Hornby's Best Ever Models

[Hroth]

Just let me desecrate Hornby Factory Weathering

 

S15 Class 30837 complete with Schools tender..

 

30837_lh.jpg

 

30837_rhfan.jpg

Being, at this time of the day, sans coffee, my mind latched onto the "Schools" part of the description and I momentarily wondered where the extra pair of drivers had come from.... 

 

Apart from that, you've done a fine job of obliterating the manky stuff that Hornby applies!

[toboldlygo]

Something diminutive and Eastern Region this way comes...

 

 

[robmcg]

Very nice! I love the lighting in the photos too. 

 

Cheers

[robmcg]

Some more quality modelling of Eastern engines from Hornby...   given sympathetic photo editing, well, the B17 has....

 

Thompson B1 1040 'Roedeer' when nearly new in 1947 in afternoon sun, and a 1930s Gresley B17/2 Sandringham class 3-cylinder 4-6-0 in the 1950s... BR 61631 'Serlby Hall'.

 

I hesitated before buying 'Serlby Hall' but mostly the grime is just a tad too yellow, not as starkly bad as the K1, de-saturated in the photo

 

 

cheers

 

 

[robmcg]

This a what Hornby are up against with their new Adams 4-4-2T...  Oxfordrail/Rails of Sheffield...   and they seem to run well and are well put together.  I have painted shadow around the lower boiler but the black part there isn't very obvious anyway.

 

Since Hornby aren't listing any factory-weathered versions, this is interesting, and makes me think of Victorian days when these engines were on south London suburban services.

 

 

 

[robmcg]

A vote for the most beautifully proportioned engine ever...?

 

 

 

[robmcg]

Nope, it has to be this, surely?  On the Southern Region or 'back way' to Plymouth, west of Exeter, rebuilt BoB 34062 '17 Squadron', about 1963.

 

Edited May 3, 2016 by robmcg

[Ian Hargrave]

Nope, it has to be this, surely?  On the Southern Region or 'back way' to Plymouth, west of Exeter, rebuilt BoB 34062 '17 Squadron', about 1963.

 

34062_Bulleid_Waterloo_Plymouth_2abcd_crop1_r1200.jpg

 

Sorry,Rob,the rebuilds were not permitted west of Exeter due to weight restrictions over the Meldon viaduct.The boxpok wheels on these had extra weight added to them.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

...Adams 4-4-2T...  Since Hornby aren't listing any factory-weathered versions, this is interesting, and makes me think of Victorian days when these engines were on south London suburban services.

 

 They would only have got as grubby as the day's running made them. Pre-WWI there were three huge factors which made a big difference to cleanliness.

 

Railway work was premium employment, with all that went with that, and cleaners were on the road to becoming footplate crew.

Cleaning was a priority for the companies, and the labour to do it cheap and plentiful.

There was no superheating: lower temperature cylinder oils which did not set solid once they cooled after exhausting glueing the soot and ash to the paintwork, so much easier to clean off.

 

There are excellent photos of Victorian locos in action that show this. My favourite - the greatest of them all and to answer

 

A vote for the most beautifully proportioned engine ever...?

 also - the Stirling single!

 

There they are in photographs caught pounding away at speed at the head of a Great Northern express mid run between London and York, Leeds or Doncaster destination. There's a positive volcano of exhaust, flattening above the chimney top due to the high speed, and  the ash cloud stretches the full length of the train and more. Yet the loco is gleaming in the summer sunlight, paintwork and brightwork. Oh to have had colour photography back then.

[robmcg]

Sorry,Rob,the rebuilds were not permitted west of Exeter due to weight restrictions over the Meldon viaduct.The boxpok wheels on these had extra weight added to them.

 

I thought they got running rights for a few years after 1962, I knew the Meldon viaduct meant spamcans only for many years, I could swear I've seen reference to rebuilds in Plymouth, maybe I'm confused... 

[Ian Abel]

I thought they got running rights for a few years after 1962, I knew the Meldon viaduct meant spamcans only for many years, I could swear I've seen reference to rebuilds in Plymouth, maybe I'm confused... 

Right or wrong location Rob, it's STILL the best proportioned loco ever

 

Forget the west end of the world, just jam a pair on the up AND down fast lines at Weybridge, tearing through the station at top speed, see attached for reference;

 

 

 

I know I'm biased, but I'm also right  

[robmcg]

Thank you Ian, they are superb engines, certainly,  great photos.

 

Just found this from the Southern E Group's page on modified Bulleid Light Pacifics

 

"Another problem was increased weight which originally barred the modified LPs from working to North Devon or over Meldon Viaduct, west of Okehampton. (In July 1959 Meldon Viaduct had been strengthened and the modified locos were allowed to work to Plymouth, but they were still barred from the North Cornwall and North Devon lines. The first such working over Meldon Viaduct was on 14th July when 34062 headed the 8:41a.m. Exeter-Plymouth stopping train and the 2:25p.m. return)."

 

I KNEW I wouldn't have put Hornby's rebuilt 34062 without backup, but I did the pic three years ago so couldn't remember the details of rebuilt engines to Plymouth , and still don't know if it was regular thing.

 

Also found this terrible poem...

 

"Without wishing to be pedantic,
I could class Britannia as merely an enlarged Atlantic.
For something really tarific
See a Bulleid Pacific."   HAV Bulleid
 

 

Edited May 5, 2016 by robmcg

[The Blue Streak]

I'll see Your Bulleid Poem and Raise You a Gresley one

 

The Blue Streak

 

Driver Joe will push an engine hard, or so the firemen say.

