34040

Great to read in the latest Model Rail that Dave has completed the CAD work and we might expect our models in the third quarter of 2018. Thanks, Dave, for persevering with this project. 

Dave R

I have not been following this thread recently, thinking that the project was dead, so it was a nice surprise to find that this is not so. There are some drawings of the locomotive on page 38 of British Rail Main Line Electric Locomotives by Colin J. Marsden & Graham B. Fenn (Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 0 86093 559 0).

Dave

It looks great but shouldn't the numbers be in sunshine yellow on this particular loco?

I have also received my 30182 today and although I mentioned earlier (allegedly in the wrong place) the problems encountered by Model Rail when reviewing this model in their current issue, mine works very well straight from the box and although there is a slight reduction in speed on second radius curves (mine are Hornby System 6, by the way) it has not derailed in any section of my layout. Possibly the wider flangeway in Hornby track allows the wheels more freedom to adjust to pointwork.

Dave

In the early seventies, there was a shortage of FGAs and many of the sets ran as tens. However, these were quickly converted to fives as soon as FGAs became available, due to their flexibility.

This was the best news from the Bachmann announcement, as far as I was concerned. Hattons are showing the FFAs as packs of two, rather than singly as Andy suggests. Having singles or packs of three is a far more sensible idea, given that most of the wagons were in 5 sets but I can sense the words "gift","horse" and "mouth" forming in members' minds so I will admit that having to put up with buying pairs of FFAs is a minor irritation compared with the chance to replace the old Triang wagons for those of us modelling BR circa 1970. Maybe, if these sell well, we can look forward to a decent model of a Morris crane to replace the Triang toy one. I know that this is available as a downloadable card kit but something more solid would be preferable.

Have just noticed that there will be a suitable crane added to the Scenecraft range. My cup runneth over.

Kernow's web-site has indicated that the Hampshire Units were likely to be released during this year. I have just contacted them (so that my Visa card can be ready for the shock to come) and Chris has replied that they are not expected until the end of the year at the earliest

A bit of a disappointment - for me, if not for my card!

Trouble is, all of those would require starting from scratch, whereas with the 33 the mechanism and most of the basic body shape are already available.

As I already have 7 of the Heljan models and have learned to live with their shortcomings, I am unlikely to trade these in for new improved ones. What might persuade me to part with some shekels is if the revised body was made available to fit to the existing chassis.

As Heljan are good at charging for replacement parts to cover for their own mistakes (remember the wheels), then they may hit on this idea, once they have completed the Rail Exclusive order.

Dave

Class 14 Cab Steps

 

Just wondering if any of the after market suppliers have come up with replacement cab steps for the Heljan Class 14 not because I think there is anything wrong with the originals but because one of mine has just broken off. Actually, it got bent inwards from poor handling [guilty] and then the rods hit it and it pinged off across the room.

 

I don't normally model 4mm standard gauge but I seem to have collected a few odd diesels.

The leaflet which came with my model suggests that you contact Hattons directly for spares, quoting the catalogue number and the part number shown by each item. In case you did not have this information with yours, the part number for the steps is 37. It should not be too difficult to drill out the bits left behind in the slots and glue in the new part.

Dave

My Blue Circle one arrived yesterday. I also broke off one of the sets of cab steps, whilst I was fiddling about fitting the brake shoes but luckily it was not flung across the room (either by the con. rods or my frustration)and I was able to stick it back on. The one the other side did not appear to be glued into the frame (just pressed in), so I fixed that at the same time. I am going to have to be careful: it is too easy to pick the loco up by the cab and have your fingers wrap around underneath and there go the steps.

The weathering is OK (no bare patches on the wheels) and the model runs well. My loco was delivered without any headcode numbers but I am not too bothered as I was not intending to use them anyway. From what I have seen, the headcodes on the privately owned examples were allowed to rot away to nothing, so not fitting any seems prototypical.

Dave

No worries Dave,

Thanks muchly for the part number and website, your a legend.

 

Cheers Peter.

