Whatever happened to Hornby's class E2 0-6-0T

[phil gollin]

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I know that the E2 was pretty awful, but surely it would be suitable for a "Railroad" release ?

 

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[Big James]

I remember reading somewhere the tooling was modified into Thomas. Can't remember where I read it though.

 

Big James

[John M Upton]

Yes indeed, the tooling became the Thomas model (ironically with the extended side tanks of the second batch E2's I would have like to have seen replicated.

 

It was indeed not exactly accurate being made to fit the standard 0-6-0 chassis but it does mean I can re-chassis old E2's with modern workings thanks to cheap Thomas chassis.

 

With a little work the old E2 can look reasonable for little cost:

 

 

[hallmodelspares]

Hornby in the late 1980's Aquired the license to produce thomas and friends in 00 scale.

To produce these they altered to main models, like with james The LMS 3f and extended this at the front and redesigned the mounting For the sspp 0-6-0 chassis using a bogie truck similar at the front to the older BR Ivatt mogul they released earlier.

 

The E2 had the whole top molding redesigned around the tanks this included a new smaller dome and a reposition of details including the removal of front steps and always molding in light blue plastic

[John M Upton]

Of course this does mean it is easy when kit bashing E2's you can reproduce 'Thomas - the Brighton Years' all be it this is probably Terry, his slightly older and less famous brother with the smaller tanks....

    

Edited February 3, 2014 by John M Upton

[brushman47544]

Of course this does mean it is easy when kit bashing E2's you can reproduce 'Thomas - the Brighton Years' all be it this is probably Terry, his slightly older and less famous brother with the smaller tanks....

    

Thomas LBSC100.jpg

 

So that's Thomas in the background then... Just how many ex-E2s have you got??????

[John M Upton]

Two already in BR black, two more which are in a poor state awaiting reworking as same, one of which will be an extended tank version.  I put the Thomas face on one that I acquired that had lost its smokebox door!!

[pete_mcfarlane]

If you are really daft, like me, you can cut an E2 in to three bits and stretch it to the correct length.

If I rememember rightly the Hornby version is 2mm short in the boiler/tanks, and 2mm short in the bunker. The footplate also needs adjusting, as Hornby made the drop at end end too big. the basic mouldings are very nice, with all sorts of separate detail. It's just a shame they bodged it on to their existing chassis.

Edited February 3, 2014 by pete_mcfarlane

[phil gollin]

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Was the E2 the only full scale (i.e. not "preserved") BR era RTR loco never released in a BR livery ?

 

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[Dunsignalling]

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Was the E2 the only full scale (i.e. not "preserved") BR era RTR loco never released in a BR livery ?

 

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No. The original King Arthur "Sir Dinadan" was only ever offered in SR livery.

 

John

[andyman7]

No. The original King Arthur "Sir Dinadan" was only ever offered in SR livery.

 

John

Indeed - that very peculiar shade of SR 'olive' green that Hornby used in the 1970s. I believe it was in fact the same plastic as for BR/GWR green locos. From the era of 'close enough...it'll do!'

[Guest Belgian]

Indeed - that very peculiar shade of SR 'olive' green that Hornby used in the 1970s. I believe it was in fact the same plastic as for BR/GWR green locos. From the era of 'close enough...it'll do!'

That era still carries on - see their latest Newsletter: those 'Silver Jubilee' coaches look almost like LMS coaches (almost, as they are also that'lldos in their own right).

 

JE

Edited February 4, 2014 by Belgian

[Prometheus]

Converted from an old LBSC edition and with a replacement Hornby chassis. Sits too high, too much brass and I'm sure the lettering is incorrect but it runs nicely now and is light years ahead of where it was........

 

 

 

 

Tony

[Dunsignalling]

Indeed - that very peculiar shade of SR 'olive' green that Hornby used in the 1970s. I believe it was in fact the same plastic as for BR/GWR green locos. From the era of 'close enough...it'll do!'

It also had what looked suspiciously like a Midland/LMS tender which (I think) might have come from the old Tri-ang 3F 0-6-0 via the L1 4-4-0.

 

There were at least two versions of "Sir Dinadan", possibly more. One was shiny, self coloured plastic and another (which I had) something between satin and matt.

 

I never did work out for certain if it was painted or had a very clever surface treatment to the plastic!

 

John

[Dunsignalling]

That era still carries on - see their latest Newsletter: those 'Silver Jubilee' coaches look almost like LMS coaches (almost, as they are also that'lldos in their own right).

 

JE

That's because they are the old LMS coaches on the generic chassis also used under the LNER, SR and GWR coaches of the era.

 

It was only (vaguely) accurate for the GWR coaches which still survive in the Railroad range.

 

Hornby did at least have the decency to put Gresley bogies under them in earlier days but I see the new train pack features the good old BR Mk. 1 type used when they were made in LMS livery!

