The Excellent Electric Pioneer! Rails Heljan BR/NER ES1 Bo-Bo Locomotive in BR Lined Green

[@robertgates7686]

Thanks for the interesting review of the Rails ESI. I am currently on holiday in Australia and spotted a similar locomotive imported from the UK and preserved in the Australian Nation Railway Museum in Port Adelaide South Australia. This electric locomotive was the first of eight operated by the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited at two quarry railways at Iron Knob and Iron Monarch in the north of South Australia and at Rapid Bay, south of Adelaide. All of these locomotives were 3’6’’ gauge (1067mm), weighed 25 tons, and operated from 600 volts direct current. Introduced at the iron stone quarries at Iron Knob in 1928, the three original locomotives E1-E3 built by Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Co. Ltd. of Manchester and Sheffield, England were joined by a fourth locomotive, E4, from the same manufacturer in 1935. The other 4 locomotives where subsequently supplied to the original design by Perry Engineering Co. Ltd. of Mile End, South Australia. The Australian National Railway Museum in Port Adelaide is well worth a visit.

[@markhayes6407]

Highly detailed steeple cab. Nice job Heljan!

[@raymondleggs5508]

There's a few old locomotive like these still operational here in the US, in fact one took over 10 years to restore, I remember it had a wooden chassis . the entire main girder had rotted. It had been sitting outside for about 30 years before hand.

[@JenniferEKirk]

Nice to hear of it getting restored.

[@Beatlefan67]

Listening to your report on the pantograph and seeing its action, Jenny, I'm disappointed that it is more substantial, and from what I can grasp, not possible to use it to collect power. I have several Fleishmann steeple cabs and to my surprise, they did not come with full-function. With a little judicious wiring and fiddly soldering, I have enabled them to collect current from the contact wire, the pantos are beautifully made and substantial, and they work an absolute dream. The 'return' is on the 'far' rail on the layout and then the steam and diesel locos pick up from the 'near' rail and return also on the 'far' rail. Control comes from my trusty H&M Duette. Thanks for the excellent review, although I can't see myself purchasing one of these just yet.

[@Bigboy4018]

Reminds me of the "Crocodile" locomotive. I like that livery, great color.

[@JenniferEKirk]

Yes, similar era design.

[@johnnew3096]

Thanks for this guide to getting the top off / decoder fitting. Quite why body fitting is so complex these days compared with earlier years I have no idea. Lots of improvements in modern models but body fit is an area that has gone waaaaay backwards.

[@damianinCanadaTT-OO]

I’m surprised no one mentioned this small locomotive is £220!

[@No1thomasfan2010]

A Wonderful review. One surprise I found with mine is that the dummy hooks can actually be fitted without interference with the nem pockets which helps greatly with the look

[@JenniferEKirk]

Many thanks!

[@goupigoupi6953]

Lovely, I must have one. My only complain is about the cabin floor, which appears to be very high; only a legless crew may fit.

[@mels1811]

Excellent loco

[@ch1970mc]

I’ve got two - BR version and NER version from locomotion models. fantastic model of one of my favourite locos, only down side is DCC chip fitting - bit of a nightmare! One of my 3rd rail parts was very tight fit and spigot snapped off when trying to remove it, had to glue it back on. Please really be careful when taking parts off! Lovely model though

[@JenniferEKirk]

Yeah the third rail pickup removal is a real nuisance. A shame they didn’t cite the screws elsewhere.

[@georgebottarini1788]

Thanks Jenny. Just bought it from Rails

[@B-Mozzer]

the pantograph was only used in the yard as 3rd rail would not be safe for anyone working in the yard

[@jkirk888]

Great review of a gorgeous model. I think there is a piece on KZbin that shows these locos at work.

[@andrewhotston983]

Thanks for this - very useful. Do the plunger connections for the lighting mean that a couple of bits of tape could disable the lights, as I find them too bright, but I'd rather not take the drastic step of cutting the wires?

[@JenniferEKirk]

Thanks!

[@JenniferEKirk]

@@andrewhotston983 yes tape over those should disable the lights for DC

[@jdmodels1968]

It’s a lovely model, I have one, just a shame that the BR version suffers a few errors.

[@johnodonoghue7381]

Great video Jen informative too well done

[@davidperkins5657]

Hello, Interesting video. I am intrigued though how the score for DCC innovation and fitting can be 8.9 ? I mean, the instructions are incomplete, you have to remove fixed parts that may then break and other parts fall off (mentioned in an extra slip in the box). When you've got inside it's just a standard socket. Realistically shouldn't the score be much lower ? Dave

[@mytinplaterailway]

I'd ignore the scoring.

[@peterforden5917]

I've seen the preserved one in York (?) and a very similar one in The Swedish Malmköping Tram Museum, This is a model on my must have list, pity they havent manufactured the early steeple cabs on London Transport or originally the Metropolitan line to Ayessbury :)

[@mkaustralia7136]

Was the bent lamp iron hard to straighten?

[@DC4260Productions]

In a happy coincidence, my ES1 arrived in the post the very next day after this video came out. Incidentally my model is the same 26500 in BR green. The main reason I think the ES1 is special is because I remember her being in an old computer game called Sid Meier's Railroads.

[@austinhallmark7060]

Can you run the loco with live pantograph pick up ?

[@austinhallmark7060]

What is a stay alive function , pleas ?

[@mauricemannion1311]

Lovely old electric locomotive, very nice British railways colour scheme too, a great looking model, but two hundred and twenty pounds is a completely rediculous price to pay for what is essentially a Heljan model wrapped in couture. Heljan mechanisms though very good for what they are, do not justify the actual cost of this locomotive. And if any other manufacturers made this model a the same price it would still be far to expensive..! I agree its a lovely model, but not at the price it's on sale for..! And steps falling off.. I rest my case..

[@JenniferEKirk]

Sadly this seems to be the new norm to make a business case to make the model and get it on the market.

[@arrow1414]

If your model railway is what we call a "freelance" railroad here in the US, that is fictional company,, you can run whatever you want, making up a fictional biography as to why it is there, like your railway brought the sister for there railway perhaps for simular reasons, not to smoother the crew with a steam loco's exhaust since your layout does have tunnels.🙂

[@raymondleggs5508]

Sam's trains does not like heljan

[@kkobayashi1]

I think he's trying to be the Jeremy Clarkson of the model railway world and not really pulling it off.

[@JenniferEKirk]

To be honest, he has no luck always getting duds. He gets so many models that look like they were dismantled then reassembled them improperly.

[@jeffreysmith156]

@@JenniferEKirk Sam does seem to be unlucky so many times. Having said that, if I was given one of these unusual Heljan models I would feel very lucky!