Heljan GWR railcar

◆ GAUGE ‘O’ ◆ MODEL Heljan GWR railcar ◆ PRICE £466.65 ◆ AVAILABILITY Heljan stockists Web www.gaugemaster.com

Railcars Nos. 19-33 have been the subject of kits in ‘O’ gauge in the past but Heljan’s is the first modern ready-to-run

‘O’ gauge model. It has been an eagerly awaited follow-on to the four-wheel railbus in the self-contained one-coach train category which is so useful to ‘O’ gauge modellers with limited layout space.

At this point I should admit a minor involvement with these models and their ‘OO’ counterparts, in that I checked the livery artwork at Heljan’s request. At that time it was intended only to produce a single model in BR green and that was to be the dark shade used post-1960, and probably only applied to one car. I suggested that the earlier light green should also be produced and I’m pleased to see that a light green model is included in the production run. No. W22W, which is now preserved at Didcot Railway Centre, was initially transferred from Worcester to Bridgnorth, still in the light green livery, while No. W20W went to the Kent & East Sussex Railway at Rolvenden in carmine and cream.

In most respects the railcar follows established Heljan practice. Weighing in at over three and a half pounds, it requires a substantial box and system of packing to ensure safety in transit. So, it is mounted by two screws to a wood plank which would make a decent stand for a static display model, and it is packed around with foam material.

Our sample arrived in one piece and it was good see that no parts had come adrift in transit which had, in the past been a problem with some Heljan-made products. It is, however, on the layout that this model really comes into its own.

On straightforward analogue it is smooth and quiet with a great deal of what the Americans would call ‘heft’ – a certain presence which is really evident when it thumps over rail joints. However, I have jumped the gun and should really have begun by describing what you get for a very modest £466, which is not by any means expensive for a Gauge ‘O’ model.

At an impressive

18in long, the railcar is a big model which warrants careful handling as the bodyshell is plastic on a substantial cast metal ‘floor’. The underside of this floor is largely flat and, surprisingly, there is nothing concealed behind the

drop in the skirting between the bogies. This is the area where one’s fingers tend to grip the model when handling it and the skirt areas do feel a little flimsy, though you would need to be pretty ham-fisted to break them.

IN DETAIL

On the underside of this floor area is a panel held with two screws which gives access to the location of the decoder socket. An ESU Lokpilot/loksound V5 DCC decoder is recommended and the head and tail lamps and interior lighting are configured to work with this particular decoder. There is also a mounting point for a 66mm by 29mm speaker if the model is to be fitted with digital sound. Analogue users will find a bank of nine microswitches under the floor which enable control of the lighting on DC layouts.

On the real thing the engines, batteries and mechanical systems were in this area but Heljan has created a motor bogie with the motor and drive concealed completely within the bogie frame, which is more than adequate for the railcar and the one vehicle it might haul. It comprises a double-ended motor with a direct worm and gear drive to both axles.

The body is spot on dimensionally in all major respects and the proportions look just right. The distinctive shape of the cab ends captures the character, and for those who are accustomed to the Lima/hornby ‘OO’ model with its missing cab droplights, Heljan has them all present and correct and picked out in wood finish, as they were on the GWR livery.

The large picture windows are refreshingly clear and without prismatic edges, revealing a good view of the interior with the correct style of seats. It would benefit from attention with a paintbrush and the fitting of a few passengers. Windows in the guards compartment have convincing security grilles.

The body is held in place by four cross-head screws, two in the floor at the inner end of each bogie. With these removed, the skirts can be eased carefully outwards to unclip the body. The interior is surprisingly simple, a dark green plastic moulding forming the floor and seats.

Cab rear bulkheads and those either side of the main door are quite fragile as I found to my cost when I turned the unit upside down without the body, and managed to break three of them. The outer bulkheads support an LED lighting strip for the interior lights which can be switched off by a microswitch on the underside of the floor.

The bulkhead in the guards van carries detail of the communication equipment and bell and the cab has the seats and the main controls, the latter picked out in colour.

The centre part of the bufferbeam is fitted with the vacuum and multiple working pipes and scale screw couplings, but our sample had the lower part of the coupling missing on both ends.

The bogie sideframes are plastic mouldings correctly detailed and with good relief, spring and rivet detail.

On straightforward analogue it is smooth and quiet with a great deal of what the Americans would call ‘heft’

Dummy final drive units are fitted to the right side of both bogies and these are connected by a moulded prop shaft representing the units as built and operated by the GWR. On the real thing, the outer final drive and its prop shaft were removed later in their careers, only one axle of each bogie then being powered.

Prop-shaft extensions which fit into the innermost final drive and then pass behind the skirt are supplied separately for fitting by the customer. These are plastic mouldings and need to be glued in place. However, they may need to be cut short or omitted altogether if the model is to operate round sharp curves.

The roof carries separately fitted ventilators and boiler exhaust detail and there are separate handrails beside the passenger doors. One small omission is the pair of brackets for a small destination board adjacent to the passenger entrance doors but it seems that these may have been fitted as an afterthought as they do not appear in the early official portraits of the railcars.

PAINT AND PRINT

Our sample carries the post-war GWR chocolate and cream livery with the Great/coat-of-arms/ Western insignia on the sides and the number displayed as No. 29. The chocolate and cream areas are separated at waist level by yellow and black lining. The painting and printing is to a high standard and the reproduction of the GWR coat-of-arms is particularly impressive, with the wording on the crests of London and Bristol, Domine Dirige Nos and Virtute Et Industria legible under a magnifier. The waist lining is also impressively neat and the cab droplights have a woodcoloured finish, topping off a faultless decoration job. We don’t have the old score system, otherwise I’d have given this aspect a 10.

CONCLUSIONS

The railcar is a fine piece of work by Heljan. It stands up very well alongside my 40-year-old BR Models brass kit, which is a few millimetres under scale length while the Heljan model’s proportions are correct. In particular, it is not obvious that the newer model is plastic. Detail-wise this material definitely scores points in areas such as the two radiator grilles in the side skirts, which appear to have real depth to them – something that was not possible with etched brass.

I think this model may well prompt a resurgence in the popularity of the GWR branch line terminus layout amongst 7mm scale modellers, and I am eagerly awaiting the ‘OO’ version, due from Heljan later this year. (CJL)