Hornby's J50

[D605Eagle]

I got chance to run my J50 last night, I'm super impressed with it, smooth quiet, low geared and powerful. I cant wait until my layout is finished so I can use it for some proper shunting work.

[Bigmet]

Was unable to resist picking up another, this time the J50/3 numbered 68971 as illustrated on p2 of this thread. As good as the first. This has to be renumbered though, I think I can manage to make it Hornsey's 68972.

[Bigmet]

If anybody is looking for a good OO steam shunter, this is the bees knees. Tried it out last Friday (in DC form) on a friend's layout 'oop North'. I think he has every RTR 2 rail OO 0-6-0T ever made - except the J50! - as he likes small locos. The J50 bettered everything else: quieter, smoother, traction as good as or better compared to all the others.

David's immediate reaction was that it was now only the SR that lacked a modern standard model of an 0-6-0T. He's quite right. There's choice in top of the range 0-6-0T for both GW and LMS, but for SR only the very dated and inaccurate Terrier. (I now feel Hornby might have done better to 'bale' on the Radial once it was evident that they had competition, and instead renew the Terrier. It's such a pretty little loco, and modern mechanism design could make a superlative job of it.)

[Black-Marlin]

David's immediate reaction was that it was now only the SR that lacked a modern standard model of an 0-6-0T. He's quite right. There's choice in top of the range 0-6-0T for both GW and LMS, but for SR only the very dated and inaccurate Terrier. (I now feel Hornby might have done better to 'bale' on the Radial once it was evident that they had competition, and instead renew the Terrier. It's such a pretty little loco, and modern mechanism design could make a superlative job of it.)

Not quite a home-grown design, but I imagine the SR's moment is coming with Model Rail's release of the USA tank...

[Bigmet]

Had rather forgotten about that item. Certainly going to make an interesting contrast to home grown designs. It remains to be seen how well Bachmann will meet the original spec., which included representing the bar frame construction. My guess would be that this feature will have been dropped.

[HonestTom]

My area of interest is London, so a J50 was a must-have. I have an old Lima one that I've painted and detailed, so initially I felt guilty about dropping £70 on the Hornby offering, but once it was out and running, all regret evaporated. It's a lovely, rugged little engine. Now I just need to work up the courage to weather it.

[Bigmet]

J50 progress report: nothing to report as in 'no news is good news'. Quiet, reliable, powerful grafters. Very pleased with the pair I have and if Hornby offer further variants I will be sorely tempted. Having had one in pieces the body tooling is very 'multi-part' in usual current style, so they may well be able to offer the J50/1 and J50/2 class members if the tooling includes the relevant alternative parts, we'll see.

... It remains to be seen how well Bachmann will meet the original spec. (for the Model Rail commissioned USA tank) which included representing the bar frame construction. My guess would be that this feature will have been dropped.

Kerlunk, dropped it was. But a good looking model nonetheless, and sure to be popular with BR period Southernistas

[Bigmet]

One of my J50s appeared making a rattling noise this afternoon, dragging some kind of twig or stalk stuck underneath it, the vibration making the front coupler hook bounce up and down. BR never had this trouble! I thought that it must have a split gear or something from the noise it was making, so very glad to find it was a 'foreign material' causing the row. The noise was out all proportion to the small size of the piece causing the noise; I guess it was blown in during operations during the recently departed summer, operating with the doors and windows wide open, sigh...

[PanzerJohn]

Bit of bargain....

https://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/horn ... 0ifQ%3D%3D