Dead Man's Handle

Oh interesting! I was thinking of doing something like this for my next project (in about 5 years at the current rate) - got as far as picking up a copy of Brian Webb's book with a drawing in, but that's it so far... Ade

This is a nice looking loco and the work Brian Daniels has done is obviously to a very high standard. But to comment on the actual Heljan loco... I read through this thread last night, although not particularly thoroughly, and I found it quite interesting, or perhaps, confusing. I saw (but my recollection may be a little dim) a few points mentioning that possible flaws have already been discussed (I'm not sure where, though) and (I think) a couple of people saying something along the lines of "If only they'd make this in 4mm too". Would a scaled-down version of this really be so much better than the Bachmann offering? Yes, the Bachmann 55 has a bit of a dodgy ride height, presumably to enable it to get around tight corners. If you don't need it to go around tight corners, it is quite easy to improve matters (by taking the bogies out and cutting down a little bit of plastic. Yes, JimSW has another method that is a bit more difficult, which he believes to be better, but that's a bit beside the point). Perhaps this is the reason the Lima model has very under-scale bogies, but I don't know. My point is that if Heljan made a 00 version of this, they'd also likely have to bodge something to make it go around tight curves, or have a model that wouldn't work on a lot of people's layouts - it's just the same compromise (and I think the Bachmann situation is about right - those who want to take a loco out of the box and put it on their trainset are happy; those who have more serious layouts can do a bit of easy work and then feel a warm glow about how much better they've made it look). I suppose the other point to make is that this is a 7mm model and so of course some of the detail looks better than a 4mm one. If a 4mm version of this loco was made, it's likely quite a bit of detail wouldn't make the transition so well (although there is most definitely scope to improve on some of the Bachmann 'detail', some of which barely qualifies to be called such - like that black outline of a rectangle printed on one nose... uh). Anyway, regardless of scale, what hits me when I look at pictures of this loco is "What... have... they... done... to... the... nose?" I think there was a brief mention of this earlier in the thread - it's all rather 'round'. People seem more concerned with the slope of the top of the nose being correct, as that's what Bachmann made a (fairly slight, in my opinion) error with. Hey, it does look cute, but if you look at a 'corner' of the nose against any of a thousand class 55 photos, it's obviously way out. It's seems to be a bit of a Heljan tradition for locos to be quite nice but suffer from some glaring error which would be a real pain in the backside to correct (e.g. Western cab roof, 'Tubby Duff'). In 4mm, I'd much rather start with a Bachmann nose than a scaled-down version of this. Lord, maybe even the Lima one (okay, maybe not). It's not my intention to 'rubbish' this model - I'm sure it's a welcome addition - but there does seem to be a slight whiff of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' or something. "It looks close enough to a Deltic for me" is fine (I don't think there is any RTR alternative?) ... and there are those who 'just like' their tubby duffs (the ones that didn't self-destruct) despite there being a better alternative (in the majority of objective opinions, anyway) - fine also. But I just don't see much point in wishing for a 00 version of this. It seems to me to be a case of 'Better the devil you don't know' - perhaps people have been reading about the Bachmann faults for years and have a 'newer must be better' thing going on. Or maybe the nose shape just isn't that important, or people see it differently to how I see it. Some questions might be answered when the final version of the Heljan 00 DP2 comes to light, if it's along the same lines. Ade

This is looking pretty amazing now! But one problem with doing such fine work is that the Bachmann bits you've left look rather Mickey Mouse by comparison - namely the roof vents and the cab door handrails. Although I'm sure you'll make a big difference to that with your painting talents... hrmm... I think I remember you said you weren't doing the roof vent etches because you don't have the gear to make them (not something I looked into because that stuff is totally different for DP2 that I'm doing), but why are you leaving those awful 'handrails' in (assuming you are if you're saying the body is pretty much finished)? (Sorry if you've mentioned it before - I find these blogs on here a bit clumsy to flick through.)<br><br>What are your thoughts on how the 'nose job' has gone? You seem to have quite a large area between the bottom of the windscreen and the top of the nose, although that might be a trick of the light/ how the plastic looks after filing. Or is it an inevitable Is it a side-effect of getting the correct angle on the top of the nose? I've (kinda) finished the windscreen and nose on one end of mine (haven't updated yet) and I'm not too sure about it. <br><br>Anyway, thanks for your efforts (both the work and the record of it) - something to aspire to!<br><br><br>Ade<br>