Model Railway Forum

Update……,

Contacted Heljan HQ and they responded very quickly to be fair but only to direct me to Olivia’s Trains ( apparently they get all Heljan UK rejects).

Contacted Olivia’s Trains and whilst they were responsive, they had no gears and wanted me to send the complete loco for repair ( not sure what with if they had no gears) or buy a complete Class 26 chassis ( which uses the same gear) for £42 + P&P from their eBay page.

Spent ages trawling EBay and eventually found a guy advertising the associated Heljan pinion gears, so contacted him to see if he had perhaps stripped a loco down and had the adjacent gear I reqd…….guy came back really quickly and it appears he sources gears from China……. We have traded dimensions etc and it looks like he can get something very similar…… have placed an order and should get late Dec.

………. To be continued

A bit of a faff but hopefully you’ll get the right result.

Keep us updated when they arrive - I'm glad you've sourced a replacement at a lot less than £42+pp!

Well hopefully you got there in the end Richard, but what a trek. If your source can supply, might be worth getting a few?

Good news Chaps……. The new gears arrived today and appear to be an almost perfect drop in replacement for the Heljan original……see pictures of the worn gear, a good Heljan one from the other bogey and two of the newly sourced replacements.

Did a test fit and it meshes with the worm gear and the other pinion gears in the gearbox just exactly as it should……I was going to rebuild the loco this evening, but instead spent a few hours crunching numbers to see if I can still afford to live and work in Scotland after the latest tax hikes !……will post a picture of the infamous Hymek when it is back and running on the layout - hopefully tomorrow evening.

Cheers - Richard

That's good news Richard - the gears that is.

Didn’t have time for a photo, but loco fully assembled and sound installed and back running sweetly on the layout……got there in the end but crazy efforts to go to for a tiny plastic gear.