It’s not often the hobby gets a bit of a kick up the arse with a new release, and throws a little bit of controversy in for good measure, but Hattons are showing the potential to do just that, with their range of ‘Hattons Originals’ Genesis coaches in 4mm scale. These (if you’ve not heard), are a range of pre group style coaches to a generic freelance design in OO gauge. Hattons have generously allowed the blog to have a look at the Engineering Prototypes of this interesting range of coaches, and for me they show great promise in addressing a gap in the market, Pre Grouping rolling stock. This isn’t a review of the stock, they’re not released yet, but an overview of the EP’s at the current state of development Q3 2020.
Hattons Genesis Four Wheel Brake Coach Hattons Genesis
Four Wheel Brake
Noting that there were pre group locomotives being introduced into the Ready to Run pool and the sales of them were healthy, Hattons looked at what stock was available to be paired with them. Prior to this ranges concept, there were, and are, very few pre-group RTR coaches available. They either fell into the top end of the market with Bachmann and Hornby’s SECR Birdcage stock, or LSWR stock respectively. At the other end of the availability range were old tooling four wheel stock very much from the Hornby train set, and Clerestory stock again of significant vintage and crude details. It made sense then for Hattons to look at the obvious gap appearing in the market for coaching stock of pre-group era’s.
Hattons Genesis
Six Wheel Full Brake Hattons Genesis
Six Wheel Full Brake
The next part was to decide what to actually place into the market, with the obvious caveat that the product will have to make money and at the very least ‘wash its face’ as far as production costs go. After taking an overview of the existing RTR stock in the market, the most visible gap was the short wheelbase stock so this was the avenue taken. It became clear early on that if a range of good quality generic type coaches were introduced, it could cover a wide range of prototypes and companies. This for me is where the thinking is really clever. We know that if you make a model of X, then the market will accept it as that, and praise or criticise accordingly. Authenticity, including colour schemes play a significant role in this, so if you relivery an SECR Birdcage brake into LNWR colours it immediately looks wrong, and you can only imagine the online critique! The fascinating thing for me is that I can ‘accept’ these freelance coaches in authentic liveries. Had Hattons chosen the path of one company prototype and then put them into other companies liveries, I think the mental leap would be much harder. I have no idea why this is, but it just ‘works’. They’re marketed as a ‘freelance’, or prototypically literate design, and I can buy into that, even with prototypical liveries. The option for a plain vanilla brown light railway set with generic markings might be a useful release too. It’s undoubtedly a brave decision to make freelance stock, and to place it into a market with high (sometimes unrealistic), expectations, however that’s exactly the path Hattons have taken.
Hattons Genesis
Six Wheel Brake Coach
The range so far includes three different design brake vehicles, and three passenger coaches. To make the product ‘work’ the stock had to appear plausible, and working with the Vintage Carriage Trust and experts in Pre-Group rolling stock the initial designs were worked up. From the start interior lighting had been a design factor, which has been included within the range. These all had a common style, and options for gas, oil or electrical lighting, depending on the livery application era. Using customer feedback the designs have been refined with adjustments to some compartment widths, reinforcing factors like four wheel stock gave more potential for liveries using longer vehicles.
Hattons Genesis
Six Wheel Lavatory Composite
The six wheel stock is a welcome and unusual prototype, and in the past RTR six wheel stock has had a very indifferent history as far as track holding and looking ‘right’ goes. The Hattons solution is a simple lateral sliding tray holding the centre wheel set. Across Peco Code 75/100 streamline and Bullhead range the coaches rode well, as they also did on Kato Unitrack. Wheels are one of two types either plain two hole disc, or Mansell, and fitted to appropriate era livery stock. All wheels ran smoothly and true, they appeared to be stub axles fitted to a central plastic axle. As they were EP’s I left the tools to one side!
Hattons Genesis
Six Wheel Composite
The coaches show no tendency to derail and the lateral movement of the centre axle is extremely subtle, not really being noticeable on 3rd radius curves or through medium radius Peco streamline including single and double slips.
