Now many of you know about this famous little tank, Hornby have modelled it quite alot over the years and overall, the look hasnt changed much. The loco uses the same chasis as the old version 08 shunter and i also think the Jinty uses the same one as well. The front 2 wheels and the rear two wheels pick up power from the rails and the centre two wheels have a pair of traction tyres, allowing this locomotive to have alot of 'grunt'.
This model was reasonibly quiet and ran very smoothly, however the loco will stall on Hornby points if running at a very low speed, i beleive that this problem can be solved by adding more pickups but i do not how to make this modification.
The model does not have sprung buthers but instead has some nice shiny metal ones that do look nice. It has Hornby standard couplings but these can be easily removed by unscrewing a screw which holds the coupling into place.
Allthough the model is not super detail it contains enough to please the market it is aimed at. The top of the chimney looks like brass and is a nice finishing touch. The cab has the shapes of all the levers etc but they are not painted. I beleive Martin did a great job at painting his so it is possible to boost the detail on this little thing. The words 'Great Western' are printed on the sides and look good against the green (as all GWR locos do)
I am unaware of any other liveries with this loco which is a shame for someone who wants to use BR ex GWR locos.
Its best for me to point out that the loco i have came from the GWR Western Pullman set and so is DCC Fitted, however i beleive the DC version is exactly the same.



Enjoy the review!