#27 Heljan's Class 07 Shunter: First Thoughts, Some History & Running-in (Part 1)

Here in Part 1 we take a look at Heljan's hotly-anticipated Class 07 0-6-0 diesel-electric shunter. In Part 2, we'll fit a DCC decoder and also look at the directional lights in action.

It's a wonderful model with some fabulous detailing for the most part. The cab detail is good and there's lots of room for a driver in the easy-to-remove cab. The directional lighting is better than on Heljan's Class 05, but still fairly dim.

It has a decent weight to it and the motor performs well at lower speeds (particularly in DCC mode). It's not the quietest of motors, however.

Body removal involves the disengagement of some handrails and can be quite fiddly. On the version 2 variant, additional brake pipes must be removed, and that can result in chipped paint. This is covered in Part 2.

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Video contents:

00:10 Unboxing & Introduction
04:40 A brief history
07:18 Overview of the model
14:16 First run of the rolling road

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Thank you very much for watching.

Please comment, like, share and subscribe!

[alanbowers]

Great overview of this little shunter! I can't wait to see the layout soon. Cheers!

[onnomulder]

Beautiful product from Heljan! Great looking shunter!

[JamesSmith-zvnw]

I am considering the Harry needle one. Helpful review. You should be at 1k in no time at this rate👍

[TheGarlee]

Excellent review of a superb looking model

[malcolmlowe]

Love the video .. Excellent. Just one thing … Could you please use a Pointer for showing the detail information. Too much screen space taken up by Fingers..

[Mattslade]

now that is a nice loco. might have to get one

[GalgormHall]

Can you have too many shunters on a layout? I reckon with products such as this the answer is no. It’s a beautiful looking loco with stunning detail, it just needs a nice BR green livery! Lol. A nice review/overview David, now get back to the layout man! :-) Paul

[kirktonroadjunction]

Fantastic little shunters.. as I mentioned on your Facebook page earlier mine's is still in it's box, but hoping to get it out tomorrow evening and getting it run in. I'm looking forward to the next video on dcc installation to see how you do it, hate when they are small and fiddly Mark

[drewliszka]

Very jealous mate love these little shunters but as i have 3 of hornbys 08 cant justify one of these. Good video mate and superb overview of a nice product .

[DungeWoodRailway]

Hi
Nice review of your 07, Ive got the Peakstone version, another variant with air brakes and it looks superb, much better than the photos online. The detail is amazing and Ive decided to keep the buffer beams loaded up and blank off the nem pocket, or fit a kadee if it goes in okay.
Fitting the decoder is easy my issue was getting the two brake pipes to sit back correctly, a very tricky job ... as you mentioned the paint on these seems to flake off very easily which is a bit annoying but overall this little beast is now one of my favorite locos.
Looking forward to seeing how you go in part 2...
Cheers Paul
Ps. How about sound fitting?

[SimonLivertonCentral]

Very nice loco David, I have been looking at that exact model, the best price I can find it for is £118 at PeterSpares...Simon

Hi there hope things are going well for you. I have a class 17 what DCC decoder would you reccomend for it? I am buying 2 class 07s for the steel mill and will follow your instructions on the conversion but I thought I'd ask you about the 17. Cheers

[kevingriffis]

What would cause the rear rolling road stand to wobble back and worth and cause the back end of the loco to wiggle side to side? Is that a weight imbalance issue, a wheel issue?

[petersmith]

lovely loco might get one. not impressed with the way rails wrapped the loco with one piece of bubble wrap