Heljan L&B Locos ‘requiring attention’

[Monday]

Browsing eBay for OO9 locos, I can’t help noticing the number of used L&B locos (Exe, Taw etc) on sale with collapsed motion/valve gear. Rails of Sheffield seem to have a corner in this market.
I bought one of these new, waiting two years for it. When it finally arrived, I could never get it to run properly, realised it was too small for my eyesight to fiddle with and sold it on. Since I had paid the price fixed two years earlier, I made a profit! It was probably lucky I did.
Since then, there seems to have been a plethora of Bachmann OO9 locos on the market; are they any more reliable? I would still like something to run on my narrow gauge line - is a kit with a Kato chassis a better bet?

[Bigmet]

If the Heljan narrow gauge mechanism construction is like that on their standard gauge OO steam, then I am not overly surprised. My two O2's have worked well, but everything about them says handle very carefully, and hope you never have to fix anything...

The Bachmann NG has had good reports, and especially the double Fairlie, which has the centre motor all wheel drive and current collection mechanism layout, which has been such a success in D&E twin bogie traction models.

[b308]

Since then, there seems to have been a plethora of Bachmann OO9 locos on the market; are they any more reliable? I would still like something to run on my narrow gauge line - is a kit with a Kato chassis a better bet?

The Bachmann locos in general seem to have been pretty reliable, there's been the odd report but nothing drastic and the vast majority seem fine.

Simple answer to your question about the ubiquitous Kato chassis and kit is if you want something realistic then, No, it isn't a better bet! I have to admit that i find these 3D prints on top of the Kato 109 chassis immensely frustrating, taking 009 modelling back to the crude early days of the scale, most just look so wrong. There's a lot of good 009 RTR around so no need for them.

BTW they seem to have fixed the Heljan 2-6-2Ts now, I believe the third version is the one to go for but I'm not sure how you tell which version it is, the 2-4-2Ts seem fine, having said that there are fixes for all the versions, most of the issues seem to relate to the pickups/couplings on the pony trucks and how they are set up.

[Bufferstop]

About the only thing that looks right on the Kato chassis is a steam tram loco based one of the Belgian designs. Basically a box on wheels, which is probably not what you are looking for.

[Bigmet]

...BTW they seem to have fixed the Heljan 2-6-2Ts now, I believe the third version is the one to go for but I'm not sure how you tell which version it is, the 2-4-2Ts seem fine, having said that there are fixes for all the versions, most of the issues seem to relate to the pickups/couplings on the pony trucks and how they are set up.

That's interesting. Side note, in standard gauge OO Heljan's O2 2-8-0 has a second batch announced with improvements to eliminate some of the observed mechanism problems. Hopefully that will also prove effective, when it appears for owner assessment (expected first half 2023).

[b308]

About the only thing that looks right on the Kato chassis is a steam tram loco based one of the Belgian designs. Basically a box on wheels, which is probably not what you are looking for.

I'm selling a motorised small Atlas tram that's been converted with the 109 chassis, to be fair it's a good little model, though electric not steam. I was more looking at steam locos that never had skirts and diesels and steam that have been "stretched" to fit the chassis! Strangely enough you can fit the Kato 109 under the Peco GVT steam loco and it looks OK (as long as you don't look really closely and notice the missing exle!) but that's because it was quite a wide loco and the skirts hide the mechanism well!

[Monday]

Thanks to all for the advice. Looks like Santa will be dispatched towards the Bachmann pixies this Christmas.