Heljan Gresley O2 2-8-0 'Tango'

[2002EarlMarischal]

Has anyone seen any images yet? Are there any early indications of which versions may be produced?

[Brush53Falcon]

Just to keep people up to date with this project a meeting was held in Denmark a couple of weeks ago where all the relative information, drawings and photographs that we had available were submitted to the CAD drawing department to see if there was sufficient material available for the project to proceed from now on. I am pleased to say that we were encouraged by the response and we are now looking at the two versions which will form the initial releases from the project, O2/3 and it's rebuild, O2/4. This way we can get into production the dia.100A boiler and side window cab that will also be required for the rebuilt O2/1 and O2/2 versions for a later date. The important emphasis is that all these pieces will be required to fit together at a later date! It is hoped that the initial releases will be available with both flush and stepped versions of the group standard tender and as you may know some of these appeared on the O2/1 & O2/2 variants. The main reason for producing the high running plate/cut away bufferbeam version is that this was not produced in kit form, as far as we know!
In order to add the variety to these intended versions I am looking for a photograph/image of LNER liveried 3950, which I believe to be the only O2/4 with flush tender to exist in this form. I bow here to your superior knowledge!
Other than that I hope to be able to keep you updated on the progress of this exciting model.

[60129 GUY MANNERING]

Just to keep people up to date with this project a meeting was held in Denmark a couple of weeks ago where all the relative information, drawings and photographs that we had available were submitted to the CAD drawing department to see if there was sufficient material available for the project to proceed from now on. I am pleased to say that we were encouraged by the response and we are now looking at the two versions which will form the initial releases from the project, O1/3 and it's rebuild, O1/4. This way we can get into production the dia.100A boiler and side window cab that will also be required for the rebuilt O2/1 and O2/2 versions for a later date. The important emphasis is that all these pieces will be required to fit together at a later date! It is hoped that the initial releases will be available with both flush and stepped versions of the group standard tender and as you may know some of these appeared on the O2/1 & O2/2 variants. The main reason for producing the high running plate/cut away bufferbeam version is that this was not produced in kit form, as far as we know!
In order to add the variety to these intended versions I am looking for a photograph/image of LNER liveried 3950, which I believe to be the only O2/4 with flush tender to exist in this form. I bow here to your superior knowledge!
Other than that I hope to be able to keep you updated on the progress of this exciting model.

Obviously a typographical error G.

02/3 & 02/4 was clearly meant.

[strang steel]

Thanks Brush53Falcon. That is excellent news.

I am saving up for at least one of all variants, so will need some time to afford as many of the locos as I would like.

[ROY@34F]

Thanks for the update " Brush",much appreciated.
Roy.

[Brush53Falcon]

Just to keep people up to date with this project a meeting was held in Denmark a couple of weeks ago where all the relative information, drawings and photographs that we had available were submitted to the CAD drawing department to see if there was sufficient material available for the project to proceed from now on. I am pleased to say that we were encouraged by the response and we are now looking at the two versions which will form the initial releases from the project, O2/3 and it's rebuild, O2/4. This way we can get into production the dia.100A boiler and side window cab that will also be required for the rebuilt O2/1 and O2/2 versions for a later date. The important emphasis is that all these pieces will be required to fit together at a later date! It is hoped that the initial releases will be available with both flush and stepped versions of the group standard tender and as you may know some of these appeared on the O2/1 & O2/2 variants. The main reason for producing the high running plate/cut away bufferbeam version is that this was not produced in kit form, as far as we know!
In order to add the variety to these intended versions I am looking for a photograph/image of LNER liveried 3950, which I believe to be the only O2/4 with flush tender to exist in this form. I bow here to your superior knowledge!
Other than that I hope to be able to keep you updated on the progress of this exciting model.

Obviously a typographical error G.

OOP's sorry yes it was a typo and I've now corrected it.

Just shows you how confused I've got with it already!

02/3 & 02/4 was clearly meant.

[S.A.C. Martin]

Excellent news. Looking forward to this as it develops.

I take it there is no chance of the prototype, with the curved running plate being made then? Not that this is the end of the world by any means, it was not as long lived as the others into BR days (one year into BR days in fact, I think, after a good thirty years work) in any event.

[60800]

I'm a bit confused here. Are only dia.100A boiler versions being produced?

My interest is in the prototype 461 in GNR livery, an original O2 in LNER black and an O2/4 in early crest BR black.

It would be a tad disappointing if 461 can't be done, but it would be more than understandable.

[Atlantic 3279]

I'm unsure of what's meant here, and of how to interpret these comments too. Does this mean that there is to be a long delay, or possibly no action at all regarding the original lower-running plate 02/1 and 02/2 versions, with true GN and "modified GN" cabs plus GN tenders? The tenders alone would be extremely welcome additions to the "mix and match" modeller's armoury. There are loads of models of the LNER group standard 4200 gallon tender already on offer, and plenty of locos with LNER side-window cabs. Surely we need to emphasize variety, not just depict "more of the same"? This could be rather disappointing for those who wish to actually model the LNER proper, as the O2/1 and O2/2 versions of the loco although eventually less numerous than the part 3 and part 4 versions were around for much longer, and the 02/1 is the only one that could reasonably be converted back into 461, or a two-cylinder Gresley O1 (as I hope to) or run in GNR livery.
Sorry to sound ungrateful (if I do) rather than merely offering constructive criticism, but this at present all sounds a bit strange and unwelcome to me. I wouldn't like to feel that this is another case of the makers catering primarily for the (temporary, current) mass of ex-trainspotters of the late 50s and early 60s, with limited consideration for the pre BR "historic" modeller?