Hattons Genesis
Six Wheel Composite
(Centre Wheelset Removed)
To remove the centre axle is a moment or two’s work. The centre axle (26mm) is removed. A single screw holds the axle guard moulding in place on the sliding tray, once undone the axle guard moulding is removed, leaving the tray in place. The tray is shallower than the solebar and remains in situ and invisible.
Hattons Genesis
Short & Long Four Wheel Coaches
Please note these are EP’s and they’ve worked for their money! on the images of the six wheel stock you can see a slight bowing in the centre of the chassis, this is already noted by the Hattons team and amendments to the body/chassis fixing is underway to redress this issue.
Hattons Genesis
Coach Coupler Mount
The tension lock couplings are mounted on a fixed point at the end of the coaches and a self centre spring is integral in the design to keep the coupling central. Again these EP’s have had a tough life so far and the couplings are a bit loose, which also has been noted for improvement by Hattons.
Hattons Genesis
Four Wheel Brake Coach
LED Lighting
Overall the tooling and details of the range of coaches is well up to contemporary expected standards. Three types of lighting are represented, gas, oil and electric. Lamp brackets, individual handrails and door handles are fitted where appropriate, and the underframe details are co-ordinated with the roof lighting details. The fittings and conduits of these components to represent the different types of lighting are well tooled with the finesse you’d expect from a contemporary release from a larger manufacturer. Inside the coach 1st class seating is represented and overhead luggage racks are included in all types. Not all types of lighting will be available in all liveries, however the livery for each model will be an appropriate era livery for the details represented.
Brake gear, brake yokes and pull rods are configured for OO 16.5mm gauge, and look a good compromise between finesse and the robustness required. I’ve mentioned the axle length and the fittings around the wheelsets, there’s a good reason for this. I can see these models being of interest to some modellers building in EM ad P4, even in the just getting something running category. Running/foot boards are sturdy etched pieces which can be carefully removed by the user as they are screw attached. Packaging is expected to be clear clam shell type in a card external carton.
Hattons Genesis Coach
Internal Lighting
The LED lighting for the coaches is taken from the track, and purchasers can choose if they want lit vehicles or not on ordering. The price differential is currently (Q3 2020), only £6.00 per coach, so well worth considering. The electrical collection is from the wheels to a phosphor bronze strip which forms part of the axle guard. I didn’t investigate further but the axle length is very close to 26mm, and looks a similar installation to the Bachmann first generation DMU releases. The lights themselves are LED’s fixed into a roof panel with leg electrical connections at each corner.
Hattons Genesis
LED Lighting
LED’s are spaced to match the compartment spacing so each compartment is individually lit.
On these EP’s the lighting was bright under DC use and exhibited some flickering, the colour of the lighting is a nice warm yellow hue rather than at the blue end of the spectrum.
The lighting is under review with the potential for a capacitor to smooth the flickering and reducing to a more subdued illumination. Commendably the roof is light tight around its entire footprint.
Access to the interior is simply removing the roof, held on by discreet clips at the end of the vehicles.
Hattons Genesis
Coach LED Lighting
These models are arguably a step back to a manufacturer deliberately using the same model to represent a host of different railway companies stock, a common practice in the not too distant past. However with the potential for pre-group modellers layouts to have authentic looking coaching stock there’s potential to open up that sector to more accurate rolling stock loco’s and infrastructure.
I do wonder if there’s an opportunity to see these scaled up into 7mm O scale too in the future. These definitely go against the grain, but in my opinion are a case of one step backwards, and two forwards! What is noticeable with the rake of them together is that a train of these ‘short’ vehicles in a small terminus, immediately looks better visually, than a similar length train with longer vehicles.
On Shelfie3, the platforms are currently just on 3ft long, so a 3 car DMU or type 2 and two MK1’s, and it’s noticeable how short the train looks. If you replace them with these coaches there’s an immediate optical illusion that the platforms and trains are longer. I’ve looked at Cyril Freezer’s Minories design many a time, its a bucket list layout, and probably is too for quite a few readers. When you actually mock it up in 4mm using Peco large radius points, the required platform length immediately stretches the layout and takes away some of its charm. Minories was designed after all when we had Triang shortie stock and tight radii ready to lay points.
