Design work is underway on HELJAN’s next ‘OO’ gauge project – the BR Class 104 DMU built by Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. for the London Midland and North Eastern Regions. CAD work is in progress, with images to be released as soon as design work is complete. This model will be available in a wide range of BR liveries covering the life of the class from 1957 until retirement of the final sets in 1993.
With 302 vehicles built to six different car types, the ‘104s’ are the largest group of BR diesel railcars not currently available in ready-to-run form. The only previous RTR model was produced for ‘TT’ gauge in the late-1950s.
Although synonymous with the Manchester area and the routes to Buxton and Blackpool, the units worked across a wide area of northern England and the Midlands and towards the end of their career ventured further afield to Scotland and the south-east of England.
The new HELJAN OO gauge Class 104 will feature a low profile mechanism powering one car per set, switchable interior and exterior lighting features, a 21-pin DCC decoder interface and provision for DCC sound. Options for factory-fitted DCC sound on all models are being investigated and will be announced separately. External features will include authentic detail variations appropriate to period and livery, a highly-detailed interior and underframe, separate handrails, sprung buffers NINE versions have been selected for general release in the first batch, covering a cross-section of BR green, blue and Sectorisation era liveries – see below for more information. Suggested Retail Price will be announced later. Look out for updates on the HELJAN Facebook page and in the model railway press as this exciting project develops.
HELJAN CLASS 104 OO GAUGE MODELS
- 1450: BR early green 3-car with Lion & Wheel emblem M50422+M59134+M50426
- 1451: BR green 3-car with speed whiskers & Coaching Stock roundel M50478+M59186+M50530
- 1452: BR green 2-car E50598+E56189 (small yellow panels)
- 1453: BR Blue 3-car M50436+M59141+M50488 (full yellow ends/headcode panel)
- 1454: BR Blue with ‘Blackpool’ white stripe M50472+M59180+M50524
- 1455: BR Blue M53421+M53529 with NSE flash/white cab roof WEATHERED
- 1456: ScotRail ‘Mexican Bean’ red/white SC53424+SC53434
- 1457: BR Blue/Grey ‘BX487’ M53424+M59207+M53434
- 1458: Revised Network SouthEast ‘L701’ 53437+53479
We hope to bring you more details on the development of the model in future issues of Railway Modeller.
