Heljan Gresley O2 2-8-0 'Tango'

[Herbert Nigel]

There will be a Heljan 'Tango' performing on Grantham at the Grantham Model Railway show over the weekend. There will also be some painted bodies of all the planned initial releases available for inspection.

For those of us unable to attend the Grantham exhibition, could someone please post some photo's of said items?

[LNER4479]

This has been posted by Tony Wright on the 'other channel' this evening:

[Herbert Nigel]

This has been posted by Tony Wright on the 'other channel' this evening:

post-18225-0-33995500-1442263172_thumb.jpg

Thanks for that LNER4479 - a Gent as always. Did you run the Faller road system at Grantham show and, if "yes", how did you get round the back scene issue?

[Brush53Falcon]

There will be a Heljan 'Tango' performing on Grantham at the Grantham Model Railway show over the weekend. There will also be some painted bodies of all the planned initial releases available for inspection.

For those of us unable to attend the Grantham exhibition, could someone please post some photo's of said items?

Please find attached (hopefully), some images of Tango (basic) bodyshells to show decoration variations. Please note that these were pre-production corrected samples that are not complete and are merely to show the livery variation. These images were also taken on my phone which are not up to the standard of Tony Wright's. There are four releases of each variant O2/3 and O2/4 and these images do not show all of them. I may get the rest out of their packaging and try and take some better shots later.

There are also some other images I took on Grantham at the weekend but I must extend my thanks to Graham Nicholas in allowing Heljan to have the opportunity to display their pre-production Tango on such an outstanding layout. What better layout and venue could you ask for the occasion!

[Brush53Falcon]

and some more...............................................

[Herbert Nigel]

and some more...............................................

IMG_0213 (2) (500x421).jpg

IMG_0213 (2) (500x421).jpg

IMG_0217 (2) (500x423).jpg

IMG_0221 (2) (500x329).jpg

IMG_0222 (2) (500x352).jpg

Ask, and Ye shall receive! Many thanks for the responses.

[jwealleans]

.. and a string of my wagons in the background. What more could you want?

[LNER4479]

This has been posted by Tony Wright on the 'other channel' this evening:

post-18225-0-33995500-1442263172_thumb.jpg

Thanks for that LNER4479 - a Gent as always. Did you run the Faller road system at Grantham show and, if "yes", how did you get round the back scene issue?

At the risk of hijacking the topic, we did run it briefly on Sunday. I will do some video to show how we get round the backscene issue!

[LNER4479]

I must extend my thanks to Graham Nicholas in allowing Heljan to have the opportunity to display their pre-production Tango on such an outstanding layout. What better layout and venue could you ask for the occasion!

Well - the pleasure was all ours, I must say! Whenever I observed it, the loco behaved impeccably (once the operators realised that it was a DCC loco trying to deal with a DC input and the inevitably briefest pause before the loco moves). It had charge of up to 30 loaded coal wagons and, although not the absolute heaviest of trains, it was a fair load nonetheless and I was interested to see it tackle our 'ski jump', being the approx. 1-in-50 grade up to the fiddle yard flyover. Not a hint of a slip and only the slightest drop in speed. From our tests previously, a Bachmann O4 would have been giving the rails a good polish with that sort of load.

I also took careful note of the valve gear (always a favourite area of mine) and I have to say it looked absolutely exquisite, noticeably finer than either a comparable Bachmann or Hornby offering.

Good luck with the production launch.

[Herbert Nigel]

Mea culpa, Mea maxima culpa. I'm still trying to find my way around this cornucopia of a web site. My Humble apologies are offered. Perhaps if you take it to your own thread it would be more suitable and we can save this one for the imminent arrival of the Tango's?

[strang steel]

I have just had an email from Rails Of Sheffield to say the first three varieties of this class are now available for purchase.

Model numbers 3910, 3911 and 3921.

https://railsofsheffield.com/lner-class ... 25668.aspx

[Atlantic 3279]

The bulk of modellers of the actual LNER can of course remain calm at this stage, free of any need to disburse funds.

[teaky]

You're right of course Graeme, we await the earlier version(s), but can I get a little bit excited?

[S.A.C. Martin]

I'm looking at the photographs on Rails of Sheffield...and I have to say, I'm not overly impressed by the finish. The very obviously plastic buffers and the printing of the numerals and the works plate leave a lot to be desired. There's a lot of paint missing from the cylinders too.

There's no other word for it - the chimney looks utterly dreadful. One of Graeme's resin ones will have to go no doubt for any O2 I buy. The fit of the parts looks a little awkward too.

Of course this could be cruel close ups, of course. But these are the things which stand out to me. For £150 I was expecting something better than Hornby's O1 or Bachmann's O4 and I am not convinced as yet. I shall have to see one in the flesh I think.

[mick b]

Perhaps the photos are samples ? It looks poor, judging from those photos, as well as Simons comments, Crooked safety valves , Chrome handrails !!! SmokeBox Door doesn't look too hot either , seams on top of the Boiler. LNER Gill sans lettering and numbers looks too thin.