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Heljan Park Royal Railbus - first sample


dcroz

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Good to see an early pre-production photo of Heljan's forthcoming Park Royal railbus model in this month's Model Rail magazine, with delivery pencilled in for late 2014/early 2015, product codes as follow:

 

  • 8750 - Park Royal eearly BR DMU in dark green with speed whiskers SC79970 
  • 8751 - Park Royal railbus in dark green with small yellow panels SC79974
  • 8752 - Park Royal railbus in green with speed whiskers
  • 8753 - Park Royal 4-wheel railbus in green with small yellow panel

 

​Photo also online on Hornby Magazine website: http://www.hornbymagazine.com/view_article.asp?ID=7639  

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Thanks for posting the details on her with the link to Hornby Magazine's website.

 

I have been looking forward to this model since it was originally announced way back at Warley 2009 show, and if the other models like the WMD and AC Cars are anything to go by, then it will be well worth the wait.

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Thought Hornby Magazine might have been able to get the sample out of the cabinet for a picture!  I took a picture of it in the cabinet, albeit nowhere near the quality of the one on the website.

Model Rail has pictures of them out of the cabinet.

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The development model shown in Model Rail seems to show that it will be produced without retracting steps.  This would mean the model is only accurate for the three versions produced originally for the Midland area.  The Scottish versions were built with retracting steps.

 

Or maybe Heljan will produce both versions!

 

Information taken from 'BR First Generation Diesel Railbuses' by Evan Green-Hughes

 

I just noticed it because I'm rushing to finish my Dapol one, with a Branchlines motoring kit, before Heljan make it obsolete. 

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  • 6 months later...
  • 5 months later...

The development model shown in Model Rail seems to show that it will be produced without retracting steps.  This would mean the model is only accurate for the three versions produced originally for the Midland area.  The Scottish versions were built with retracting steps.

 

Or maybe Heljan will produce both versions!

 

Information taken from 'BR First Generation Diesel Railbuses' by Evan Green-Hughes

 

I just noticed it because I'm rushing to finish my Dapol one, with a Branchlines motoring kit, before Heljan make it obsolete. 

I wouldn't waste my time with the Branchlines chassis..its useless compared to the silky smooth Hollywood Foundry chassis which comes ready to drop in with 4 wheel pickup and drive.

I have a Branchlines chassis in the scrap box.

I have tried again and again to make it reliable..pickup is the problem..and I am reasonably experienced in such things.

My Hollywood Foundry powered bus has been running on 'Alloa' with total reliability for several years now and although I have a new Heljan on order I doubt if it could better the chassis on this one.

 

 

post-2371-0-64044300-1426016636_thumb.jpeg

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  • 2 months later...

Does anyone have any information about the release of these railbuses. Were advertised by Heljan in their magazine adverts, as a November 2014 release, but didn't appear, then retailers advised May 2015 release, but again no update. We've just heard from Heljan about the Class 05 being released in June/July, has the Park Royal been put back again. Heljan don't seem to be updating their website or Facebook site, so no info coming from the manufacturer. Perhaps the Park Royals have been delayed due to the slow release of the second phase of the AC cars railbuses.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Looks like a busy July for Heljan in 'oo' gauge UK outline, as they have also announced that the Class 05s will be released in July. It's some time since the last oo gauge release as they've concentrated on  'O' gauge for the last year, but with a sizeable 'oo' gauge back catalogue with most items having been in an advanced point in r&d for over a year. Nice to see this gauge moving again, even though the wallet will complain. I wonder if we'll see the Wickham and ECW railbuses, probably not. 

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Looks like a busy July for Heljan in 'oo' gauge UK outline, as they have also announced that the Class 05s will be released in July. It's some time since the last oo gauge release as they've concentrated on  'O' gauge for the last year, but with a sizeable 'oo' gauge back catalogue with most items having been in an advanced point in r&d for over a year. Nice to see this gauge moving again, even though the wallet will complain. I wonder if we'll see the Wickham and ECW railbuses, probably not. 

At the Warley Show 2009 Heljan stated that the four railbuses were all in development for 2010 or 2011 release. There was a particularly long silence regarding the Park Royal, then suddenly it sprang into life. Let's hope the same will be the case with the Wickham.

 

To my knowledge, the Bristol/ECW was never announced but I always hoped that, once the the other four had been released, it might be produced. Perhaps if we shouted or pleaded a bit?

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Considering it was such a ridiculous thing, and there were only 2 of them, the Bristol ECW rail buses did a surprising amount of work (but all in Scotland, of course). I always had a soft spot for them and I have a set of MTK castings but they are never likely to get built. Ironically, should Howes/Heljan decide that it is worth doing to complete the set (I think it IS worth doing), I have probably more reference material than for any of the others! So many of the parts are bus bits, that scanning an MW or LS bus would probably be a good start!

CHRIS LEIGH

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I would say Rails had them in stock as they had proper multi-angle photos of the models in each variation. Chances are some may have sold out already, although Heljan usually seem to be able to provide further deliveries of their models, looking at past examples.

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There are two threads regarding this model  for any body interested I have posted how I fitted a decoder to my version as the Heljan ones aren't that clear as regarding body removal .

 

Hope this helps

 

John

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