Heljan Gresley O2 2-8-0 'Tango'

[Atlantic 3279]

Mick: and for £220, if the published pictures are representative, you get an ES1 model on which even the bar of the hook and bar tension-lock coupling sticks out a hugely un-necessary distance beyond the buffer heads.
I won't be sending my money to dictator Xi's financiers either.

[kimballthurlow]

The NRM would have stimulated the ES1 as one is in The National Collection.

Andrew

Hello Andrew
Certainly the case methinks.
Many Hornby and Bachmann models owe their success to this theme with indirect publicity.
Märklin the major European manufacturer is quite fond of releasing locos for which there were single or few real examples.
And too they choose museum pieces.
Very often it is the engines that impress, like the big 4-6-4s or 4-8-4s.
They sell well.
Kimball

[Hatfield Shed]

...Funny thing is that their diesel outline models seem to have been fairly reliable, with the exception of the Class 17 Clayton.

Totally irrelevant to LNER modelling, but very useful to those like myself interested in the final years of BR(ER) steam operation. Baby Deltic anyone?

The twin bogie mechanism layout has a consistent template (mostly, one exception I am aware of, but I have not seen the whole range) and the full width models are both very reliable and easy to maintain should any trouble occur. The narrow bonnet models a little more 'tweaky' but nevertheless good performers. I imagine this mechanism template was developed by 'Regal Way' originally for HO products, as they were (and may well still be) Heljan's mechanism provider in the past, when the body mouldings were produced and finished in Denmark by the Nannestad's family firm which is an injection moulding tooling specialist, and then united with the imported Chinese mechanisms.

Sadly, wherever Heljan obtain their steam mechanisms, they are from a source well behind the current constructional standard in RTR OO: that said they run and pull well when working, which the pair I own have done reliably to date; but I don't fancy ever having to repair one.

I await the GNR style O2 iteration with interest, and hope it proves better all around.

... I am looking for a flush sided tender ...

Alternative simple option, pick up a Bachmann or Replica version, plentifully available s/h. Mine has one off a long ago worn out J39. (While we are about it the piece of what looks like sprue for a tender drawbar can be replaced with a metal bar, and the cab can have a fall plate added: this is a RTR model that keeps the owner busy...)

[mick b]

The NRM would have stimulated the ES1 as one is in The National Collection.

Andrew

Yes I agree but still very strange thinking . They are only selling the NER version , the remainder are being sold by Rails.

Why did the NRM want this one made ?, they would have sold far far more of any of below also in the NRM :-

Q7 , D17 , Tennant E5 , 1001, 901,and Aerolite .All survived into LNER period ,especially the first two listed, the Q7 into BR and the D17 as well (just)..

[Hatfield Shed]

...Why did the NRM want this one made ?, they would have sold far far more of any of below also in the NRM :-

Q7 , D17 , Tennant E5 , 1001, 901,and Aerolite .All survived into LNER period ,especially the first two listed, the Q7 into BR and the D17 as well (just)..

I visited Locomotion at Shildon only a couple of weeks past, and asked at the shop whether 'the NRM in miniature' was a continuing programme and was told it was, and subject selection is still on the basis of visitor requests. (So I mentioned the J17 and J69 multiple times.)

Quite what engages visitor's interests to the extent of wanting a model is a mystery to me. Clearly the productions of the companies that made up the LNER group have prior claim overall in aesthetic charm, but moving on; how it took so long for the most elegant Wainwright D 4-4-0 model to emerge, and after the LMS' and GWR's respectively 'Plain Jane' and lumpen 4-4-0s. And why does the LT&SR Whitelegg 4-4-2T not yet have a model?

(Personally, from the NER I would first have a B16, a very successful machine from their 4-6-0 development, and fully justifiable under the engineering history remit of the Science museum.)

