Hornby's J50

[Bigmet]

If you go to http://www.hornby.com/uk-en/news/the-en ... /class-71/ and scroll down to the bottom, there are the components for the J50 awaiting a test build by a member of Hornby's staff. Hopefully the next 'Engine shed' issue will have this featured as a test assembly. The parts look very J50ish so a decent result should be in prospect. What with the livery being very simple - BLACK - if the parts are proven good this could be on sale well within a year from announcement.

Can you tell I am a little excited? A very useful model indeed, and I may be 'recycling' the chassis from it in time. Despite this GNR design being adopted as the LNER's standard heavy shunter, only 102 were built in total. The simple fact was that the constituents of the LNER all had competent shunter designs in service and there was no need for large scale scrap and build, even if the LNER had been able to afford this. The class might have got to around 200, were it not for WWII; following the war 75 of the 'Austerity' 0-6-0T were purchased and classed J94 by the LNER as a cheaper option than a new build of J50s; and by that time the diesel shunter that would eventually become the BR class 08, was in development based on the LMS and EE's first experiments in the 1930s.

[6C]

Bloomin typical - I am 75% along improving a Lima J50....

A very useful engine.....

[Bigmet]

Hornby's site now has the proving build of the J50 'kit' shown a month ago, and very good looking too. Hopefully this indicates that speedy progress may be possible to this very useful engine going on sale. If it is as good as other recent Hornby locos a definite nominee for model of the year from me, simply as the mostest 'very useful engine' beyond what the C1, D16/3, J15, O2 represent; the two others yet to appear we hope to have by year end.

Bonanza GNR/LNER/BR(ER) steam loco year in prospect. It should of course only be like this every year; so let's hope that is true from now on ...

[Bigmet]

Pictures of liveried samples of the J50 in Hornby's 'engine shed' blog. I don't see myself complaining about these. Looks promising for Hornby's 'on sale in December' target. This is the first completely all new 0-6-0T from the Hornby/T-H/Triang outfit since the Jinty of the 1950s, unbelievable or what that such a common type should have had so few models brought into the range by their own efforts. (The other 0-6-0T's are either their own, badly compromised by using a one size fits all mechanism, or bought in from elsewhere.) Let's hope that having ended the drought Hornby think: J67-69, J52, J70, J83...

Couple of the S15 too, also looking very handsome.

[rejrob]

hi all,Now whats all this talk of Hornby J50.I thought we were modellers How about the DJH J50 a nice model ,which incidently has been on my layout for yonks?? Many a J50 seen at hither Green wheezing its way from its shed at Hornsey to the sidings at 73C Get off your butts away from the soaps and into the sanctity of THE SHED and get building.All the best Ron

[Bigmet]

Two K's J50 bodyline kits with kit built chassis are near worn out on my layout. I'll take all the help I can get from RTR to keep the operation going! Still lots else to make to fully repesent the scene, that will never be available RTR. As the old kit built locos get replaced they serve as static scenery on shed; either on the 'back road' as they await their final journey to 'The Plant', or on shed day/boiler washout. The younguns can go out and do the strenuous operating stuff.

[rejrob]

fair enough,oh to be young again but having fun anyway.I would add that the one J50 i have is not constantly used so the probillity is I,ll wear out before it does All the best Ron

[Pennine MC]

This is another of those platitudes that regularly does the rounds: "don't lust after RTR, do some modelling". Is any account ever taken that many folk do both? - anything that's 90 or so percent there out of the box enables time to be diverted to more challenging subject matter.

[rejrob]

I,m afraid the last input is well wide of the mark.With nearly 100 units available for the layout BR (SR)1958 ish??with the exception of loco,s E.M.U,s and Diesels that were not available as RTR at the time,all the units are R.T.R and bearing in mind the layout kicked off in 1990.Each to their own

[Pennine MC]

I,m afraid the last input is well wide of the mark. ... Each to their own

Exactly my point. It works both ways, y'know.

[Admin4]

Some photos on Hornbys facebook page

[6C]

Some photos on Hornbys facebook page

Cheers Alex - looks good.

Someone has already commented 'why no n-gauge version'

[Bigmet]

If it sells exceedingly well, who knows? Hornby might just see fit to use their Arnold department to produce a steam loco.

[Bigmet]

It appears likely to make an on time arrival, as the target was available December 2015, and Hornby's site says 'end of this week'.

The service diagram has been available on Hornby's site for a while, and the mechanism looks very similar to that in the J15 which is a very sweet runner. So I am expecting great things from this model in operation. So that only leaves the Heljan O2 awaited from the recent bumper selection of LNER types, and that is definitely an early 2016 release at best.

[D605Eagle]

I shall have to have a couple of these..... be rude not too