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Of course, the real enthusiast would be keen to know whether they’re being shipped FOB, DDP, or with some other such incoterm, agreed with the factory.

Go from P32 onwards. I’m running detailed and flush glazed Hornby 86s alongside the new Heljan ones and will be getting a couple of Heljan’s 86/4s when they come out.

Are these still in production, as I couldn’t find them on the site? I found out that the Heljan base is plastic, not metal last night, and not quite capable of taking the fettling needed for the pan to fit in snugly.

This looks wicked! I have downloaded a copy to read at my leisure.

Yes, that’s the way to do it. All my customers that import from the ROW are doing the same. I have a Ballymoss on order with the white window surrounds for my heritage fleet, and the LL class 37.

Looking at the lead times of other new models I’ve recently bought, I’d say the Autumn is the likely time they’ll be landed. Add 2 weeks’ further delay if they need to go over the EU/UK border, if we haven’t sorted it out by then.

Testing 1 - 2 too!

A spare catenary dropper - the final versions have a loop soldered onto the upper horizontal member just below the insulators for the catenary (or 'messenger') wire. And the testbed. Using the Peco mast to get the dimensions, I drew a sketch on graph paper, based on a photo of the real thing. I used .75mm nickel silver rod for the main triangle and side assembly, and .5mm brass wire for the registration arm (I think that’s what it’s called) that holds the contact wire. I found this flexed a little too much on some so some got replaced with slightly thicker wire. I used thin masking tape to hold down the components that needed soldering. I made a top piece out of a strip of plasticard, and insulators from 0.3mm brass wire coiled around the .75mm nickel silver wire. Apart from the soldered joints they are glued together with superglue. The thing is to ensure the contact wire is lower than any other parts of the assembly or the pan head will catch it. The contact wires are held in place with a blob of superglue, and this can be heated with a soldering iron if you want to remove a piece of wire for maintenance. The gantries are the Scale Model Scenary ones.

There's a pic of a spare assembly on my thread:

Would-be drone footage

Of course, go for it. Let me know of any improvements he may have. The wires are standard Peco BTW, but shortened as required.

Yes, using the Peco mast I drew a sketch on graph paper, based on a photo of the real thing. I used .75mm nickel silver rod for the main triangle and side assembly, and .5mm brass wire for the registration arm (I think that’s what it’s called) that holds the contact wire. I found this flexed a little too much on some so some got replaced with slightly thicker wire. I used thin masking tape to hold down the components that needed soldering. I made a top piece out of a strip of plasticard, and insulators from 0.3mm brass wire coiled around the .75mm nickel silver wire. Apart from the soldered joints they are glued together with superglue. The thing is to ensure the contact wire is lower than any other parts of the assembly or the pan head will catch it. The contact wires are held in place with a blob of superglue, and this can be heated with a soldering iron if you want to remove a piece of wire for maintenance. The picture above is the test piece, the proof-of-concept if you will, so that’s your first thing to do before it gets rolled out on the layout. .

All the lights work too. I’ve used car headlamp yellow on some to give the impression of sodium discharge lamps.

My 2 non-sprung Heljan pans now work quite well, but I’ll go for the Sommerfeldts. It looks like the Heljan metal base can be fettled with a file so the pan just drops in like the Hornby bases I’ve used before. The Hornby crossarm pan from their 87 also doesn’t work properly on catenary, with the pan head flopping over to the side, which is a real shame as I like the look of it. I have a poseable Judith Edge crossarm pan on an 86, but my soldering skills weren’t quite up to making it work fully, alas.

I understand you can send the file to a commercial 3d printer like Shapeways and they print them. I have some class 86 compressor shelves (from someone on here), to replace the one I broke on my Heljan model, and also for my Hornby fleet in due course. https://www.shapeways.com/product/7SX4KWHEF/1-76-class-86-underframe-with-one-compressor

Yes, I think the real 50 ones may be different too having squinted at photos. I really need to get up close and personal to 87002 that has a real set. Here's my Hornby 87 duplicates.

Thank you! It's been great fun to do. It could in theory get integrated into a larger layout at some point in the future.

The growing heritage fleet:

The pantograph looks good, but nearly destroyed some of my new catenary due to the pan head not sitting straight and the springing being too strong. My banger blue one now has a spare Sommerfeldt 927 on a Hornby base. The original blue ones have had the springs removed and a tweak so that they can be posed at about the right height. This is something that does need to be addressed, and watch out if you have modelled OHLE. Beware!

They look similar to the castings I took off the Hornby 87, size-wise. I wonder if the ones on the 50 are a touch too big having scrutinised some photos, though I still think the Hornby 87 ones are a little too small.

One of the few shots of the construction. I wish I'd kept more of a record in hindsight!

During last year’s lockdown I went on furlough, and during this time I started tinkering with a couple of old model locomotives that had lain in a drawer for many years. The interest grew, having abandoned it beforehand during my later teens when girls, music, nightlife took over for a good few years. Eventually I amassed a couple of drawers full of locomotives and thoughts turned to making a little scene for them to be displayed on and even run, and hence Nifkin’s Bridge TMD was born, using a couple of chests of drawers with the tops removed, and turned into covers, to protect it from dust and the odd giant cat incursion. The main period is mid-eighties, with a smaller number of items covering the green/blue transition. Of course timey-wimey stuff does happen when I just run what I want! Power is DC at the moment, with a view to going digital at some point. I joined RMWeb well after laying all the track, wiring it up, and doing the scenery, but following interest shown in posting the odd picture or two in it’s near-current state, I have taken the plunge and started a thread on here to show to all you good people, and I go into how the various parts were modeled over the coming weeks, months and years. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

I may just wait for the Heljan 86/4 and make moulds as I have 2 on order. My small, but perfectly formed appendages look good enough for now. The pan needs some work first as the geometry isn’t quite right having just installed catenary.

Or in the spirit of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, I could always treat myself to a 50, as I haven't got one yet and a large logo one would work in my era. I am trying to go for at least one model of each class eventually. I could make a set of moulds off that and use car body filler to make the items. It takes a couple of goes before you get a decent set. Food for thought as a set could also end up on the 87. Nevertheless the 87-based MW looks OK.