[S.A.C. Martin]

Alternative simple option, pick up a Bachmann or Replica version, plentifully available s/h. Mine has one off a long ago worn out J39. (While we are about it the piece of what looks like sprue for a tender drawbar can be replaced with a metal bar, and the cab can have a fall plate added: this is a RTR model that keeps the owner busy...)

A very good suggestion, that I have taken on board and have already started cutting and shutting to the right format.

[Horsetan]

.... why does the LT&SR Whitelegg 4-4-2T not yet have a model?...

Possibly because not everyone visits Bressingham compared to York, so it's easy to forget that Thundersley has been collecting dust there for at least a good 40+ years. She is very much a Midlandised engine.

[Hatfield Shed]

.... why does the LT&SR Whitelegg 4-4-2T not yet have a model?...

Possibly because not everyone visits Bressingham...

'Tis true, a deeply scary place. The amount of money my wife and other members of her family will spend there make it a location to avoid at all costs. Model railway an expensive hobby? It's nothing beside gardening...

[Horsetan]

.... why does the LT&SR Whitelegg 4-4-2T not yet have a model?...

Possibly because not everyone visits Bressingham...

'Tis true, a deeply scary place. The amount of money my wife and other members of her family will spend there make it a location to avoid at all costs. Model railway an expensive hobby? It's nothing beside gardening...

Alan Bloom died a very rich man.

[Hatfield Shed]

Having now fixed the damage to the fencing from recent 'breezes', I permitted myself a new GNR cab O2. Much improved model over the first time around, better mechanism construction and access, applied detail more robust, ran beautifully as received, quickly quieting so all you hear is the wheels on the rails, and has not long completed my 'infant mortality' test running since being collected this morning, motor cool after ten hours at mineral haul speed. Traction as good as the first batch, hauled a sixty wagon load with ease, picking up one wagon at a time at a dead slow crawl. Still no fall plate, but I think that can be fixed...

[Atlantic 3279]

At least one customer may have got a good one then? Does the cab fit upright, flush to the running plate, with the rear portion of that plate flat, horizontal, and level with the tender soleplate, at scale height?

[Hatfield Shed]

... Does the cab fit upright, flush to the running plate, with the rear portion of that plate flat, horizontal, and level with the tender soleplate, at scale height?

It does, potentially. The 'ice cube' packaging that it came in is a problem contributor in respect of this defect, pushing up the rear end of the body mouldings while in transit; but anyone with kitbuilding skills can fix this IMO, as yet untested but on the to do list, along with adding a fall plate and eliminating the LMS design firehole on the backhead, a carried over defect from the first versions.

I noticed your criticism of the expansion link and specifically the bottom bracket that connects it to the eccentric rod, and this is an ill proportioned piece: expansion link undersize, the bracket oversize. But now that the rods are all in a stiff metal (brass?)I feel a mod or replacement would be feasible, and were I equipped with Prof Watson's skills I might venture such...

At least one customer may have got a good one then?

This seems to be my role in new RTR OO purchases. Since 1999, all of two defects, one each for Hornby and Bachmann, which brands dominate the purchases, split axle gear for H, poorly motor for B, both within hours of purchase in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Both swiftly fixed under warranty by supply of parts. No trouble since from any brand, Heljan third most purchased, Oxford Rail fourth, and single samples from Dapol, Rapido, Sonic, Planet industrials. I cannot account for this other than these are largely LNER subject models appropriate to the KX inner-sub area, my two 'as new' failures were GW and SR subjects which turned up in London freight movements to Ferme Park.

I have seen many problems in friend's loco purchases, and in my own s/h purchases often advertised as non/poor runners; and my opinion is that this is largely down to the original owners not running the model thoroughly immediately on purchase to discover any flaws in the mechanism and particularly to distribute the factory lubricant evenly around the drive train so that blobs are not left to glue up the drive train over time.

Subsequent problems have been minor, both with the new purchases and the s/h after remediation, less trouble than occured with my 1970s kit builds before the Mashima motors and superior multistage gear train went into them, which then became reliable and are still working.