Heljan Churchward Mogul in 7mm scale

[ollieollieollie]

14 hours ago, dpgibbons said:

Paying GBP495 in the March sale! 

Paying £425 last Monday... Grrr. 

[The Ghost of IKB]

2 hours ago, ollieollieollie said:

Paying £425 last Monday... Grrr. 

Thank yourself lucky, mine was from rails 18 months ago.....595!

[neal]

2 hours ago, The Ghost of IKB said:

Thank yourself lucky, mine was from rails 18 months ago.....595!

But don’t forget that you have had 18 months’ enjoyment that the bargain hunters won’t have done. I have three, £595, £425, £450. I’m not bitter...

 

N

[John Tomlinson]

On 03/04/2021 at 12:59, John Tomlinson said:

Many thanks indeed for this.

 

I've had my eye on one for a while now, and this latest drop has tipped the balance for a green, lined example. What's not to like at this price!

 

John.

I managed to make a mess of my payment on the computer, and so this was only sorted out yesterday after the Bank Holiday. Great service from Rails, the package arrived by courier earlier today.

 

What a lovely model it is. Runs beautifully up and down my test track on DC with an old H&M Powermaster, so delighted. I was a bit shocked to open the box and see I'd bought an 0-6-0, fortunately the pony was under the foam and obviously a very easy fit.

 

John.

[GWR57xx]

My “Great Western” liveried 43xx’s cabside number plates have an orange/red lining.

From what I can gather these lined plates would only have been carried by lined locos, and I’m not sure if even they would have had lined plates in the 1930’s.

Does anyone know for sure?

Anyway I thought mine would look better with unlined plates so I ordered some replacements from Narrow Planet some three months ago, which dropped through the letterbox today .

[Miss Prism]

Unlined locos had unlined plates. Lined locos had lined plates.

 

[M Wright]

I have purchased having missed out on an early BR black 43xx at £395 a BR early totem lined green example for £425.  I have a simple question, in the period 1952 -1954 did this liveried loco exist or is it just a maybe?  If a maybe it will have to be repainted in unlined black.  If on the otherhand this livery did exist has anybody got the number of this locomotive(s).  Thanks for any opinions / information.

[Miss Prism]

1 hour ago, M Wright said:

I have a simple question, in the period 1952 -1954 did this liveried loco exist or is it just a maybe? 

 

Lined green didn't appear on mixed-traffic locos until 1956.

 

Further info

 

 

[Hal Nail]

2 hours ago, M Wright said:

I have a simple question, in the period 1952 -1954 did this liveried loco exist or is it just a maybe?  If a maybe it will have to be repainted in unlined black.

Even later, that livery with top raised part on each side of the tender lined, was very rare and not standard.

[M Wright]

Hi, thankyou both so much for the information.  Next time I will not think about the purchase for too long.  I will test run it a bit and then looking back in this topic strip the boiler and cab off plus the tender body, polish off the lining and totem with T cut and respray in black. I already have some suitable numbers and allocations for the engine to run on the line north of Radstock. Once again thank you.

[Hal Nail]

3 hours ago, M Wright said:

Hi, thankyou both so much for the information.  Next time I will not think about the purchase for too long.  I will test run it a bit and then looking back in this topic strip the boiler and cab off plus the tender body, polish off the lining and totem with T cut and respray in black. I already have some suitable numbers and allocations for the engine to run on the line north of Radstock. Once again thank you.

Ironically I bought a black one and then the loco I'd been planning to do from Laira turned out to be one of the very early green ones but I just flexed my period slightly earlier in the end. 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Hal Nail

[Eveannessant]

There seem to be a lot of Loksound issues on this thread, most of which I've experienced on a 4mm Bachmann Hall loco, I found the Loksound 5 totally infuriating, the self tune up just made matters worse, eventually it came to a choice of either a new Zimo decoder or a Comet chassis, I couldn't ascertain whether I had a mechanical fault or an electronic fault. A Comet chassis, Mashima motor, Branchlines multi box, and Markits romford wheels solved the problem to a certain point, BUT it still didn't run as smoothly as my Zimo equipped locos. I only use Zimo now.