 

John

 

Edit: Just spotted that there is now a thread specifically for the Silver Jubilee train pack so I'll not add any more here.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Dunsignalling

[Guest Belgian]

That's because they are the old LMS coaches on the generic chassis also used under the LNER, SR and GWR coaches of the era.

 

It was only (vaguely) accurate for the GWR coaches which still survive in the Railroad range.

 

Hornby did at least have the decency to put Gresley bogies under them in earlier days but I see the new train pack features the good old BR Mk. 1 type used when they were made in LMS livery!

 

John

 

Edit: Just spotted that there is now a thread specifically for the Silver Jubilee train pack so I'll not add any more here.

errrr . . .  that was (almost) my point - they're not even good LMS coaches.

 

No more

[John M Upton]

On the real thing did the whistle get relocated from the cab roof to the top of the boiler at any point by any chance?

[John M Upton]

Just checked the Thomas and LBSC bodies.  Contrary to what was posted earlier, the dome is exactly the same, indeed it is a seperate piece that can be removed.  The funnel has been changed to a taller slimmer example and the 'thing' (sorry, blonde moment, forgot what it is!!) on top of the boiler in front of the cab is gone.  Whistle now two in number relocated to boiler top, forward set of steps removed (usually snapped off with heavy use on the LBSC ones anyway!)

[andyman7]

There were at least two versions of "Sir Dinadan", possibly more. One was shiny, self coloured plastic and another (which I had) something between satin and matt.

 

I never did work out for certain if it was painted or had a very clever surface treatment to the plastic!

 

John

Sir Dinadan was always made with self-coloured plastic. Batches made in 1976 and 1977 were gloss varnished; the 1978 production runs were matt varnished. 

 

The move to matt varnish was an attempt at greater realism - unfortunately, the varnish tended to lighten the colour finish giving the locos from this era a very waxy, pale look. By 1980 Hornby bit the bullet and started fully paint finishing the majority of their models - the change was promoted in the 1980 catalogue and made quite a startling difference to the quality of the models. However, by then Sir Dinadan was deleted after a very short production life of three years - never to re-appear.

 

This short life meant that for many years it commanded premium secondhand prices; however according to Pat Hammond's book, 34,500 were made. When you consider that by the mid 1980s, Hornby's production runs were often down to less than 5000 for individual models, in reality it was never that hard to find.    

Edited February 8, 2014 by andyman7

[Oldddudders]

On the real thing did the whistle get relocated from the cab roof to the top of the boiler at any point by any chance?

Yes. As each went through Eastleigh in the '30s, the whistle was removed from the cab-roof and placed just behind the safety valves.

[Bulleidnutter]

Converted from an old LBSC edition and with a replacement Hornby chassis. Sits too high, too much brass and I'm sure the lettering is incorrect but it runs nicely now and is light years ahead of where it was........

 

 

 

 

Tony

Tony,

What chassis did you use underneath your upgrade?

Ive been tinkering with my E2 and would like to replace the chassis as well.

[Prometheus]

Tony,

What chassis did you use underneath your upgrade?

Ive been tinkering with my E2 and would like to replace the chassis as well.

 

The chassis came from an originally DCC-fitted diesel shunter was was part of a Hornby two-loco DCC boxed set. I think - think - it's pretty much identical to the current Chinese Jinty/Thomas/etc 0-6-0 chassis.

 

Attached is a link to another place which shows some of the 'improvement' -  lots of compromise though !

 

http://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42619

 

 

Tony

[LBSCE2]

Hi,

I'm new to this whole forum. I have an E2 shell that I bought at a train show. Since I live in the US, I know barely anything about British locomotives and I wanted to get tips from the experts here on this shell. Is my example hand painted? If it is, I'd like to paint it flat black like the original ones looked. Should I do that? And do you guys like American designed locomotives?

[SRman]

It will certainly have been painted (by hand, or otherwise!). If the existing paint job is reasonable, I would be inclined to just spray or brush some matte or satin varnish over the lot. From the photos, it looks quite nice but the camera can hide, as well as highlight, poor paint finishes, depending on lighting and angles.

I'm not 100% sure, but it also look like it has been modified to make those footplate end curves shallower, as per Pete's model illustrated earlier (post #8 ). It has also had the cab cut down and is numbered as an Eastern Region locomotive (where are all the LNER experts out there to tell us what it now represents??).

Edited March 30, 2016 by SRman

[Andy W]

It's probably meant to represent a Caledonian Railway "498" class 0-6-0T.

Ex LNER (and predecessor companies) locos in BR days were prefixed with a 6.

Ex LMSR (and predecessor companies such as the CR) locos in BR days were prefixed with either a 4 or a 5. There were simply too many of them to fit in a single block of 10,000 numbers, though BR did manage to squeeze them down into two such blocks, whereas the LMS had used three blocks. Former Caledonian, Highland, and Glasgow & South Western locos all ended up in BR's 50000 series, few though there were from the latter two companies by then. For company they had locos from the Lancashire & Yorkshire and the North London, along with some Midland classes.