Ahead of the arrival of the first decorated samples of our new O gauge Class 56, we thought you'd like to see the artwork these Type 5 beasts will carry. No fewer than ten versions will be available on general sale, plus a further exclusive livery for Tower Models.
Our model is based on the later Doncaster and Crewe-built locomotives (56061-135) and liveries will cover the British Rail, Sectorisation and Trainload Freight company periods from the early-1980s through to the late-1990s.
The models will feature directional LED lighting, powered roof fans, sprung buffers and screw couplers, switchable cab and tail lights, twin 5-pole motors and flywheels and a heavy duty chassis that has already proved itself supremely capable on 'Britain's Biggest Model Railway' (Simon George's 'Heaton Lodge Junction'). During many hours of challenging tests, our pre-production Class 56 handled full length coal and steel trains on long gradients with aplomb, just like the full size machines - see it in action here.
Other features include a wealth of fine detail, separately fitted parts and optional detail parts for specific batches such as cabside air-conditioning grilles, steel 'grids' to mount below the bufferbeam, two sets of different cab door handrails and NRN radio aerials.
The 'DCC Friendly' chassis features screw terminals to allow the straightforward installation of a high-power decoder such as the ESU LokSound XL (not supplied) as well as plenty of space for a powerful loudspeaker and, if required, a DCC compatible smoke unit.
Suggested Retail Price (SRP) of these superb new models is £699.00 and with pre-orders already very strong on most versions, we recommend contacting your HELJAN stockist to reserve yours now. It's no surprise that the BR Blue and Large Logo models are the most popular so far (hence why we added extra versions!) but the Railfreight and Sector locos are also being snapped up quickly and the numbers available are likely to minimal by the time they are shipped to the UK.
The ten liveries in the first batch will be as follows...
#5600 BR Blue unnumbered
#5601 BR Large Logo Blue unnumbered
#5602 Railfreight large logo grey unnumbered
#5603 Railfreight Red Stripe grey unnumbered
#5604 Railfreight Sector grey unbranded/unnumbered
#5605 Railfreight Coal Sector 56101 Mutual Improvement WEATHERED
#5606 Railfreight Construction Sector 56110 Croft
#5607 Loadhaul black/orange unnumbered
#5608 BR Large Logo Blue 56099
#5609 BR Blue 56071
#5610 Transrail grey unnumbered *TOWER MODELS EXCLUSIVE* (see below)
Look out for further updates here soon on this exciting new O gauge product!