Making videos highlighting older, less common and more interesting model trains from around the world. Plus a few bargains to look out for! Also including some real life locos blasting along the seafront.
Your worthy Sir Topham Hatt thinks I need to learn. He is mistaken. We diesels don't need to learn. We know everything. We come into a yard and improve it. We are REVOLUTIONARY!
You got a bargain ! Even if it is a repaint. Wrenn and Hornby Dublo are lovely engines. Definitely favourites of mine. They are truly bullet proof ! See if you can find Hornby Dublo 2-rail versions (Wrenn inherited the tooling from them), the Dublo/Wrenn Castles, 8F’s and 2-6-4T’s are great. The old Dublo ones are often cheaper than the later Wrenn versions. The original versions were of course the Hornby Dublo City of London in 2-rail and the 3-rail City of Liverpool.
This one has the upgraded version of the motor. A tip for the maintenance: the brass bushing is designed to store a certain amount of oil. The best way to do maintenance on these is to let it suck in as much oil as possible, and only then put oil on the axle. I did run one of these on a 360 mm radius without issues
I have two Wrenn Duchess, Maroon City of London and Green City of Birmingham. Both of them very heavy, hense good pulling power. No fancy bells and whistles. Just good old fashion quality.
If you go online you can find the old Wren catalogues in a pdf file. I think it was green and has been painted, the metal body can be taken back to shiny metal with paint stripper or Dettal watered down.
I have an immaculate City of Stoke on Trent which I somehow picked up for £60 and converted to DCC (quite a complicated job with one of the motor brushes being directly connected to the chassis in electrical terms). Anyway, it runs fabulously, even at walking pace. Referencing your comments about the weight, it appears effectively to have unlimited pulling power; mind you, I have a Wrenn Class 08 and even that doesn't bat an eyelid at huge loads. Wrenn locos are old school, not hugely detailed, but very robust and built to last.
I don't know if I've got a vivid imagination but those Pullman coaches going by in the background look like they have a giant penguin at each window looking out.
The Typhoons need updating with 2 jets Engine. 2 fins, and Ither keep or dump the smell control winglet. It a great Aircraft and I like it, But it is no match up against the laters SU's or Migs.
I picked up a differen Crompton when I saw that Rails of Sheffield had them heavily discounted. Mine is a 33/2 in BR green with full yellow ends, but Heljan must be having a funny turn if their RRPs are anything to go by. If they keep setting such high prices for their models, then I won't be surprised if we see more instances of retailers slashing prices just to shift the stock. The Class 33s aren't the only Heljan models I've seen on a steep discount recently; Rails also had the Ruston 165 on sale, but I'm stearing well clear of that thing myself.
That is a very nice one you've got there. It runs smooth already. And it is complete with chimney. Indeed, the look is attractive. It is cute. Other brands also have these very small steam-locs (also often for starter-sets), but the Fleischmann version has the right proportions, with its tall chimney and boxy cab. Thanks for showing. I just bought two, from separate sellers, at about 20 euro's each, but they don't run properly yet. And one misses the chimney and a buffer. One seller gave me an extra body with all buffers on it. So, this the (Black) Anna, but there is also a "Betty". That is the same as Anna, but with an open cab from the back, and with a tender. Plus it is painted in black and green, and looks beautiful. I am awaiting the delivery of one, after my offer of 55 euro's was accepted. That one is in good condition. I live in the Netherlands, and I buy all my trains through the website "Marktplaats . nl" - It is thé best Dutch buy-and-sell marketplace. Like eBay (which I have never used) but way better. It has a pleasant layout, and the trading is safe and simple. Modeltrains that are being sold are mostly form the West-European brands, like Märklin, Fleischmann, Lima, Trix, Roco, etc. Hardly any UK brands, like Hornby, or USA ones like Lionel. But if Western-Europe models are what you are looking for, then Marktplaats is a great place to visit. I see also sellers from Belgium and Germany active, and I presume buyers from other countries use it as well. It is all in Dutch, and I could not find an English version, so it may require some translating. Enjoy.
Excellent, thanks for the info. Sadly, since we left the EU, importing stuff from Europe has become prohibitively expensive. I will have a look though.
