Heljan A/S is a Danish model railway company based in Søndersø. Originally specialising in decorations and accessories for model railways, it has now also developed a substantial range of rolling stock. It has diversified into modelling the British scene, and since 2002 has released several OO gauge

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

s, and several

O gauge O scale (or O gauge) is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad scal ...

models. British Outline now forms the biggest part of the Heljan business and UK operations are run from Denmark through an agent. In line with other

model train Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale. The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, t ...

companies and to keep costs to a minimum models are manufactured in China.

Range

Heljan's current UK OO gauge diesel loco range consists of

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

Class 14s, 15s, 16s, 17s,

23s The 23S rRNA is a 2,904 nucleotide long (in ''Escherichia coli, E. coli'') component of the large subunit (50S) of the bacterial/archean ribosome and makes up the peptidyl transferase center (PTC). The 23S rRNA is divided into six secondary st ...

, 26s,

27s The Numbers Gang is a crime organization that started as a prison gang with one of the most fearsome reputations in South Africa. Although they were founded in KwaZulu-Natal, it is believed that they are present in most South African prisons. T ...

28s 28S ribosomal RNA is the structural ribosomal RNA (rRNA) for the LSU rRNA, large subunit (LSU) of eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes, and thus one of the basic components of all eukaryotic cells. It has a size of 25S in plants and 28S in mammals, ...

, 33s, 35s, 47s, 52s, ''Falcon'', 57s, 58s, ''Lion'' and HS4000 ''Kestrel'. The

Class 86s are currently the only AC Electric outline models in the range. They have won praise for locomotive models in a wide variety of liveries. Several different models of the British Railways Waggon und Maschinenbau built

Railbuses A railbus is a lightweight passenger railcar that shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, typically having a bus (original or modified) body and four wheels on a fixed base, instead of on bogies. Originally designed and developed d ...

were released in February 2012. They also produce OO gauge British Rail Dogfish ballast wagons and Cargowaggon bogie freight vehicles. Their UK O gauge range currently consists of British Rail Class 03 shunter, Class 20s, 25s, 26s, 33s, 35s, 37s, 42s, 45s, 47s,

50s The 50s decade ran from January 1, 50, to December 31, 59. It was the sixth decade in the Anno Domini/Common Era, if the nine-year period from 1 AD to 9 AD is considered as a "decade". Significant people * Claudius, Roman Emperor (AD 41� ...

, 52s,

60s Ribosomal particles are denoted according to their sedimentation coefficients in Svedberg units. The 60S subunit is the large subunit of eukaryotic 80S ribosomes. It is structurally and functionally related to the 50S subunit of 70S prokaryotic ...

, 128s and a Class 55 ''Deltic''. The O gauge range also includes

British Railways Mark 1 British Railways Mark 1 is the family designation for the first standardised designs of railway carriages built by British Railways (BR) from 1951 until 1974, now used only for charter services on the main lines or on preserved railways. Follo ...

carriages in a number of liveries. O gauge models are typically supplied un-numbered and with separate detailing parts, allowing the purchaser to finish the model to their own preference. In the UK, a number of

limited edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...

locomotives have been commissioned by model retailers. Heljan models of the

British Rail Class 14 The British Rail Class 14 is a type of small diesel-hydraulic locomotive built in the mid-1960s. Twenty-six of these 0-6-0 locomotives were ordered in January 1963, to be built at British Railways' Swindon Works. The anticipated work for this c ...

and Class 28 'Co-Bo' diesel locomotives as well as the LMS 2-6-0+0-6-2 Beyer-Garratt with twin motor design and working coal pusher are available through Hattons Model Railways. Several different models of the

LNER LNER may refer to: *London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947 *London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018 * Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a type ...

EM1 and EM2 DC Electric locomotives constructed for use on the Woodhead Route are currently being produced for Olivia's Trains of Sheffield (terminus of the Woodhead line). A

Midland Pullman The ''Midland Pullman'' was the name given to a former express passenger train service operating on British Railways' old Midland Main Line between and via and Millers Dale. The train completed the journey in 3 hours 15 minutes. This servi ...

is also planned. Several standard Heljan models have been produced in special, limited edition, liveries for particular retailers or UK railway modelling magazines. Traditionally, Heljan has produced many Continental prototypes with H0 models such as the Swedish State Railways Class T21 and

Danish State Railways DSB, an abbreviation of ''Danske Statsbaner'' (, ''Danish State Railways''), is the largest Danish train operating company, and the largest in Scandinavia. While DSB is responsible for passenger train operation on most of the Danish railways, goo ...

class MY, MX, MO and P 4-4-2. Highly acclaimed, working Turntable, Traverser and Container crane models are available in

H0 scale HO or H0 is a rail transport modelling scale using a 1:87 scale (3.5 mm to 1 foot). It is the most popular scale of model railway in the world. The rails are spaced apart for modelling standard gauge tracks and trains in HO.NMRA"Mod ...

and are also suitable for 00 operation. A number of plastic building kits are also produced in HO/OO, along with working street lighting. In June 2022 Heljan announced plans to introduce a British Rail class 31 locomotive in TT:120 scale, with the possible production of a class 08 and a Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST locomotive. Previous commercial ready-to-run British outline rolling stock had, in the 1950s and 1960s, always been made to a scale of 1:100. The introduction of TT:120 scale rolling stock was coincidental with plans announced by

PECO PECO is a UK-based manufacturer of model railway accessories, especially trackwork, based at Pecorama, Beer in South Devon, England. PECO is the collective name for the Pritchard Patent Product Company Ltd, Peco Publications and Publicity L ...

and Gaugemaster to produce products in what is a new scale for British outline models.

Future plans

Planned models in OO gauge are a

British Rail DP2 DP2, meaning Development Prototype number 2, was a prototype List of British Rail power classifications#Type 4, Type 4 mainline diesel locomotive, built by English Electric in 1962. The engine and electronic systems trialled in DP2 formed the ba ...

and several versions of the Class 128 parcels DMU. In

O Gauge O scale (or O gauge) is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad scal ...

a GWR AEC 'Razor Edge' Railcar, British Rail Class 31, Class 40, Class 56 and a Class 17 ''Clayton'' are all planned but production is dependent on enough customers placing advanced orders for them. It is hoped that these will mirror the huge success of the "Deltic" when it was released in 2011. Heljan recently admitted that they had been considering the possibilities of producing a Class 14 "Teddy Bear" in O gauge but this was not thought to be viable due to lack of customer interest.

Gallery

File:Heljan Class 27 in BR Green.jpg, British Rail Class 27 File:Heljan Class 33.jpg, British Rail Class 33 File:Heljan British Rail Class 53 Falcon.jpg, British Rail Class 53 Falcon File:20170721 140120 Richtone(HDR).jpg, D0260 LION

References

External links

Heljan (Denmark)
www.heljan.dk

(Accessed 2016-08-27) {{coord, 55, 28, 35, N, 10, 15, 53, E, type:landmark, display=title Manufacturing companies established in 1957 Model railroad manufacturers Toy companies of Denmark Model manufacturers of Denmark Danish brands 1957 establishments in Denmark