 

I've started to get into 0 gauge and have a Heljan Hymek which had gear problems, a Dapol pannier which is wonderful, and now a 43xx which stutters and shorts going forwards and runs perfectly in reverse..........Great to see all the posts in this thread to now know that seems normal for this model !, ugh, I won't be buying Heljan again. I fitted a Zimo sound decoder from You Choos and it's not a very difficult task, all the solder pads are marked on the original PCB and the Zimo board is also marked and has better markings on the accompanying leaflet. Interestingly the Zimo MX644D decoder is a little lightweight for 0 gauge at 1.2 amps continuous, but the adaptor board is actually a booster which can give out 1.8 amps continuous, and also has direct connection ability for stay alive.

 

I'll be removing the loco body later today the see what the cause of poor forward running is.

 

Cheers,

Eve

[John Tomlinson]

6 hours ago, Eveannessant said:

There seem to be a lot of Loksound issues on this thread, most of which I've experienced on a 4mm Bachmann Hall loco, I found the Loksound 5 totally infuriating, the self tune up just made matters worse, eventually it came to a choice of either a new Zimo decoder or a Comet chassis, I couldn't ascertain whether I had a mechanical fault or an electronic fault. A Comet chassis, Mashima motor, Branchlines multi box, and Markits romford wheels solved the problem to a certain point, BUT it still didn't run as smoothly as my Zimo equipped locos. I only use Zimo now.

 

I've started to get into 0 gauge and have a Heljan Hymek which had gear problems, a Dapol pannier which is wonderful, and now a 43xx which stutters and shorts going forwards and runs perfectly in reverse..........Great to see all the posts in this thread to now know that seems normal for this model !, ugh, I won't be buying Heljan again. I fitted a Zimo sound decoder from You Choos and it's not a very difficult task, all the solder pads are marked on the original PCB and the Zimo board is also marked and has better markings on the accompanying leaflet. Interestingly the Zimo MX644D decoder is a little lightweight for 0 gauge at 1.2 amps continuous, but the adaptor board is actually a booster which can give out 1.8 amps continuous, and also has direct connection ability for stay alive.

 

I'll be removing the loco body later today the see what the cause of poor forward running is.

 

Cheers,

Eve

Just to add a little balance to this, I have around 12 Heljan locos, all but one being diesels, and all run very smoothly indeed. However that is on DC, using an ancient H&M Powermaster.

 

So it may be that you've been unlucky, or simply that there is a whole extra dimension to finding a decoder that matches the loco.

 

Of my diesels, one Hymek and one 47 had gear split issues - this is years ago - and at the time Howes who were the agents (they aren't now) supplied replacements which I fitted. I think there may now be a third party manufacturing these gears in brass, which should be a more reliable long term option.

 

John.

[Eveannessant]

Thanks for your comments John,

 

I have refitted the errant gears supplied by Howes (I know that Gaugemaster are now the UK agent) on my Hymek, and I'm aware that someone other than Ultrascale manufactures brass replacements, but for the life of me I can't remember who, I'd like to know though if anyone else could inform us.

 

Don't want to be aggresive at all, but unlucky or lucky?, sorry but this shouldn't really be an issue at all, considering the prices of locos, stock, and decoders.

 

My experience with Loksound decoders are that they're ok in my 4mm diesels, not a worry at all. However as explained to me by "Wheeltapper" steam locos generally have much larger driving wheels and slight irregularities of currents to and from motor and decoder are much magnified at slow speeds. I had other locos e.g a 4mm Manor with Comet chassis and mashima motor and ran "ok ish" with a loksound, but the Bachmann Hall with only a 3 pole motor was an absolute mess. As I stated earlier, it also ran "ok ish" after rebuilding. I've never had an issue with a Zimo sound decoder in over 50 locos. This includes other Bachmann locos with 3 pole motors.

 

Cheers,

 

Eve

[Eveannessant]

Anyway I posted earlier that I'd be taking the loco apart to look for errant issues...........

 

Well, I ran it today and the short circuit with momentary stalling issues seem to have gone, so I'll leave well alone for the time being, until I purchase an 0 gauge rolling road that supports all 3 driving wheels and I'll leave it running for a couple of hours to bed all the components in.

 

I will admit tht we're supposed to run the loco's in DC first, but I have never done so with my other locos to any detriment at all. I did run it for 20 mins or so, up and down my test track before fitting the decoder, and it seemed to not be very smooth at low speeds.