This stock I think used on a contemporary build, could make the original size Minories much more visually appealing. Certainly more viable in a slightly enlarged footprint today, and might just open up more of that type of genre, will we see (Urban) ULT’s replacing BLT’s? Well I hope so. Will they transform the hobby? I think they might just do that with RTR Pre-Group modelling, they’ll allow modellers to explore that era more. Perhaps with less concerns about having to build from etched kits immediately, still the most common source of pre-group coaching stock.
O GAUGE GOES ELECTRIC! HELJAN ‘73/1’ IN DEVELOPMENT FOR 2022
All-new O gauge Class 73/1 electro-diesel will feature plug-and-play DCC interface, new lighting features and a wide range of authentic detail variations covering the entire career of this enduringly popular Southern Region class.
Bi-mode trains are all the rage in 2020, but HELJAN’s latest O gauge announcement looks back to a classic electro-diesel design from the mid-1960s. Now in development is for release in 2022 is a ready-to-run O gauge model of English Electric’s pioneering Class 73 – our first electric locomotive in this scale.
Designed to operate on both third-rail electric and diesel power in non-electrified areas such as yards and depots, the Class 73s lived a relatively mundane life until they were thrust into the limelight when the new ‘Gatwick Express’ operation started in 1984. Over the years, the class has worked everything from express passenger to newspaper and mail, freight and engineering trains. The advent of Sectorisation in the mid-1980s saw the standard BR blue livery replaced by a rainbow of liveries, a trend that continues today.
Despite a steady decline in the 1990s, these hugely versatile locomotives have seen a revival in the 21st century and continue to play a vital role hauling engineering and test trains for GB Railfreight and Network Rail on the 750V DC third-rail network and beyond. Now seen over a much wider area than in BR days, the ‘EDs’ have gained a cult following and 13 locomotives have even been rebuilt with more powerful diesel engines and modern electronics transforming them into 1,600hp go-anywhere machines.
Our all-new model is being designed to offer a range of authentic detail variations covering the entire career of the production batch built in 1965-67, many of which are still active on the main line network and heritage railways. These will include locomotives with or without high intensity headlights and NRN radio aerials, radio pods and optional fibreglass arc shields fitted to the bogies from the mid-1980s onwards.
Standard features will include sprung buffers, wire handrails, fine etched grilles, separately fitted buffing plates, SR 27-way multiple working cables and hoses, windscreen wipers, sandpipes, bogie and bufferbeam details. CAD work is currently in progress – regular reports will appear on the HELJAN Facebook page and in the model railway press as the project progresses.
The new HELJAN O gauge Class 73 will feature our proven high-performance twin motor/flywheel chassis with all-wheel drive and pick-up, separately switchable cab, headcode and engine room lights, an ESU XL pin decoder interface and provision for DCC sound. Like the new HELJAN Class 26/27, these models will have ‘plug-and-play’ DCC and sound capability using ESU’s LokSound 5 XL high-power pin decoder (Ref. No. 58515, not included).
TEN versions have been selected, covering a broad cross-section of BR, Sectorisation and Privatisation era liveries from 1965 to the present day – see below for more information. We are currently examining options for models with factory-fitted DCC sound, details of which will be confirmed separately. Suggested Retail Price (SRP) for DCC Ready models will be £625.00.
Look out for updates on the HELJAN Facebook page and in the model railway press as this exciting project develops.
NEW HELJAN CLASS 73/1 O GAUGE MODELS
7300: BR Blue E6008 (small yellow panels/grey solebar) WEATHERED
7306: Revised Network SouthEast 73126 Kent & East Sussex Railway
7308: EW&S red/gold 73128
7309: Network Rail yellow 73212
7310: GB Railfreight blue/orange 73107 Tracy
BRCW TYPE 2 DOUBLE-HEADER!
