DJ Dangerous

And long may they continue! Absolutely love that 450 Class, @ttc0169! Smashing Sunday scenes!

For context if anybody is reading this thread this evening, the OP has been heavily edited, with maybe 3/4 of the original text deleted.

I mis-read that first “r” as an “n”…

Excellent feedback! I’m now feeling rather foolish and envious for being overly cautious, but once burned (here on the forum) and all that.

The whole “campaign” appears nothing more than an excuse for large retailers who undermine and destroy small retailers to say “poor us”, and for out-of-touch elitists to preach to others. Since this is an Irish-based forum, dealing largely (but not exclusively) with Irish models, perhaps some context would help. How many modellers in Ireland have access to a local model shop? How many modellers in the UK have access to a local model shop? How many modellers in mainland Europe have access to a local model shop? What percentage of buyers do each of those three make up? What are the objectives of the campaign? Assuming that the reality of the situation is that Heljan would have disappeared WITHOUT the intervention of Accurascale, what would campaigners have done to save Heljan? If Heljan had gone bankrupt, all of their contracts would have ceased to be enforceable, so buyers would have lost out on pre-ordered items either way. Offering to buy back unsold stock doesn’t make sense. Let the retailers sell it at the prices they paid for it themselves. As can be seen from the new Heljan website, the stock is flying out at those prices. Maybe investing time in selling unwanted stock at cost, instead of griping about it online, would be a better use of retailer’s time and energy. Rails of Sheffield, one of the largest retailers in this case, are capable of sending multiple emails per day. Not one has yet mentioned Heljan reductions. Why not? Not one has listed retailers who have Heljan stock to clear? Why not? This whole campaign seems like virtue-signalling by the holier-than-thous and I’m sick of their hypocrisy and mud-slinging already.

On the RMW thread, I found some of the posts a little tantrum-ish, calling for a virtual boycott of Accurascale etc, but nothing worth deleting or whipping out the ban-hammer for. Closing the thread until things cool down, while opening a new discussion thread to cover the off-topic content was the right choice. In our hobby, with all of it’s different branches, being pedantic can definitely be an asset. Picking up on detail issues, bogies used, livery changes etc. These kind of notes help manufacturers when they need information, and help members who want the most prototypical models possible. Some people want ultra-realism, some want the right feel, some want to feed their nostalgia, some are just happy to get a chance to run some trains, prototypical or not, and we all kind of mesh together and make things work. I find RMW in general to be a little overwhelming. The members’ interests cover such a large base, there are such a large volume of posts, and there is such a large knowledge base, that it’s hard to keep up. In general, tempers seem to fray more easily and more often than here ln the IRM forum, but, taking into account the size difference, it’s probably all the same. As @murphaph pointed out, IRM, and thus Accurascale, and the subsequent Heljan rescue, were all born out of this very forum, both in it’s current form and pre-migration. They’re the Musks and Zuckerbergs of model railways in a way, combining innovation and business acumen to learn, adapt and evolve, hopefully providing RTR Irish models for many years to come, while pursuing other ventures to keep their company strong… Although hopefully they don’t grow into Michael O’Leary’s, that might be a step too far.

Well I’ll eat my hat! Great that they arrived, as it’s never nice seeing people get burned.

Ah, some of his videos are fine, they just go on a little too long. Hey, nothing wrong with carpet:

Couple of YouTube vloggers like Sam’s Trains are very vitriolic towards Heljan. Others like Heaton Lodge are very positive, but the negatives are always louder than the positives. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to get your hands on a few at some stage to tear them down.

I’ll take ten, please!

Stunning, as usual, @JasonB. Gobble gobble. Take a bow.

Have quite a few Heljan diesels and coaches, plus one or two wagons. Not done much mileage but from a visual perspective, they are stunning. The Class 50 in particular has a wonderful presence to it. Picked up a OO Gauge Class 57, too, but still haven’t run it. Almost all of mine have been bought at various levels of reduced prices, usually between €300-ish and €400-ish for the diesels. I think that the Class 26 may have been a little cheaper, and one of the Class 50’s a little more, but roughly in that range. Coaches all around the €75 to €150 range, more towards the lower end of that spectrum. Bit the bullet and paid the extra for the Mk2’s, but that was still when they were something like 50% off. Only picked up one or two wagons as pricing was excessive, went for Dapol and Accurascale instead. Pricing has been the big thorn in Heljan purchasing. If not for the retailers basically doubling the price, I’d have bought more, a lot more, but that money has either gone on other brands, on OO, or on 1/18 Otto models instead. The changes brought about this week mean that I will definitely be buying a lot more. @BosKonay says that they will have several deliveries from Heljan over the coming months. Expect to see a chunk of stuff Canarias-bound!

This bit here seems fuzzy. Hornby’s 2024 / 2025 accounts show £7 Million owed by customers, and of that, they expect that £1,3 Million won’t be recovered. That sounds like shops don’t pay, or don’t pay in full, until the stock has been sold. If a retailer decides to discount stock to shift it, it’s possible that the retailer is also reducing what they’re prepared to pay for stock already received, and the manufacturers never see that money back.

No hypocrisy at all. The move and the logic make perfect sense. Scenario A: Heljan go bust and retailers lose the opportunity to sell their products, and any associated non-Heljan products. Scenario B: Heljan are saved by going direct-sales-only, and peple who buy Heljan stuff then go to their model shop for their other bits. The range being discounted NOW is because it's being sold without the retailers mark-up. The range being discounted by retailers two weeks ago means that somebody, more than likely Heljan, is getting hit financially. That's not sustainable. This is the best, longterm, for modellers and retailers.

I’ll take anything you plan on binning, @Georgeconna.

Ending badly is the plan. Then, I don’t have to pay him. Dapol do some decent modern image wagons that are good value for money, and A/S HUO hoppers were decent value, too. Coaching stock, however, is a different kettle of fish!

So, without wanting to be too nosey, say somebody wanted some O Gauge Mk2’s… Would they be better off flying @murphaph down here and locking him in the garage for a few weeks to respray some stunning NSE Mk2’s? Or waiting a year or two for the next run, in case there happened to be an FK and TSO in IR / IE livery?

So, as it’s been a month, and @M18Hellcat is online almost every day, using the PM facility, who has received their purchases?

Unable to post in the Manufacturers forum, so posting here. DCC Concepts became Layout Concepts last month, now managed by TMC: https://www.layoutconcepts.com/article/dccconcepts-is-now-layout-concepts

Thanks, @ttc0169. I wasn’t fully sure on that, hence the question. Maybe 082’s exhaust can be replicated on another before naming, so!

Plenty of scope to name 082 after Paddy Murphy so.

Is 071 the only one of the class named?

Been catching up on my Tara Junction videos on YouTube. Nice to see some different camera angles. One or two shots threw me off at first, wondering where the camera was!

IRM B&I Container twinpack for €135: https://touch.adverts.ie/toy-cars-trains-boats-planes/model-railway-irm/39763901 IRM Keg twinpack for €135: https://touch.adverts.ie/toy-cars-trains-boats-planes/model-railway/39763921 Corgi UlsterBus Plaxton Excaliber for €30: https://touch.adverts.ie/toy-cars-trains-boats-planes/ulsterbus-tours-1-76-scale/38024832 Gerry Hoey / Millipede Bulleid Opens x 8 for €20 each: https://touch.adverts.ie/models/model-railway-irish-bullied-wagons/39764413 Gerry has about twenty other ads for various Irish coaches and wagons, too.

Likewise, I have a friend in Bournemouth who visits a few times a year, and brings some contraband. Always worth the wait. The last shipment (the Splenda aren’t for me ) :