Cheers,

 

Eve

[John Tomlinson]

29 minutes ago, Eveannessant said:

Thanks for your comments John,

 

I have refitted the errant gears supplied by Howes (I know that Gaugemaster are now the UK agent) on my Hymek, and I'm aware that someone other than Ultrascale manufactures brass replacements, but for the life of me I can't remember who, I'd like to know though if anyone else could inform us.

 

Don't want to be aggresive at all, but unlucky or lucky?, sorry but this shouldn't really be an issue at all, considering the prices of locos, stock, and decoders.

 

My experience with Loksound decoders are that they're ok in my 4mm diesels, not a worry at all. However as explained to me by "Wheeltapper" steam locos generally have much larger driving wheels and slight irregularities of currents to and from motor and decoder are much magnified at slow speeds. I had other locos e.g a 4mm Manor with Comet chassis and mashima motor and ran "ok ish" with a loksound, but the Bachmann Hall with only a 3 pole motor was an absolute mess. As I stated earlier, it also ran "ok ish" after rebuilding. I've never had an issue with a Zimo sound decoder in over 50 locos. This includes other Bachmann locos with 3 pole motors.

 

Cheers,

 

Eve

Hi Eve,

 

Not aggresive at all, and thanks for the response.

 

You are of course correct that these items shouldn't have defects at all, they aren't after all discounted items bought on a "sold as seen" basis off ebay! The issue of quality control, or lack of it, is a serious issue, and a read through the 4mm Hornby A2/2 and A2/3 thread shows that it transcends manufacturers and gauges. After the gear problems on the early production of 7mm diesels like the Hymek, Heljan claimed to have sorted the problem out, and as far as I'm aware there have been few similar issues on later models.

 

Unhelpfull I know, but I have little experience of DCC, and so can't comment on types of decoder. It seems to me a shame that something that is supposed to be an advancement seems to cause a lot of extra problems to consumers, and one might have expected all loco manufacturers to have addressed these issues by now in terms of the interface with the better quality and quite expensive decoders.

 

John.

[Hal Nail]

4 hours ago, Eveannessant said:

and I'm aware that someone other than Ultrascale manufactures brass replacements, but for the life of me I can't remember who, I'd like to know though if anyone else could inform us.

Jim Snowdon sorted brass gears initially, now supplied by ultrascale.

[dpgibbons]

Any decoder will likely need some tweaking to give optimum results with a particular loco, so you can't judge the merits of a decoder based on how it performs when first plugged in. That said, Loksound decoders give excellent results in steam locos - witness the fact that Lee Marsh and Masterpiece Models use them exclusively. 

 

 

[Hal Nail]

Has anyone managed to obtain any spares for these yet? I noticed the other day that Gaugemaster have a few listed at last but when I e mailed the link with reference numbers, I got the same generic reply I've had for the last 2 years that they don't know when parts will be available.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Hal Nail

[Sinky]

Hi

 

Has anyone got a clear copy of the Heljan O Gauge Class 43xx Mogul spares sheet, unfortunately the copy from Gaugemaster is not readable.

[Hilux5972]

9 hours ago, Sinky said:

Hi

 

Has anyone got a clear copy of the Heljan O Gauge Class 43xx Mogul spares sheet, unfortunately the copy from Gaugemaster is not readable.

Which part are you looking at? 

[Hal Nail]

11 hours ago, Sinky said:

Hi

 

Has anyone got a clear copy of the Heljan O Gauge Class 43xx Mogul spares sheet, unfortunately the copy from Gaugemaster is not readable.

In case you aren't aware, they dont actually have spares for sale. I've been getting the same reply that they havent yet sorted them out for a year or two.

[Hilux5972]

10 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

In case you aren't aware, they dont actually have spares for sale. 

Yes they do. I just received some spare parts for my Heljan class 60 this week. 

[Sinky]

13 hours ago, Hilux5972 said:

Which part are you looking at? 

Hi, firstly, like many the gear box, threaded cogs. Secondly the screw which holds the connecting rods to the centre drive wheel.

 

Thanks for your reply.

[Hal Nail]

1 hour ago, Hilux5972 said:

Yes they do. I just received some spare parts for my Heljan class 60 this week. 

Not 43xx which is what we are discussing.