It was just another Thursday, a random Thursday in March, when all of a sudden, Accurascale – a newbie manufacturer to the model railway market announced that they were to acquire Heljan, a respected existing manufacturer. The days that followed contained shockwaves of this news, with an array of views from those saying that Accurascale were trying to takeover the model railway scene to others which commended Accurascale for rescuing the brand. In this blog post I will examine what it means for the model railway industry, is it positive news or are the fears the truth?
Accurascale
Accurascale is a relative newcomer to the hobby, founded in 2015, they have been slowly finding their feet, they are a start up founded by four railway modellers who were in the pursuit of high quality ready-to-run (RTR) models. Their range up to the acquisition included models in both 00 and 0 gauges however their range was relatively small compared to the competition such as Hornby and Bachmann.
Heljan A/S
Heljan has roots which go much deeper, founded in 1957 they were a Danish model company which primarily focused on the HO European market. In around 2000, they moved to the British outline market by stepping their toes in 00 gauge. Since then their range grew to cover HO, 00, 0, N and TT scales.
The Market Change
As Accurascale took-off in the UK market with their highly detailed, feature rich models, Heljan on the other hand start to struggle, they couldn’t keep up with this competition, they grew a reputation for having poor quality and overpriced models which led to severe discounting which affected their financial stability but also that of the retailers who stocked their range. Even exclusive models such as those sold through major retailer Rails of Sheffield struggled to shift and ended up being discounted.
This could not continue, manufacturers were struggling and so too were the retailers, what compounded this was that Gaugemaster, the retailer who was the UK authorised distributor of Heljan models needed to make money as well, only compounding the high prices. To that end something had to give.
The takeover
So, on 26th March 2026, in a bold move, Accurascale announced that is was acquiring the Heljan brand and the remaining stock, what followed was deep discounting to try and shift stagnating stock that wasn’t selling and a move to direct only ordering for the Heljan brand – note Accurascale itself remains available to both direct order and to trade orders.
This caused a stir, many retailers felt shaken, their existing stock of Heljan products devalued immediately, without notice. Retailers left in the lurch. Rails of Sheffield launched an industry wide campaign to shop independently and that is where the story remains.
There are many viewpoints that could be seen, and only time will tell before it is truly understood what the long lasting impacts will be.
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