Heljan Falcon (Empty Box)

[rosspeacock]

Hi all, it's been a long time since I felt compelled to post any content or indeed do any modelling.. I thought I'd share my latest project with you.. As many of you know Heljan sell off a lot of their faulty/returned stock at Telford. They had what looked like a fully finished Falcon GSYP which took my fancy at £200 I asked if I could leave a deposit and try it on the test track to which they agreed, much to my disappointment it did not work. A helpful GOG volunteer kindly lent me a small screwdriver and upon further inspection it was dicsovered that this loco was indeed an empty box, literally nothing inside.. I took it back to the Heljan stand and informed them that the loco was devoid of any mechanism/wiring etc. They said it was probably a sample, they said if I wanted it I could have it for £100... Now I didn't immediately snap their hands off like any sane person would I ummed and arred much to a good friends dismay.. I eventually made the right decision with a little bit of peer pressure and went ahead and parted with my £100..

 

[rosspeacock]

Anyway once I got my new acquisition home I took it to bits and tried to decide what to do. Should I scrap all the Heljan chassis parts and salvage all the bogie detail etc then construct a new chassis and bogies from bogie etches available from PRMRP or similar? But then I'd have to buy all new wheelsets etc thus no longer making it a cheap loco. I thought that would be worse case scenario as a call to Howes would be worth a try to see if they had any spares for my Falcon. Took a while but they were very helpful and came up trumps and for a very reasonable price came up with the bits I needed.. A motor, flywheel, cardan shaft, all the missing gears and pick ups too. I'm only powering in on one bogie as it'll be plenty enough for my needs..

 

[rosspeacock]

The next job was to fit all the acquired bits to my loco, this should have been easy but as mine was a pre production sample no holes were drilled or tapped into the Mazak chassis to accept the motor securing clamp.. I drilled and tapped out 4 M3 threads and threadlocked 4 M3 machine screws with nuts on them then cut off and filed the threads clean then removed the nuts so I knew I could re fit them once the motor was fitted and I put the clamp on..

 

[rosspeacock]

Hi again, as I expected she runs like a dream, I made a start yesterday putting the 1st fix wiring in place for lights/pick ups and speaker. I intend to use a OO chip and fit sound.. I've run two cables to the dash area where I'll put LED's and wire them so that when the polarity changes the lamps will change from red to white. I'll also be using warm white LED's as I'm not a fan of these bright white jobbies..

 

[rosspeacock]

And that's your lot for now, I'll post some more pics as progress moves on I need to add the pic ups this week, once they are on I may temporarily wire it for DC and put it all back together minus lights and sound so I give it a good run, plus it'll look much nicer with the top, bufferbeams and bogie sideframes back on..

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I presume the loco will not be hauling any great load as I'll be interested to know how you get on with the HO decoder coupled to that motor.

 

[rosspeacock]

I presume the loco will not be hauling any great load as I'll be interested to know how you get on with the HO decoder coupled to that motor.

Think I'll be ok with the motor don't think the current draw on new Heljan stuff is as high as the earlier models a 1.5amp will be fine, as for the haulage it's still quite a heavy old lump and reckon it'll pull a good length train (not that it ever will with me maybe 4 coaches at a push)

 

[richard carr]

I presume the loco will not be hauling any great load as I'll be interested to know how you get on with the HO decoder coupled to that motor.

I presume the loco will not be hauling any great load as I'll be interested to know how you get on with the HO decoder coupled to that motor.

Dave

I have a 37 and a peak running with one motor, the 37 uses a Zimo 645 sound decoder, it can easily haul 10 heljan bogie wagons with a few of the VAAs tagged on too, it draws just over an amp running at speed, at low speed less than half an amp.

The peak has a loksound V4 decoder in it, it will haul almost as much as the 37, the sprung pony truck just reduces it a bit.

I'm sure thats more than enough for most people.