CLASS 27JOINS HELJAN O GAUGE RANGE
Heljan O Gauge Class 27
All-new O gauge Class 27 will feature plug-and-play DCC interface, new lighting features and a wide range of authentic detail variations covering 1960s, 1970s and 1980s locomotives.
The first engineering samples of HELJAN’s next new O gauge diesel locomotive – the much-requested BRCWType 2/Class 27– are expected to arrive in the UK for review shortly. These exciting new models have been developed in parallel with our new BRCW Type 2/Class 26, with which they share many common components.
Due for release in late-2021, this previously unannounced all-new model has been designed to offer a wide range of detail variations including boiler-fitted and non-boilered locomotives, two different designs of bogie footsteps, boiler roof grilles or plates, air tanks in the cab roof for dual-braked locos, sandbox/sandpipe variations and original or modified battery boxes.
Other detail options will include three-piece miniature snowploughs and bufferbeam pipes/hoses appropriate for each version. As per the full size ‘27s’, one engine room window per side has been designed to be removable for extra ventilation.
Standard features will include sprung buffers, wire handrails, fine etched metal grilles, separately fitted windscreen wipers, sandpipes, bogie and bufferbeam details.
The new HELJAN O gauge Class 27 will feature our proven high-performance twin motor/flywheel chassis with all-wheel drive and pick-up, separately switchable cab, tail and engine room lights, an ESU XL pin decoder interface and provision for DCC sound. Like the new HELJAN Class 26, these models will have ‘plug-and-play’ DCC and sound capability using ESU’s LokSound 5 XL high-power pin decoder (Ref. No. 58515, not included).
Eight versions have been selected, covering a broad cross-section of BR green AND blue era liveries from the early-1960s through to the late-1980s – see below for more information. Suggested Retail Price will be £599.00 for DCC Ready models. We are currently examining options for models with factory-fitted DCC sound, details of which will be confirmed separately.
2775: BR two-tone green D5382 (small yellow panels)
2776: BR early blue D5389 (small yellow panels)
2777: BR Blue 27032 with Highland Rail stag emblems WEATHERED
CLASS 26 RETURNS TO HELJAN O GAUGE RANGE FOR 2021
Heljan O Gauge Class 26
All-new O gauge Class 26 will feature plug-and-play DCC interface, new lighting features and a wide range of authentic detail variations covering 1960s, 1970s and 1980s/90s locomotives.
The first engineering samples of HELJAN’s latest new O gauge diesel locomotive – the much-requested BRCWType 2/Class 26 – have arrived in the UK for review. Under development since last year, these new models are now at an advanced stage.
Due for release in late-2021, this previously unannounced all-new model features a large number of improvements over the original HELJAN O gauge Class 26 released a decade ago. Unlike that model, our new BRCW Type 2 has been designed to offer a wide range of detail variations including three different bodyshells depicting locomotives with or without a tablet catcher recess and, for the first time in ‘O’, refurbished ends without headcode discs.
However, perhaps the most exciting development is the first ever ready-to-run model (in any scale) of the legendary Inverness Class 26s with twin headlights, as used in the Far North of Scotland in the 1970s and 1980s.
Dependent on era and livery, models will be delivered with original boiler water tanks in place or with the later style air tanks and distinctive cradle between the bogies. Other detail options will include original or plated-over cab doors, three-piece miniature snowploughs, boiler vent grilles or plates, Inverness-style round radio pods and later NRN radio pods with square cowls. As required, models will also be supplied with a set of open or folded headcode discs, separately fitted etched metal horn cowl covers and a set of optional Class 26/0 style tapered bogie footsteps allowing customers to tailor their models to individually modified locomotives. As per the full size ‘26s’, one engine room window per side has been designed to be removable for extra ventilation.
Standard features will include sprung buffers, wire handrails, fine etched metal grilles, separately fitted windscreen wipers, sandpipes, bogie and bufferbeam details.
