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How Many Hornby A4's Have You Got


Mike70
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Kestrel - LNER Garter Blue - Hornby Tender drive - never really worked - I think the driving wheels were too stiff for the tender to push convincingly. I will sell it eventually but it would be nice to be able to sell it as a runner.

Wild Swan - New Hornby, BR early crest green. I bought this with the intention of renaming it after my Granddad, who wasn't a railway enthusiast as such be he loved Gresley's work, particularly the A4s.

Kingfisher - BR Blue from Rare Bird set - to be renumbered as No.7 at a later date.

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I'd like to see pictures of these models to be honest. How many different names and variants of the A4s can we see on one thread? I don't want this to turn into "I've got more A4s than you" sort of thing but a genuine attempt to share in the love for the class A4 and see what people have modelled and what era would be extremely interesting. Particularly when they are on their respective layouts too.

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Whose got the unusual colours....doncaster green, Black, I was disappointed in the Silver Link rather plasticky. Some one mentioned Doncaster green. And the different strips. A4s gotta love 'em.

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Guest 2750

I will eventually have a variety of liveries (LNER) all four silvers plus apple green and garter blue. I've around a dozen so far, some ready and re numbered, while some are donors awaiting work.

 

Modelling the ECML in the 1930s after all! :)

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Mick Bennett has an absolutely exquisite version of the apple green A4 with valances he painted himself using a Hornby super detail A4 as a basis. It is shown somewhere on RMweb.

 

Quite a lot of valances on these pages. Perhaps best to redress the balance with a shot Tony Wright took of my own "Garish blue" (ha ha) post war A4 Pacific.

 

post-1656-0-07529500-1404248368_thumb.jpg

 

This shot can be found in the Wright Writes thread here. I marvel at Tony's ability with the camera, making even the most toylike of models look realistic. In my defense, I am yet to weather this A4 but I suspect it is the undercoat stage I need to adjust or even change to get the result I want.

 

Silver Fox is, perhaps surprisingly, the only A4 I own at present other than a couple of others which are being built in much the same way. I have owned a number of A4s: the vast majority of my Pacific collection was sold on eBay last year when I was saving up for a very expensive ring for the now ex-girlfriend. You live, you learn, you SUMO (shut up and move on).

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Here are four of mine as mentioned.....many more to follow, in varying liveries (both apple green variants, including full black smokebox).

 

4901 'Capercaillie' on Gresley Beat

post-19999-0-11802200-1404249495_thumb.jpg

 

4486 'Merlin' on Gresley Beat

post-19999-0-10041500-1404249504_thumb.jpg

 

4466 'Herring Gull'

post-19999-0-60418500-1404249513_thumb.jpg

 

4469 'Gadwall' on Little Bytham (superb photography by Tony Wright'

post-19999-0-70580900-1404249525_thumb.jpg

 

All weathered paying close attention to 1930's photographs.

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Just one, Hornby's fairly recent Mallard (I believe it's R2339), purchased about 3-4 years ago. It's in for repairs (problems with the connectors not joining to the wheels correctly) but that's another story.

 

I'd be open to getting another one in BR green sometime.

 

Rob

Edited by GreenDiesel
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60011 delayed "on shed" at Margate depot.....shortage of footplate staff,leaves on line,local difficulties etc.,etc .? Better late than never,I suppose.

Arrived.....just joined the Top Link stud.....yee hah ! Damaged box version on e-bay. Model hasn't been removed from box & looks pristine...still in wrapping.Now to test drive my newly acquired plug tool. ( Peter's Spares...with thanks for excellent service ) Hornby uses supremely efficient UKMail,which hs actual people you can talk to and who do their utmost  to help.Particular thanks to Helen at the Derby depot who is more au fait with Hornby's system and tracking numbers than,I suspect,Hornby is.Their tracking system informed that it would arrive between 08.04 and 09.04. It arrived at 08.30 .Test run later.....I LOVE this thread ....seen some SUPERB piccies and skill. Thanks,chaps.

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Um, my collection is select at a blue mallard, Sir Nigel Gresley, Silver link, and Sir Charles H N.... In black For obvious reasons... I just can't seem to justify any more than that.... But one day temptation will kick in and more will turn up.

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No apple green version currently available in loco driven ( post 2004 ) model....nor ever has been,I'm afraid.

 

I'm sure in an interview with one of the mags last year (Hornby Mag I think) Simon Kohler stated that when they did an apple green livery A4, it didn't sell well so don't plan to do another. I can only think SK was referring to an A4 they produced in that livery in the 70s/80s (Golden Eagle?)

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No apple green version currently available in loco driven ( post 2004 ) model....nor ever has been,I'm afraid.

 

I would duly kill for a super detail Apple Green Hornby version. They looked stunning in apple green. Mick's model above is testament to that. 

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I would duly kill for a super detail Apple Green Hornby version. They looked stunning in apple green. Mick's model above is testament to that. 

 

Certainly agree there.

As it seems unlikely, I shall be sending two/three of mine for professional repainting.

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Certainly agree there.

As it seems unlikely, I shall be sending two/three of mine for professional repainting.

Perhaps a niche here for a retailer to commission a 'special'.........used to happen with Modelfair doing a couple in experimental blue...but probably things are a bit too fragile for this now.
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Perhaps a niche here for a retailer to commission a 'special'.........used to happen with Modelfair doing a couple in experimental blue...but probably things are a bit too fragile for this now.

 

I remember those Ian. However, wasn't they renumbers off the Merlin model, rather than a full repaint?

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My pair on the club layout, with a Hornby Duchess of Hamilton in the foreground (and a Dapol Rocket-unpowered-behind)

post-14921-0-38684500-1404303338_thumb.jpg

 

And a crude closeup of the front of 60011 on the same layout (different time) with a Elizabethan headboard (picture shrunk and cut out, and attached with a tiny piece of Blu-Tack)

post-14921-0-11453900-1404303683_thumb.jpg

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Four...

 

Mallard

Herring Gull (with sound - the children's favourite)

Kingfisher

Falcon (Railroad)

 

All in Garter Blue.

 

I (am trying to/building something that aims to) model the WR and SR around Plymouth in the late 1940s/early 1950s...

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No apple green version currently available in loco driven ( post 2004 ) model....nor ever has been,I'm afraid.

I think the important phrase here is 'loco driven' - there was a Golden Eagle in the 1980s (I think) but i imagine it would have been tender drive.   The Bachmann one is silky smooth and silent - I can live with whatever the body shortcomings are.

 

 

Kestrel - LNER Garter Blue - Hornby Tender drive - never really worked - I think the driving wheels were too stiff for the tender to push convincingly.

We acquired one for Ormesby Hall over last winter.  It was disappointing until I removed the spring from inside the chassis above the rear driving axle.  Now goes like the wind with 11 kit built coaches behind it.  My Capercaillie is mechanically the same and it goes frighteningly fast - 185 scale mph on the Pilmoor layout last year.

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