Happy to help. If you go ahead, you will end up with sore thumbs but save about £7.00 per loco.

Hi Dave,

Sorry to hear about the problem with the 47, I use Kadee's so it could still cause a problem plus the Kadee's need to be at the right hight.

I have had a look for Pullman wheels and can only find the packs of ten 14mm coach wheels, any ideas where you could get them from? Looks like we will both be trying to get some.

 

Cheers Peter.

Sorry, mate: been off line for a few days. Luckily, I still have some spare wheels left over from the Pullman bogie upgrade but www.Hornbyspares.com advertise a set of four Pullman w/lights wheelsets as Part no. X9096 at £1.79.

Thanks, Peter. When you said that you were going to "have a go" with the Bachmann wheels, I thought that you might have done as I did and lay in a stock before trying a test fixing. Your decision to go for the Hornby Pullman wheels might prove to be inspired as I have just discovered a problem with the Bachmann wheels. When coupling to a vehicle with the old full size tension-lock couplings and taking a second radius curve, the lower height buffer of the Class 47 will foul the hook on the wagon and may derail it. This should not be a problem with the 35 (oval buffers) or 33 (shorter wheelbase) but may result in me retro-fitting my 47s with Hornby wheels, although careful train-building might be able to keep the situation from occurring.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Thanks for that, I think I might have a look at getting some Hornby wheels and give that a try.

 

Cheers Peter.

Thanks, Peter. If you are considering the Hornby wheels, then I should point out that the ones to which I was referring were the Pullman "with lights" wheels which I had left over after upgrading my coaches to take NEM couplings. I do not know whether ordinary coach wheels will do the job. Hornby do make the Pullman wheels available as a spare part at about £2.00 for a set of four (the Bachmann ones are about £6.00 for a pack of ten sets- not twelve, as you might imagine). Thinking about it, a wheel that is one millimetre smaller in diameter will only give a ride-height half a millimetre lower, so the Bachmann ones would be fine, except where the track clearance is marginal. I did undertake some tests before adopting the Bachmann wheels and found that a loco. so fitted would double-head with a loco. with the original wheels quite happily. The difference is very small.

Incidentally, I did not bother to replace the centre drivers on six wheel bogies as they are not involved in current collection and not very visible. Again, the mix of the two sizes did not cause any problems.

Dave

Hi John,

I had read about putting coach wheels on Heljan locos somewhere before, so thought I would have a go tonight, problem is the Bachmann coach wheels are about 1mm smaller. Are the Heljan ones to big? I am worried if I change the wheels the loco will sit to low, have you found this?

 

Many thanks cheers Peter.

Not John, Peter but I found the same when I started replacing the wheels on my locos. It is not a major problem with the 33s and 35s, except that the Heljan couplings are already known for being a bit droopy and the lower bogie position emphasises this. I cut about 1 mm off the dangly bit of the tension-lock coupling so that it will not foul point blades and all seems well (coupling up not affected). The only problem that I had was with a Class 47. The fuel tanks are already low-slung and when I re-wheeled the first of mine, it "beached" itself at a couple of placed on my layout. I cut the bottom out of the fuel tanks and filed back the ends and it is now OK. Strangely, the rest of the fleet did not need doing, so I can only assume that the chassis had a small bulge that caused the problem. However, if I was doing the job again, I would use the Hornby coach wheels as they are the same size as Heljan use.

Dave

All done at zero cost. Purists should look away now.

The most difficult part was removing the base plate. Heljan have mounted the contact strips low down on the Class 52 in order to hide them behind the spring beam but this means that they cover the release clips. Contact strips did get a little mangled during the operation but you have the opportunity to straighten them out before reassembly.

Needless to say, locos (I did two of them in about an hour) run much better now.

Dave

I thought the Westerns simply had an insert in the standard wheels to give the dimpled effect.

 

According to Howes' website, the six-axle packs are designed for the Westerns as well. Perhaps the inserts will be made available separately as I cannot see how they are fitted and if they can be removed without causing them damage.

