Heljan Class 86

[GWR_fan]

I needed an iconic Virgin loco to haul my Mk3 set so against 'popular' opinion I picked up a mint/unused much aligned Heljan 86 class. It may not satisfy the purist but it does it for me.

A couple of minor points. The ridiculously flimsy undercart detail is a joke. Two wheels have a slight wobble causing minor waddling at speed. In this day and age of computer machining, why cannot a manufacturer produce a wobble free wheel on a consistent basis? When received the loco ran perfectly in one direction only. In the opposite direction there was the sound of chattering gear teeth. I now have a smoothly running 'waddling duck' locomotive after reseating the upper gear tower clip. I feel that it was not seated correctly from manufacture, allowing the worm gear to separate from the main driven gear under load.

It may not be perfect but I am happy with it.

Tim

[Bigmet]

Alternative to manufacturing defects; may have had a rough treatment incident in previous ownership. Slightly 'off' wheelset, drive train clip slightly displaced; that strikes me as the kind of result that might be found after a drop onto a hard surface.

My experience with Heljan is relatively small (they simply haven't made that much I am interested in) but between what I own and the few others I have worked on they have been mechanically 100%. Their record of replacing mechanically defective chassis when these were faulty from manufacture - as on the class 17 - also speaks well of them. Hopefully the early version class 23 will be as good as the class 15s and one class 26 on my operation, all of which are superb runners.