Heljan GWR diesel railcar

◆ GAUGE ‘OO’ ◆ MODEL Heljan 19405 BR green Diesel Railcar W26W ◆ PRICE £189.00 ◆ PERIOD 1960-62 ◆ AVAILABILITY Heljan stockists

It can be scarcely three months since I reviewed Heljan’s ‘O’ gauge GWR railcar and now we have the ‘OO’ version arriving in the shops. The GWR railcars, Nos. 19-33 have long been a popular subject for ‘OO’ models, fulfilling perfectly that requirement for a one-coach train to operate a GWR branch line terminus layout. In the days when it was near impossible to get a K’s whitemetal kit ‘14XX’ to haul the same maker’s autocoach, it was pretty easy, by comparison, to make the K’s railcar work, quite crude as it was. Happily, it was replaced, way back, by a ready-to-run model from Lima. This had deeply recessed glazing, no cab droplights, and a ‘pancake’ transverse motor but it was, nevertheless, a big step in the right direction. Much later, the Lima tooling was acquired by Hornby and issued with a much improved chassis and mechanism – and a DCC socket. It is, however, approaching its 50th birthday so the time is ripe for a GWR railcar to 21st-century standards.

With the streamlined cars Nos. 5-17 covered by Dapol, there’s now only the pair of two/ three-car sets to be covered in RTR plus the prototypes Nos. 1-4 which are never likely to be viable ready-to-run projects.

At this point I should divulge a minor involvement with these models, in that I checked the livery artwork at Heljan’s request. 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.

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

IN DETAIL

The body is spot on dimensionally in all major respects and the proportions look just right. The distinctive character of the cab ends is well caught and for those who are accustomed to the Lima/

Hornby model with its missing cab droplights, Heljan has them all present and correct. Four very fine handrails are fitted beside the saloon doors.

The cab ends carry working lights, a central red tail light and two white marker lights. Unlike some earlier Heljan models, these lights are good and bright. These and the interior lights can be switched on/off by a bank of nine tiny microswitches on the underside. DCC users can control them by way of an ESU Lokpilot/loksound V5 decoder. The 21-pin decoder socket is located inside the guard’s van section of the body. A speaker for