down Carlisle – Edinburgh passenger northwards up the 1-in-75 from “Newton Duns” on my model Waverley Route layout.  A few detail changes so far:

• reposition the front lamp-irons as per the first 4 members of the class;
• pick out the bufferbeam air reservoir pipe details in yellow instead of white;
• touch up with white paint the black edging to the front cab windows.  I’m assuming this is intended to represent black rubber window grommets, but for the green era that’s only appropriate for the Class 27s – the 26s only gained it much later on;
• fit longer MU jumper cables;
• replace the wee “handrails” in the centre of the nose doors with finer wire – I suspect they were actually hooks to hold the nose doors open when the gangways were in use.

Still to update are the steam heat pipes: the moisture trap is nicely modelled but the pipe itself has a coupling (or “gladhand” as I believe it’s called in North America) more appropriate for an air brake pipe.  The roof exhaust port is a bit chunky, so that could maybe do with an etched replacement.  And then of course we need a crew, and a bit of weathering to give that in-service look... and so on.  I’m sure the experts out there can come up with even more refinements than those yet suggested in previous posts, but these are the ones I’ve thought of so far.

 

Alasdair

[brushman47544]

My three arrived this morning. I took a few quick shots of D5300 during my lunch break:

 

DSC06064.JPG

 

I've been catching up with the model railway press since coming back from hols and have been looking at the pictures of these new Class 26s very carefully, because something about the front windows jarred. Now, I think I know what it is... the centre window appears to be a bit too high. On all the prototype photos the distance between the top of each of the three cab front windows and the change from white to green paint is the same, whereas on the model the white (see photo in quote) in shallower above the centre window. It's not the paint job on the model, because on the prototypes the transition from one side to the other above the windows is a smooth curve whereas on the model it's not.

 

Am I imagining it and the actual models are right (I don't have one - yet) or is this another boob by Heljan?