Growing up in the north east of England I did not get to see many heavy ex GWR good engines. In fact with one possible exception, number 3826, I did not record seeing any 28xx, 38xx or 47xx in the flesh so to speak. In the period 1959/1961 number 3826 was a Pontypool Road (86G) engine. Would it have travelled as far north as Chester, where I visited, or did I see it whilst on holiday in Pembrokeshire?

The latest Hornby 28xx

Whatever the answer when I started building the current layout in 2007 I decided that I would like to run one of Hornby’s 28xx models to accompany my old Dublo 8F.

My Early Hornby 28xx

By 2007 the original Hornby model was perhaps somewhat dated and I had a number of issues with the engine. Visually I was not happy with the angled cylinders and the grey plastic crosshead. I had a cunning plan. I had the remains of a Mainline 43xx. Surprisingly the cylinders seemed approximately the same size. So – why not fit the Mainline cyinders, slidebars and crosshead to the Hornby model? I wish that at the time I had taken a few more pictures, but it was a straightforward operation to join the Mainline cylinders using back plastic sheet cut from an old CD case and to form a bridging piece the same shape as the Hornby item. The Mainline 43xx also provided a dummy front coupling and front vacuum pipe. After fitting the ’new’ cylinders I replaced the plastic front stays with some spare handrail wire which I thought had a more suitable finer diameter. As sold by Hornby the BR 28xx came with its front number ‘stencilled’ directly on the smokebox. Instead I fashioned a rectangular number plate from black plastic sheet suitably adorned with appropriate numbers. At the same time I added a shed plate from a sheet of transfers. Finally at the front of the engine I replaced the Hornby buffers with a parallel sprung pair from the Cavendish range.

Early Tender Drive Unit with 'exposed' handrails and turned buffer heads

The early Hornby 28xx is tender driven and there is not a lot that can be done with the mountain of coal that is used to hide the motor. I did however open out the gap between the handrails and the tender body, a trick that I first tried with my old Airfix Castles. To start with I drilled a 0.5mm hole adjacent to each dummy handrail knob and then carefully removed the remaining plastic web with a sharp craft knife. The result I think is quite pleasing, especially if the original silver colour is covered over with black paint. The Hornby tender buffer beam is quite substantial, being an integral part of the tender drive unit. I decided that it was infinitely easier and acceptable to remove the existing rounded buffer heads and to drill out the metal shanks to accept the turned heads of the Cavendish buffers, rather than replace the whole buffer assembly. I kept this early model in its ‘improved’ state for a number of years until I had the opportunity to purchase one of Hornby’s latest models.

The latest 28xx chassis

I have to say that I am impressed with the quality of the new Hornby 28xx. My model dates from August 2011 and is performing perfectly. For completeness I have included a picture of the new chassis. It is a snug fit within the boiler which comes carefully filled with metal ballast.

Some nice detail

There is also some plastic detail which bridges between the chassis and the bottom plate which should be treated with care.

Out of the box the 28xx weighs around 280gm, much the same as the later Hornby O1. I would say my 28xx runs more smoothly but that could just be imagination.

The latest Hornby 28xx

Finally I have included a picture of my ‘new' 28xx taken at the same location as the earlier picture above of Hornby’s first model. Not only has the Hornby model improved, but hopefully there is evidence that the layout here is also gaining detail - but still some way to go.