I'm having a look at using Hornby Pullman wheels, with the pointed axles filed back. I have several sets after replacing with the NEM compatable version, the wheels are the right diameter and have the four holes. The holes are a bit larger but I am hoping to disguise this with paint.

Careful as they don't have the dimpled wheelsets in yet. They do sell 6 axle packs but these are for the 47 and 58 etc.

Good point (no pun intended). Might not have to get the file out after all, just my wallet (eventually).

Dave

Have just realised that I shall have to get Heljan replacements for my Class 52s. It was only Boudica'a chariot that had pointed axles!

Dave

The gears can be forced on to the Bachmann wheel sets (once you have taken off one of the wheels of course!) and need a little care to get them lined up right but it has been worth the effort to exorcise the crudomatics out of the fleet.

Thanks, John: I will give it a go. I am very grateful to you for your detailed reply.

Dave

All earlier Heljan OO scale models had the crud magnet wheels from new which not only attracted crud very quickly in service but came with it already liberally applied on when new out of the box!! These were changed to much better wheels on all their releases at about the time the first of the 58's came out.

 

I have had both earlier and more recent Class 33's, the most recent releases I have purchased have had the new type wheel and have as a result not needed any drastic action. Up until now to replace the wheelsets on the earlier crud magnet versions, I used the replacement coach wheel sets made by Bachmann (about three or four quid for a pack of twelve sets) and simply transferred the cog from the Heljan axle to the Bachmann one for much improved running.

Thanks, John. I had seen that tip about using Bachmann coach wheels before but I thought that I just had to transfer the wheels to the Heljan axle. When I did this, the wheels were too loose. Now I see where I went wrong. With the difference in axle diameters, do the gears have to be opened out to fit, or can they just be forced on?

This would be a much cheaper way to improve the Heljan diesels: it would cost me about £150 to do it the "official" way.

Dave

Recieved supplementary carriage pack after pre-order from Hattons and finally made this video.. carriages all excellent, added a two 8-wheelers for video, and 12-wheel 'Monaco'. Loco had a few issues, a loose wire into 4-pin plug and coupling rod fouled connecting rod, but runs beautifully now, plenty of adhesion for the 9-total tried so far.

 

I've just received my pack from Mega Model Shop (ordered on Tuesday). Very impressed.

Dave

I found a picture of a Blue Circle 14 a while back, luckily bookmarked it.

 

http://dave-higson.f.../p34312894.html

 

Don't know if the Hattons one will be exactly like this but only one I could find.

Edit: Looking at Hattons CAD image looks the same http://www.ehattons.com/StockDetail.aspx?SID=33110

 

Cheers.

Garry

Thanks, Garry. That photo answers my question about the headcode, also. Leaving it to rot was obviously the preferred option.

I have really enjoyed reading through this thread, particularly the faults found with the model and the ingenious remedies. I am now confident that I can deal with any problems and have taken the plunge and ordered the Blue Circle model for my cement works.

None of the Class 14s worked in my area (either in BR or private service) so I don't know too much about them. As I have chosed a private-owner example, I was wondering what the private companies did with the headcode box. Did they have new blinds made that could display information useful for the company's operation; did they fix the headcode to display 0O00 or a line of dots, or did they leave the headcode as displayed when the loco arrived until it rotted away?

Any help would be welcomed, particularly if it applied to D9526 (the one that went to APCM).

Dave

Could someone please tell me how to fit the headcode numbers,I've removed the body as per the instructions,but the cab moulding appears to be well and truly fixed,I have also tried to prize the glazing out from the front with the end of a modelling knife.

 

Thanks,

 

Pete.

I did post some quite detailed instructions on the old site but cannot find them now. Basically, the cab moulding will come out. It has to be levered away from the cab roof with a flat-bladed screwdriver and then gently prised up (taking care that it does not begin to tilt forward once the tab is freed from the slot in the roof - otherwise it will scratch the door window glass). It is useful to remove the perspex strip which carries the side lights as well.

It might be possible to avoid this process and push the headcode glass out by inserting the paperclip through the open cab window but I have not tried this.