The Great Western Railway was amongst the first in the world to introduce self-contained diesel railcars for passenger services. Now the classic ‘Razor Edge’is available for ‘O’ gauge with the arrival of this brand-new model from Heljan – MIKE WILD investigates.
HELJAN IS CUTTING A path to serve a widening sphere of ‘O’ gauge modellers by producing models which suit both large and small layout designs and one of the undeniably user friendly items of rolling stock is the Great Western Railway diesel railcar.
The first of the breed were introduced in 1933 and featured a streamlined body in keeping with the 1930s era styling. These were built by Park Royal and Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon with AEC engines, but in 1940-1941 the GWR built its own batch of railcars at Swindon Works with all-new styling as shown by this new Heljan model. The new styling earned them the nickname ‘Razor Edge’ because of the more angular design, while they also had conventional bufferbeam equipment which allowed them to haul a trailing load.
Numbered 19-33, the railcars were used on branch line services where their low running costs made them ideal for lightly used lines – their twin AEC engines providing ample propul…
