No.63 8Fs – Heavy goods engines - with a GWR theme
Growing up in the north east of England I did not get to see many heavy ex GWR good engines. In fact with one possible exception, number 3826, I did not record seeing any 28xx, 38xx or 47xx in the flesh so to speak. In the period 1959/1961 number 3826 was a Pontypool Road (86G) engine. Would it have travelled as far north as Chester, where I visited, or did I see it whilst on holiday in Pembrokeshire?
The latest Hornby 28xx
Whatever the answer when I started building the current
layout in 2007 I decided that I would like to run one of Hornby’s 28xx models
to accompany my old Dublo 8F.
My Early Hornby 28xx
By 2007 the original Hornby model was perhaps somewhat dated
and I had a number of issues with the engine. Visually I was not happy with the
angled cylinders and the grey plastic crosshead. I had a cunning plan. I had
the remains of a Mainline 43xx. Surprisingly the cylinders seemed approximately
the same size. So – why not fit the Mainline cyinders, slidebars and crosshead
to the Hornby model? I wish that at the time I had taken a few more pictures,
but it was a straightforward operation to join the Mainline cylinders using
back plastic sheet cut from an old CD case and to form a bridging piece the
same shape as the Hornby item. The Mainline 43xx also provided a dummy front
coupling and front vacuum pipe. After fitting the ’new’ cylinders I replaced
the plastic front stays with some spare handrail wire which I thought had a
more suitable finer diameter. As sold by Hornby the BR 28xx came with its front
number ‘stencilled’ directly on the smokebox. Instead I fashioned a rectangular
number plate from black plastic sheet suitably adorned with appropriate
numbers. At the same time I added a shed plate from a sheet of transfers.
Finally at the front of the engine I replaced the Hornby buffers with a
parallel sprung pair from the Cavendish range.
Early Tender Drive Unit with 'exposed' handrails and
turned buffer heads
The early Hornby 28xx is tender driven and there is not a
lot that can be done with the mountain of coal that is used to hide the
motor. I did however open out the gap
between the handrails and the tender body, a trick that I first tried with my
old Airfix Castles. To start with I drilled a 0.5mm hole adjacent to each dummy
handrail knob and then carefully removed the remaining plastic web with a sharp
craft knife. The result I think is quite pleasing, especially if the original
silver colour is covered over with black paint. The Hornby tender buffer beam
is quite substantial, being an integral part of the tender drive unit. I
decided that it was infinitely easier and acceptable to remove the existing rounded
buffer heads and to drill out the metal shanks to accept the turned heads of
the Cavendish buffers, rather than replace the whole buffer assembly. I kept
this early model in its ‘improved’ state for a number of years until I had the
opportunity to purchase one of Hornby’s latest models.
The latest 28xx chassis
I have to say that I am impressed with the quality of the new Hornby
28xx. My model dates from August 2011 and is performing perfectly. For
completeness I have included a picture of the new chassis. It is a snug
fit within the boiler which comes carefully filled with metal ballast.
There is also some plastic detail which bridges between the
chassis and the bottom plate which should be treated with care.
Out of the box the 28xx weighs around 280gm, much the same
as the later Hornby O1. I would say my 28xx runs more smoothly but that could
just be imagination.
Finally I have included a picture of my ‘new' 28xx taken at
the same location as the earlier picture above of Hornby’s first model. Not
only has the Hornby model improved, but hopefully there is evidence that the
layout here is also gaining detail - but still some way to go.
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