The new HELJAN O gauge Class 26 will feature our proven high-performance twin motor/flywheel chassis with all-wheel drive and pick-up, separately switchable cab, tail and engine room lights, an ESU XL pin decoder interface and provision for DCC sound. This will be the first British outline ‘O’ gauge model to have ‘plug-and-play’ DCC and sound capability using ESU’s LokSound 5 XL high-power pin decoder (Ref. No. 58515, not included).
NINE versions have been selected, covering a broad cross-section of BR green, blue and Sectorisation era liveries from the early-1960s through to the 1990s – see below for more information. Suggested Retail Price will be £599.00 for DCC Ready models. We are currently examining options for models with factory-fitted DCC sound, details of which will be confirmed separately.
Look out for updates on the HELJAN Facebook page and in the model railway press as this exciting project develops.
Inverness Class 26/1 with twin car headlights
Heljan O Gauge Class 26
NEW HELJAN CLASS 26 O GAUGE MODELS
2675: BR Green unnumbered (tablet catcher recess)
2676: BR Green unnumbered with small yellow panel (tablet catcher recess)
2677: BR Blue 5338 (early version)
2678: BR Blue unnumbered (Inverness headlights)
2679: BR Blue 26027 WEATHERED
2680: BR Blue unnumbered (dual braked)
2681:Railfreight Red Stripe unnumbered (white cantrail stripe)
As many friends and quite a few readers know I have a thing going on ref North American and Canadian short lines.
I’ve primarily worked in HO (see above), but not long ago Chris Mears of Prince Street turned my attention towards Grant Eastman’s N gauge Southern Alberta Rail page on Facebook and his associated Youtube videos. Whilst this layout represents main line Canadian operations, the use of space, scale and the physical presentation, for me provides real encouragement in what can be achieved.
It’s fair to say the UK modelling community can be quite parochial regarding their choice of subject matter, and hence overlook or disregard layouts like this. The fact it’s a ‘foreign’ prototype for me doesn’t matter, there’s so much to learn and be inspired by, not least of which is Grant’s use of time, arguably the most transient and valuable commodity of the hobby!
It’s remarkable that the depth of the layout is as thin as ten inches in some parts, but the choice of scale, the colouring and lighting helps make the best use of the space and volume available.
Take a half hour out and watch the following video.
It’s a Monday and having had quite a good run of finishing man cave shelf queen projects, my attention is turning to those small completion jobs for Shelfie2. As it’s a simple one ‘engine in steam’ yard it has a ground frame and simple point levers. The etch above is a good reason to have a box for etch offcuts and unused bits from kits. Last year I used the majority of the components for detailing the Peco Highland Railway signal box.
The balance of the etch as you can see from the header, went into the spares stores.
I’ve mentioned the blogroll attached here quite often, because the modelling and writings on them are genuinely worth following, and learning from. A cracking example of the useful information within them is Geoff Forsters Lugg Valley , and it’s this post which is providing just the sort of motivation a Monday needs. Take a look!
It’s funny how this little engine has been quite the motivator.
Started as much as eight years ago, likely quite a bit more, but I can’t really remember it’s been so long! But this one for some reason just needed to be finished. Other kits ‘meh!’ And have been sold on incomplete or unstarted. This one though bagged to br done. Possibly because it was a starter kit back in the day, so if you didn’t finish it, you weren’t trying hard enough. Since completing it though it’s spurred on a good few short tasks. Subsequently a 24/1 conversion on a Bachmann 24 has now been completed and there’s a Heljan LNER 02 going through weathering at the moment too. And Shelfie3?, well that’s ticking over. Track plan and operations are sorted and working through required stock has proved interesting. It’s still not ‘landed’ yet though, the geography vs stock/location not yet giving an immediate feel that it’s right. It’s the sort of point where it’s probably better to put it away for a few weeks and then revisit it. In the meantime Shelfie2 gets its pictures taken in a week or two’s time, and there’s a few shelf wagons to complete before then. But it’s mainly due to completing the 02, suddenly the man cave shelf queens are now fair game to complete or move on. That’s a good thing!
Albion Yard 
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