Proto Neo

Bought and reviewed by Graham Clark I had not come across Protoneo before but found their website (protoneo.com) while searching for images of Romanian class 56s. I needed a Romanian built example for my Woodhead layout as most of the 56s working on the line then were Romanian ones, there not being many British built ones at that time.

Someone at the club had bought the Proto Neo class 13 conversion kit and recommended it, so I took the plunge.

The kit cost £50 and arrived within 2 days of ordering. It consists of two postcard sized etched brass sheets, a length of glazing material and 7 pages of instructions. The instructions are very comprehensive, with photos of each stage of the conversion, and are printed in full colour. A very useful page is a photo of the etched sheets with all the parts labelled. I followed the order given in the step by step instructions except for the buffer beam cowls, which I fitted earlier than the instructions suggest so that all the body alterations were done before attaching the new brass parts.

The kit converts the Heljan 56, which is a very nice model and possibly Heljan’s best to date, into one of the early members of the class (56 001 to 56 030), which were built in Romania. The differences between the Romanian ones and the rest of the class are quite noticeable and include the cab windows, headlights, horn cover and the side grilles. Brass parts are included for all these, though it seems a shame to remove the Heljan grilles from the sides as they are so nicely fitted. However, the Romanian ones have a very different mesh, so they had to go. The chassis is unaltered, though I added KaDee couplers as they are my standard.

Almost all of the conversion work is to the body, and the instructions advise that you carefully remove the front details as they need to go back. I broke one of the jumper cables, so had to make a new one out of wire. All of the nice Heljan grilles need to be taken out (keep them for the spares box though – it is useful fine mesh), the horn cover and front lights must be removed. The grille surrounds on the roof and sides need to be scraped off and sanded smooth.

The windscreens also have to come out and the cab front opening widened. I took the opportunity to round the roof corners over the cab as the Heljan ones look too sharp.

The Romanian 56s have round section steel for the body side bracing behind the side grilles and the instructions suggest filing round edges on the Heljan square bracing. I did this, but it is hardly noticeable after fitting the grilles. At this stage the conversion looks drastic and you start to wonder what you have done to your expensive model!

The brass parts are now assembled and fitted. Some of the parts are quite delicate and must be soldered together carefully. I used solder paste and a resistance soldering unit.

The light units and horn cover were straightforward. The roof and side grilles have fine etched surrounds that must be attached; it is important to be careful with these to avoid solder clogging the fine mesh. These need to be glued to the body but are best left off until the buffer beam cowl is fitted. The buffer beam cowl is one of the most obvious features of the early 56s, not just the Romanian ones but the first 30 or so British built ones have them as well. The cowl is built up from six pieces and I made a mistake here. The brass is very thin and I cut off some parts that were required, thinking that they were tabs holding them to the sheet. The instructions could be a bit clearer regarding this part as the cowl unit is the most complex part of the kit. Once formed to shape and soldered up, it is attached to the Heljan buffer beam unit, which is separate from the chassis and attached to it by two screws.

The brass cowl is glued to the plastic Heljan unit, and the sides wrap round to cover the sides. There was a gap between these two at the sides and I glued small pieces of plastic card here to attach the two items securely. Once assembled, the buffer beam units screw back onto the chassis and it is necessary to cut out the bottom of the cab front to clear the top of the cowl. I filed this out, and the instructions suggest test fitting the body to chassis to get the cut-outs right. I cut out slightly too much, but the cab front is yellow and the cowl black, so the gap is not noticeable (luckily!).

The cab windscreens were attached next; I used Gorilla glue for this. The windscreen units have half-etched edges which wrap round the corners of the cab front. These fitted well and the curved edges blended nicely into the new brass quarterlights. Reference to a photo is useful here as these windows are flush with the body sides on a Romanian loco. The Heljan glazing for these windows must be cut down fairly accurately as it supports one edge of the new quarterlight. I used a razor saw for this but still managed to crack one pane. The cab front is built up with filler to a half-etched guide line then filed and sanded smooth. The new light units and horn cover can then be glued on.

The new body side and roof grilles were glued on and the nicely modelled Heljan roof vents were removed and filled in, to be replaced by etched covers supplied with the kit. The buffers originally fitted to early 56s were round Oleo type but the Heljan ones are oval. I filed the heads of the Heljan buffers to thin them as much as possible then glued on discs of black plastic card. It would be helpful if the etch had included some etched discs for this.

I sprayed the front of the body with Halfords white primer before painting it yellow. The rest of the body was given a couple of coats of Precision BR blue. I then refitted the Heljan jumper cables and cab handrails. My model came with alternative handrails but not a complete set of the ones I needed (round), so I made up the missing ones with wire. The buffer beams were brush painted black and the whole chassis weathered down a bit. The loco body was given a light weathering using powders. The 56s were nearly new in the period of my layout (1977 – 81), so weathering was very light.

This conversion kit is very well thought out and the illustrated instructions are very good, but it does require some soldering skill and, of course, you take a fully finished Heljan body shell and hack great holes in it! However, it is a very good way of getting a Romanian built 56. Recommended.

We showed the review to Vin Burk of Protoneo, who comments: The only part I would add is the buffer heads and shanks are separate parts from Gaugemaster Heljan spares and are from a class 47.