I remember having a Triang Train set in my youth, which was great fun. That set had a short lifespan however as I was obliged to allow my younger brothers to play with it, and it was quickly ruined. A couple of years ago, with retirement approaching I thought I would like to revisit the simple joys of my youth and build a basic layout in the loft to run a train or two when I actually retired. With this in mind I started to buy stuff in anticipation of the eventual build. Well that was the plan - one thing led to another and I got hooked!
I now have a couple of display cabinets in my den in which contain amongst other offerings, some 15 A4s in different liveries or the same livery with different features.
2510 Quicksilver, Silver Jubilee Collection
4494 Osprey, LNER Green Sir Nigel Gresley Collection
4489 Dominion of Canada, LNER Garter Blue, Great Gathering Collection
4462 Great Snipe, LNER Garter Blue
4468 Mallard, LNER Garter Blue, double chimney
4499 Sir Murrough Wilson, Wartime Black, LNER on tender
4901 Sir Charles Newton, Wartime Black, NE on tender
60034 Lord Faringdon, BR Garter Blue, British Rail on tender
60027 Merlin, BR Experimental Purple
60023 Golden Eagle, BR Blue
60007 Sir Nigel Gresley, BR Blue, double chimney, Great Gathering Collection
60010 Dominion of Canada, BR Brunswick Green, early crest, double chimney Commonwealth Collection (tender swapped to provide early crest)
60026 Miles Beevor, BR Brunswick Green, early crest, single chimney
60011 Empire of India, BR Brunswick Green, late crest, double chimney Commonwealth Collection
60012 Commonwealth of Australia, Br Brunswick Green, late crest, single chimney Commonwealth Collection
I am about to commission a 4489 Woodcock in Workshop Grey with green running gear as she was for a brief period in 1937. That will be A4 No 16.
Later this year I have the notion to commission one of the A4s in the range 4483 to 4487 in LNER green with the black boiler band.
I think that gives me a fair representation of the Gresley A4 as produced by Hornby (either by design or default) in its different iterations over the years.
Now that I am actually retired as of 1 August, I have not forgotten that the original plan was to build a layout. So, in the coming months I will be sorting out the loft and creating a layout upon which I intend to run many of my blossoming stock of mainly Gresley locos.