As a model they are fine but livery is completely inaccurate. These wagons never ran in the UK. They are built to a continental load gauge and have been given a UK livery in they hope that British modellers will be happy to run them with OO. They look pretty dreadful next to the Class 20. Shame these were not proper Chunnel wagons, British HO is sadly neglected. Thanks for the video. 👍
There's a clue in the fact that they came with tension locks fitted and the euro hook and loop as an option rather than the other way round as you'd expect if made for the euro market. You're right about the Class 20 but I wanted an excuse to use it as it's such a beautiful mover and I hadn't used it for a while! Thanks for watching
You say insanely expensive on the RRP but... was ever thus. Some numbers to show it, 2002 minimum wage is a meme worthy £4.20 an hour(over 21) a then fairly new tooled bachmann A1 is £89. This about 20 hours of your work at a minimum wage job. Come to today, £11.44 an hour, this is about 20 hours of work in a minimum wage job. We are not in an expensive and dying hobby we are in a relatively inexpensive(compared to inflation in other areas of the economy) golden age of never before seen choice of prototypes and manufacturers. The numbers don't align well with the narrative we are sold of price gouging. Anyway, lovely model. Southen black livery is so nice
The only thing wrong with the early Flieschmann models is they were not strictly to scale. But that didn't matter to me, the build quality was terrific. Paul on Tommy's Station has a great collection of European locomotives as well for those who have an interest. The European manufacturers were ahead of the game for detail and quality in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Really good vid mate. Steven.
Nice looking loco and runs well and even better a good price. I remember the Fragonset Livery on a few different Class locos. just came across your Channel subscribed and liked
Like a lot of these 'bargains', the RRP is verging on the absurd which means retailers struggle to shift them. The heavily discounted price is more representative of what they should have been to start with. A very good buy for ~£100 but £200+ RRP is having a laugh.
I picked up 33202 21 pin BR blue pristine for well under a hundred quid. The drive train was extremely tight at first - I dont know if there was some foreign object stuck in it somewhere but it freed off suddenly by pushing the flywheel round by hand. Seems fine now it's had a bit of running. I am a bit of a sucker for these Heljan 33s and the 26s as well, but the detail interfering with the couplings is extremely annoying - I have no idea why they do that.
Glad it worked out OK. These do run lovely. It feels "wrong & bad" to break off applied detailing, but perfectly OK to never fit separately supplied detailing. I'd rather it came in a bag!
Same for me. had to cut off the buffer detail at one end to facilitate train haulage. At the other end, had to take out the NEM pocket to keep the buffer detail in place.
£200 for just about any loco is a piss-take, unless it's Broadway or a quality Big Boy or something. Hopefully the price cutting will have to carry on when locos don't sell at silly RRPs. Thanks for watching
I also brought one at the 42% discount at Rails (33203) and as you said I also would not have paid over £200 for one. This will be my 12th Heljan class 33 over the years and I can recall paying a little over £60 new for them, inflation !!!!?
Similar here - bought 4x them from Hattons back in 2008-11 ranging between £47 and £60 each. Dont know if they have upgraded them in any way but as comments say - current RRPs are in lala land so even with price reductions, it's all still very expensive now.
I have the green Heljan Class 33 got it for £99 early this year from Rails of Sheffield the loco runs fine . I don't think it's a bad price to be fair for what you are getting. TMC have extended their sale Rails are doing the same good for the customer but prices should not have gone so high in the first place that requires constant sales to move stock. I know price debate can go on and on but people can only spend so much £200+ loco take some justification to buy.
I agree & these "bargains" are really only a return to the full price they used to be, or thereabouts. I am happy with this one, & as you say, a good runner.
I do own two Heljan diesel locomotives both run fine one is Class 33 the other is Class 14 ' Teddy Bear' the more up to date stuff is fine the early ones are a mixed bag . The Class 14 in real life was a bit of a disaster with motor issues and drivers struggling with driving them due to the long noses.
The models I've got have impressed me with their running qualities & overall detail. I just don't like breaking off detailing to get it to work properly! I won't be avoiding Heljan so much any more though. Thanks for watching
Very nice looking loco; I've always admired this class. Shame it isn't a weighty fella. I would've sworn those springs in the sprung buffers would add plenty of weight.
