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Hornby Duchess Query


ianwales
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Hi Rob

 

Jenkinson says 46228 had its smokebox done 1/57, and was blue from 1950, repainted green 8/55, and red 6/58.

So if those dates are correct, the sloping smokebox/green combination was fine for about 19-20 months.

Hope that helps.

 

Iain

 

Thankyou Iain, I much prefer this version of history to the Irwell book! This 19-20 month period will allow a lovely portrait of 46228 with blood-and- custard Staniers at speed.

 

Rob

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So, sloping smokebox 46228 with a  1955-56 'Royal Scot'... at a time when Staniers I think were added to Mk1 carriages in some photos. I like the headboard so artistic license prevails... 

 

post-7929-0-58350700-1358915246.jpg

 

Rob

 

 

Edited by robmcg
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That is truly a beautiful sight to wake up to on a bitterly cold January morning and entirely in keeping with a rekindled interest in Hornby Duchesses. Took my wife to the hairdressers in Tutbury yesterday morning (she  is a bit fragile after a nasty viral chest infection ) and whiled away the time in visiting  The Tutbury Jinny,my nearest local retailer. Was amazed to find a collection of them ,boxed,mint -mainly been on display only. Succumbed to temptation----I am a weak vessel and purchased  LMS streamliner red & gold 6244  'King George VI',a Modelfair Special  with etched plates.

      

  The saga doesn't end there,I'm afraid. I 'sinned'  twice. Returned  p.m. and purchased  6222 'Queen Mary'---LMS black,also Modelfair special,etched plates. Essentially as 'Rutland' in your masterpiece above. Well,something has to keep my Midland Compound company. It would be lonely on its own. Cheers,Rob.

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Well, these engines were after all masterpieces. In reading about them I am amazed by the skills of the design team which created them in the late 1930s. The streamlining adds a certain atmosphere of the age. The proportions of all the parts of these engines really is and was something to behold, with or without the streamlining.

 

Not saying that other engines didn't approach the standard. The team of designers under Stanier really did hit the mark in so many ways. Bulleid might eventually equalled the Duchesses with somewhat more modern equivalents but history and other technology overtook that enterprise? 

 

Hope your wife is feeling better.

 

Rob

Edited by robmcg
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Thank you ,Rob,she certainly is.

 You are right. The thirties were the last fling  of romanticism in so many ways. Engineering design was swept along by locomotive masterpieces all over the world. Chapelon in France, the DRG with the 05 and the Henschel-Wegmann Zug,In the States so many steam glories and here,in pre-war GB, Stanier and Gresley at the peak of their creative powers,with Oliver Bulleid waiting in the wings. Gresley is buried 4 miles away  from where I sit . So many Gresleys in South Derbyshire. Just a few hundred yards away lives a gentleman who was an apprentice in Derby Works in 1947 and who worked on 10000 and 10001. In the other direction is Twin Rivers,a purpose built maintenance complex for servicing and maintaining today's 220 & 221 Voyagers. Soon the wires will approach Derby heralding another rail engineering advancement. Hey-- I'm living in the centre of railway history.

 

 But,as one LMS man famously said----'Theres nothing to beat our b***** Duchesses,though'

 

  All the best from a still snowbound Burton on Trent..... Ian.

 

 PS---BR MIdland Compound released tomorrow----41157, late crest,d.c.

Edited by Ian Hargrave
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I feel like sitting back in pub and saying, 'arrr'...

 

I have a red 'Duchess of Devonshire' with 'streamlining', and a newly-arrived weathered maroon late crest 46244 so I think I'll be busy with one of those shortly.  Never a dull moment!  Not short of A3 and A4s either...  when I was between 7 and 15 years old I would have been a keen spotter I think, had I been living in the UK. As it was I loved and travelled regulary behind, or rarely, actually on, the 4-8-4 'Ka' class engines of N Z Railways, which really demonstrated how to get power in a restricted loading-gauge, as well as a fair turn of speed. Nothing like the best UK locos though for graceful power and speed.

 

Rob

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as referred to above...  weathered 46244 'King George VI' with 1959 'Royal Scot'...  no warning stripes, but AWS fitted, BR maroon under the work-stains...

 

post-7929-0-36947700-1359088386.jpg

 

Cheers,

 

Rob

 

 

Edited by robmcg
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One other variation for you: 46242 City of Glasgow, as a de-streamlined engine ran with the stepped front footplate and sloping smokebox until involved in the terrible Harrow Accident in 1952. When it re-emerged after virtually total reconstuction it had a curved front footplate and full smokebox!

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  • 1 month later...

No, I think the Duchesses and Kings were DCC-ready from 2005. Only the Black 5s were DCC-ready from 2002.  (source;  Ramsay's 7th edition.)

 

Please note, I have today added inspection hole in chassis in recent 46244 Duchess picture  (msg no.34)

 

Rob

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Hope everyone has lobbied Hornby to do a late crest, de streamlined, full size smokebox version in red or green (or both!). They have been to few and far between, witness the ridiculous second hand prices on ebay and the fact that NO retailers have any new ones in stock!

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  • 6 years later...

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