Richard

 

[rosspeacock]

Thanks for that Richard, a good friend bought another Falcon from Heljan same day as me at Telford and his was an undecorated sample but fully functional. The GOG volunteer on the test track commented on how low the current draw was on his ammeter, he was surprised especially with his having 2 motors too.. I'll look at those Zimo chips, I'll need a wired one as I've no connections, do you know if they accept plug in sound modules with something like the SUSI socket used in larger scales?
Regards Ross..

 

[richard carr]

Ross

You can certainly get a wired version of the Zimo 645 decoder as that is what I have in the 37 but I don't know if they accept the plug in sound modules.
Which sound profile are you thinking of using, I used an ESU one for a german loco that has the same engines, its freely available onthe ESU website.

Richard

 

[rosspeacock]

Thanks Richard I'll have a look on their website.. I'm not sure on the sound was open to advice, know it's a Maybach engine but unsure how similar it should sound to other locos as others fitted with same power units were all diesel hydraulic.. Do you know which German loco it was? Does BR216/218 sound familiar to you?
Regards Ross

 

[Steph Dale]

216/218 will only be single engine, I suggest it was either V300 or V320...
However, it's worth talking to someone in the UK as either these profiles, or that of a Western, could be re-mapped to operate as diesel-electric. I confess I'm still not up to speed with ESU LokSound v4, but for v3 and v3.5 it was simply a case of setting a check box.

Steph

 

[rosspeacock]

Thanks Steph, I'm not familiar with any of it so any help or advice is greatly appreciated

Ross

 

[TheSnapper]

Hi Ross

Good to see you on here again - fascinating thread, as usual!

Legomanbiffo does a project for Falcon on a Loksound V.4:

Class 53 Brush Falcon (Legomanbiffo) : Legomanbiffo Diesel & Electric Digital Loco Sounds | D & E Video/DC Kits

His sounds are usually pretty good

Cheers

Tim

 

[rosspeacock]

Hi Ross

Good to see you on here again - fascinating thread, as usual!

Legomanbiffo does a project for Falcon on a Loksound V.4:

Class 53 Brush Falcon (Legomanbiffo) : Legomanbiffo Diesel & Electric Digital Loco Sounds | D & E Video/DC Kits

His sounds are usually pretty good

Cheers

Tim

Thanks for that Tim, I'll give him a try, is that Charlie Petty? He used to be DC kits, known him since I was a lad and the EM2 preservation society down at the old Hammerton Street depot in Bradford..


Ross..

 

[TheSnapper]

Ross

DC Kits is still Charlie Petty.
"Legomanbiffo" is actually Ian Bishop who markets his stuff through DC Kits.
He was demo-ing on the DC Kits stand at Telford.

Tim

 

[rosspeacock]

Ross

DC Kits is still Charlie Petty.
"Legomanbiffo" is actually Ian Bishop who markets his stuff through DC Kits.
He was demo-ing on the DC Kits stand at Telford.

Tim

Ah I get it now, hence the giant stuffed Legoman on top of the stand..

 

[rosspeacock]

Hi all, sorry about the extremely slow progress on my Falcon.. Had a couple of hours on it tonight, I only managed to get a pair of pick ups from Howes but managed to scrounge another pair from Rob (Lancer) so now it is collecting power from all wheels.. I needed to add an extra wire in for the cab lights after seeking advice. Apparently on DC 2 wires will suffice by reversing polarity and using diodes directional lights will work, on DCC according to advice given this is not so and one needs to install a 'common' so 3 wires are needed. Anyway got that fed thro and re fitted the cab floors.. I've temporarily soldered pick ups and motor wires to a small strip of copper clad so now at least it'll run on DC on the rolling road under its own power. Given it a steady run for about 10-15mins in each direction and all seems well..
Regards Ross..

 

[rosspeacock]

Done a bit more tonight, used some copperclad now we are ready for the dcc chip, whichever one that may be?

 

[rosspeacock]

Been getting this loco finished off this week. Realised it had been sat untouched since 2017!!
Wired up a 21pin socket so if I go down the DCC road the option is there.
Made some little boaeds up on VeroBoard holding the durectional lights and then put it all back together. Runs quite well I must say.

Ross