[S.A.C. Martin]

I must add my support for a GNR tender and cab version at the very least. Nobody has done a GNR tender of any type in any form, in RTR form and I think Heljan would find a startlingly high number of modellers would buy a GNR tender on its own too - given its propensity for being slung behind a great number and range of LNER tender locomotive types.

Is there no hope for a compromise on the releases to allow a version of each most numerous (i.e. O2/1 and O2/4) which could then be mixed and matched further down the line for the other sub classes and variations?

[Brush53Falcon]

Having just read through my post again I will try to make things a little simpler.

The initial release will be the O2/3 and the O2/4.
The O2/3 has the dia.2 boiler as in the O2/1 and O2/2.
The O2/4 was a rebuilt version reboilered with a 100A and, re-cabbed in the case of the O2/1 & O2/2, of the O2/1-O2/3.
There were two group standard tender designs attached to the O2/3 and in its rebuilt form O2/4, flush and stepped.
Some of the group standard tenders appeared with the O2/1 and O2/2 variants.

In order to produce the O2/1 and the O2/2 we will only need to tool up for:-
Low running plate
GN cab (rebuilt by LNER) there may be a possibility of the original GN cab as well
GN tender top, two types
GN tender underframe

If sales of the first examples fair well, and they will most likely be shortish runs, then some of the costs for the next version will have already been absorbed. This would mean that the proposed O2/1 and O2/2 will follow on as the next release.

At present I cannot tell you exactly which loco numbers are involved in the first releases as these have not yet been finalised but we are trying to please the majority by incorporating much of the variety in liveries and components as we possibly can. We appreciate that the choice to build the later variant first may not be to everyone's taste but feedback so far indicates this to be the best way forward. As I say hopefully the early versions will follow on within 1-2 years.
If you look at the Heljan Class 23 'Baby Deltic' this is exactly the same scenario.

I have already suggested that spare tenders could be available separately, but not the locomotive as the locomotive cannot run without it! This is merely a suggestion at this stage.

I hope the picture is clearer now.

[strang steel]

So, if us "temporary current mass of ex-trainspotters from the 50s and 60s" buy up all the first batch of O2/3s and O2/4s, which we no doubt will; the 'big four' modellers are likely to get what they want as well?

Therefore it may not be too wise to dismiss us as not important

[auldreekie]

May I please chip in with a more man-in-the-street appreciation, as opposed to the "serious modeller" contributions already received (I hope the description gives no offence...).

I can see very well the attraction of starting off with the versions which, in the real world perhaps more numerous in later years, will carry more of a likelihood of decent levels of early sales, and I hope very much that such sales materialise. Not least is this so, because I hope early sales will be sufficient to justify a move on to a later phase of slightly more recondite models with particular appeal for modellers of the "real LNER". I do, however, think that there is a balancing act to perform when considering the volume of early sales likely to arise from the first of these considerations, and the volume likely to arise from a COMPLETELY new model in which neither engine nor tender replicates items already in the market, and which looks decidedly different from the pre-existing competition.

Looking ahead beyond the first production phase, and hopefully. (1) The point about there already being in existence several "mass-market" group standard tender models is well taken: it really would be good for someone to undertake the GNR tender model, and especially if it was to be available for sale separately in this later phase as well as integrally with its locomotive. (2) Likewise the GNR form cab which (to me as a pretty standard and aspirational "all thumbs" modeller) is, like the GNR tender, quite a challenging object to those whose modelling medium is styrene. Both the tender and the cab are objects which, because quite daunting to the modeller of average (or less) skills (more so than the later Gresley versions), seem to me to have sales potential: they offer something at whose production from scratch many of us might balk.

All that said, it's great that the manufacturer is (or appears to be)open to such consideration at a formative stage.

(And, with that in mind: I've already said somewhere - not entirely tongue-in-cheek - that I hope the chassis will be of such a configuration that the not-overly-skilled could blend two of them into a U1. But I don't expect that to have huge sales potential, just that it might shape design options for the underpinnings and steer decisions towards doing things in the manner of the LMS Garratt already well-advanced....).


auldreekie

[S.A.C. Martin]

Brush, thank you for that clarification, it's much appreciated.

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
I hope we don't have to wait too long for the GNR version to arrive. They would make a great pair, the side window cab version with GS tender, and the GN cab version with GN tender. To my knowledge there are no ex-GNR tenders available. I don't think many 02's ran with flush sided tenders, I shall have to check.
I think that the conversion of two O2 to a U1 has been discussed, and it wouldn't be easy. The wheelbase is shorter on the U1, and I guess the motor will be towards the firebox end, which would be right where the pivot goes for the central unit on the U1.
There is something compelling about the U1. I have been a LNER fan since my first ever prize at school was a book on railways, and there were these beautiful A4 displayed. When I started modelling, the thing I wanted more than anything not available was an U1. I even started modelling classes that would have been seen in the Mexborough/Woodhead area, which seems to have led to an interest in the ex-GCR range of beautiful locos.
Now to think up an excuse why a LBSCR Baltic tank would run over Woodhead.

Earlswood Nob