Heljan ‘Hymek’ Class 35

◆ GAUGE ‘O’ ◆ MODEL Heljan 3587 Class 35, BR green ◆ PRICE £495.00 ◆ AVAILABILITY Heljan stockists

Marking the Danish company’s entry into the UK RTR ‘O’ gauge market, Heljan’s ‘Hymek’ was a game-changer when first released in 2006. Offering new levels of realism and superb value for money, the popular Western Region hydraulic was captured with admirable attention to detail.

In the ensuing 14 years, Heljan has produced an impressive array of 7mm scale diesels, with an ever-increasing level of detail. The ‘Hymek’ still holds its own against more recent products, however, and this slightly revamped version offers a few minor improvements to bring it into line with contemporary releases.

The chassis features a more Dcc-friendly layout (but still not DCC ready), with a pair of screw terminals mounted on the main circuit board to facilitate the connection of a digital decoder. It’s not quite plug ‘n’ play, but the arrangement is now in line with the majority of other Heljan

‘O’ gauge locomotives. There’s space for a speaker in the fuel tank (with perforations in the floor for sound to escape) and a full array of LED lighting is present, to illuminate the headcode panels and taillights.

This new model also sports a superior set of wheels and slightly less overall weight than the original version. Four livery options are on offer, consisting of three versions of BR green (plain green, small warning panels and full yellow ends) and a BR blue version. All are supplied without numbers, but the quality of the printed logos and characters is superb.

Overall, this is a wonderful model of a very handsome prototype and the upgraded specification is very welcome. (GD)