Silver Sidelines

This Post brings a closure to my last two Posts.   Those of you who have read my accounts of rebadging a Hornby Clan and Britannia will know that there was some unfinished business.   Hornby ‘Britannia’ alias ‘Morning Star’ still needed cut outs around its lubricators.   Hornby ‘Clan McLeod’ alias ‘Clan Stewart’ needed its top lamp iron repositioning.  / A reminder, as received TMC Morning Star alias Hornby Britannia R2562 Completed – my 1959 version of 70021 Morning Star with solid rods, lubricator access, large dome, raised sand box covers, front step and rear cab supports Lubricator Cut Outs, one with (right) and R2562 without (left) In the same way that Hornby have engineered the Britannia body shell to cater for different numbers of raised sand box lids, the body moulding has also been set up to make it easy to alter from an engine without lubricator access (the early 1950s engines) to engines with an access hole in through the side of the footplate...

This Post is a continuation of my recent foray into Hornby Super Detail Britannias https://longsheds.blogspot.com/2021/06/no-164-tale-of-two-hornby-super-detail.html Back in 2014 Hornby sold off a lot of Diamond Jubilee boxed sets.   These included 70000 Britannia in ‘Special Duties’ livery.   This was Britannia’s preserved livery as featured in 2012 when Prince Charles was a passenger and included an Early Emblem and the original ‘dangerous’ pattern smoke deflectors.   The model also featured a speedometer drive which Britannia itself gained around 1956.     My Hornby model also had fluted coupling rods which on the prototype had been changed to solid rods in the early 1950s. Hornby R3094 Diamond Jubilee Train Pack In a past Blog Post in 2014 I described overpainting the cab roof of the Special Duties model and backdating the overhead warning plates. https://longsheds.blogspot.com/2014/04/no91-shades-of-green-hornby-britannia.html   My Britan...

I have a fascination for Hornby’s super detail Britannia and Clan models.   This Post looks at some variations that Hornby have not produced. Firstly I am also rather partial to things ‘Great Western’.   When I spotted Hornby super detail Morning Star rebadged by The Model Centre (TMC) I would make a bid for it.   It was a big bid and Morning Star duly arrived. Morning Star I am generally not bothered about details such as counting the number of rivets but on this occasion the position of the Morning Star name plates did not seem right. TMC Morning Star with high level plates There is a useful image on Flickr of Morning Star in 1958 shortly after it had moved from the Western Region to the London Midland Region.   It is still without its speedometer but clearly shows a single front step, raised sand boxes and the correct position of the name plates. https://flic.kr/p/NkD7We I repositioned the plates and repainted the deflectors – a better result I th...

Coming from the North East of England I couldn’t let these new Hornby models pass me by.    Thane of Fife had already disappeared from my 1960 ABC books and I never got to see Cock o’ the North.   There is a big red line through the number in my book, confirming its imminent withdrawal.   I did see the two A2/3s, Steady Aim being a York engine whilst around the beginning of the sixties Sun Castle was based at New England and then Doncaster. Thane of Fife after some adjustment to sand boxes and running plate Steady Aim after some adjustment to the speedometer bracket I hadn’t pre-ordered any of these Hornby models and was initially only interested in the two Late Crest engines.    The two Early Emblem engines were bought as an afterthought with some surprise earnings. All the models I have handled have run very well.   With some notable exceptions the models are also very impressive.   This Post summarises various issues (and fixes) that I...