Then Bring him in Sir Nigel said, I’ve planned a special day.

With Dyno car and coaches on, the “brake tests” had begun

Then Driver Joe with Fireman Tom begin to make their run.

No bird of prey or Silver fox would head this special train

From humble duck was where this mighty engine got her name.

Come 114 a shout went up and still the streak pressed on.

I hope it’s soon Sir Nigel thought before the bearings gone.

At 126 the stink bomb went, the Streak still pulling hard.

And to this day the record stands for mighty blue Mallard.

Edited May 5, 2016 by The Blue Streak

[Hilux5972]

Very well done.

[toboldlygo]

Before another Blue A4 streaks in - still in the dirt works

 

Something from the Blue camp that's had a nose job and awaiting it's turn in the dirt works..

 

 

... yes it's another Standard 'Arthur', King Leodegrance to be precise. New lamp irons, smoke-box dart and new cab glazing added.

 

Then it'll be a Scouse B17/6...

[Ian Hargrave]

Before another Blue A4 streaks in - still in the dirt works

 

Something from the Blue camp that's had a nose job and awaiting it's turn in the dirt works..

 

73118_inworks.jpg

 

... yes it's another Standard 'Arthur', King Leodegrance to be precise. New lamp irons, smoke-box dart and new cab glazing added.

 

Then it'll be a Scouse B17/6...

Ah,one with brass knobs on I see.

[robmcg]

Before another Blue A4 streaks in - still in the dirt works

 

Something from the Blue camp that's had a nose job and awaiting it's turn in the dirt works..

 

73118_inworks.jpg

 

... yes it's another Standard 'Arthur', King Leodegrance to be precise. New lamp irons, smoke-box dart and new cab glazing added.

 

Then it'll be a Scouse B17/6...

 

We are truly buried in cheap high quality models these days!  I very much like the many Std Class 5s by Bachmann which suit the Southern Region.  Even if the B17 is a slightly better model, it wasn't in my conciousness the way the last days of steam on the Souther Region was.

[31A]

I've just been playing around with a D16, and think it is currently one of my favourite Hornby locos.  This one started life as 62581, in factory-weathered BR livery, purchased at reduced price from my local model shop (before the recent Hatton's et al 'fire sale').  As the real 62581 was withdrawn quite early in the 1950s, I decided to renumber her as the last surviving piston valve D16, Lincoln shed's 62599.  In removing the factory applied numbers with T-Cut, most of the weathering came off the cab side as well, and I also removed it from the tender sides in the same way, then covered up the rest with my own efforts.  In doing so, I came to appreciate more the subtle differences between this and the slide valve version; not only are the front frames a different shape, bit so too is the reversing rod, and they have included a representation of the piston valve chests below the smokebox.

 

 

 

 

 

[toboldlygo]

In between the torrential rain showers today, I finally managed to photograph the dirty blue Streak.

 

[robmcg]

I just bought this....   

 

 

not even 'on sale' price!  yet...

 

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2016 by robmcg

[Black 5 Bear]

"Yet" Rob, Lol

Edited May 12, 2016 by Black 5 Bear

[dibber25]

Right or wrong location Rob, it's STILL the best proportioned loco ever

 

Forget the west end of the world, just jam a pair on the up AND down fast lines at Weybridge, tearing through the station at top speed, see attached for reference;

 

0000-bob-hind-35026-weybridge-2.jpg

 

Weybridge_Up_West_of_England_express_geograph-2641860-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg

 

I know I'm biased, but I'm also right  

Many a happy hour spent train-spotting there, beside that chain-link fence and on the Heath Bridge as we called it, in the background. At age about 5 we lived in a flat beside the line and I saw 34030 Watersmeet set the cutting side alight with a spectacular start from a signal stop on an up train. Even today it has a certain appeal but it needs Bulleids and Pompey units to complete the picture. (CJL)

[Hroth]

I just bought this....   

 

70034_Britannia_r3444_2ab_r1200abcd.jpg

 

not even 'on sale' price!  yet...

I'm not a shedbook hound, but according to the Hornby webpage, 70034 ended up at Carlisle Kingsmoor so it should be a candidate for a "toboldlygo" bucket of grunge weathering job.

 

Pity its so expensive at the moment......

[Ian Hargrave]

I'm not a shedbook hound, but according to the Hornby webpage, 70034 ended up at Carlisle Kingsmoor so it should be a candidate for a "toboldlygo" bucket of grunge weathering job.

 

Pity its so expensive at the moment......

Wait.There is a surfeit of Brits doing the rounds at present.There is a limit to the market for yet another quite so soon.

 

Marketing strategy....production control ? £159 rrp.Mind you £94 for an LNER N2 is as big a joke.Plain silly if you consider the bargains to be had from Liverpool and Sheffield.Please Hornby....get a grip.

[MatthewCarty]

Wait.There is a surfeit of Brits doing the rounds at present.There is a limit to the market for yet another quite so soon.

 

Marketing strategy....production control ? £159 rrp.Mind you £94 for an LNER N2 is as big a joke.Plain silly if you consider the bargains to be had from Liverpool and Sheffield.Please Hornby....get a grip.

But £84 for a Railroad hall... My personal opinion is the hall is miles better than the N2 as a model, I would have thought the opposite pricing here would be justified. One thing to note is that Hornby have listened to the requests for the mid-range items (e.g. the hall) to be put in the Railroad range, it seems they have done this with most! Now, if only we could have brass bearings on the star...

Edited May 12, 2016 by MatthewCarty