Although this is a review for the Limited Edition version the normal version of the Flying Scotsman (not Railroad or Thomas) is pretty much the same except from the smoke deflectors and a few details
A brief history
The Flying Scotsman is arguably one of the most famous locomotives in the world and the most famous in the UK. It holds a load of world records including the longest non-stop journey by a steam train and it is currently the only steam train to have circumnavigated the globe. It was built in 1923 and was withdrawn from service in 1963 after 40 years of successful service carrying numerous liveries. In recent years it has continued to have an eventful existence. As part of it's 50 year anniversary it travelled to Australia and at Alice Springs over half of Central Australia came to see it. In 1995 it was taken in pieces at a depot in Southall where there was uncertainty about it's future, luckily it was bought by Dr Tony Marchington and restored at a cost of over £750,000. In 2004 it was put up for sale and after a campaign by the National Railway Museum it was bought and is currently being restored in the workshops of the National Railway Museum in York.
Packaging
The model came in a very well packaged condition as per normal Hornby packaging standards. It also has a nice small bit of information on the back which really sums up the life of the Flying Scotsman so far. On the Hornby website it mentions that it comes in a special commerative package but in my view it was just the ordinary Hornby Loco packaging. Although the commerative packaging may only be avaliable if you buy online, I do not know. In my case I bought it at a local model shop. But it does however come with a certificate of authenticity which numbered my set 202 out of 1000
The Certificate.
The Locomotive
The locomotive is powered by a Hornby 5-pole motor and was bought DCC ready but I chose to have it fitted with a decoder so I could run it on my DCC Layout. It is very detailed with delicate pipes around the main body work, the wheels also have some great detail to them. It is fitted with spring buffers and and chains on the front with NEM couplings on the back of the tender for coaches or other items. The boiler head is very detailed with copper pipes painted very finely.
A view of the locomotive from the side
A view of the front
The boiler head with great detail
The Tender
The tender is in the same livery as the loco and carries the distinctive LNER initals. It is joined to the loco by a hook system which I have pictured bellow. It took me a while to work this out as the instructions do not include information on this.
The tender.
The hook on the tender
The hook slots into this hole on the back of the loco
On the track
The locomotive runs extremely well on my Hornby track and has a good slow speed and a good fast speed. It does not derail on Hornby points which made me extremely happy. It is also quite a quiet runner. I've run it on 2nd Radius curves and it's great, the instructions say that it must not be run on anything less than 2nd radius.
Additional Addons
The locomotive comes with additional addons including the board for Alice Springs as is shown on the Hornby website. I felt that although the Alice Springs sign is very good Hornby seem to have a very odd way of putting it on the locomotive which really lets it down, it suggests that you use blu-tac to stick it on and to tell the truth I think it wouldn't look very good with blu-tac on the loco, and as such I won't be putting the sign on. It also comes with an extra wheel with detail and some other pipes for fitting along with brake rods which can be used if the model is being displayed statically.
The Alice Springs sign
Brake Rods
The Instructions
The instructions are very detailed and include information on removing the loco body, fitting a new motor, lubrication and the removal of the coal and replacement. Although I think that the instruction booklet is just the normal one for the standard Flying Scotsman.
Conclusion
This is a great locomotive for all the Flying Scotsman collectors and enthusiasts out there. Although if you choose not to run it because of it's limited edition status then really your missing out on a great model. I would rate it 8/10 in regards to the following factors :
- The Alice Springs sign is very detailed but has to be fitted in a rather odd way using blue-tac, I think Hornby should have provided the model with the sign fitted or with a better way of fixing it. -1
- The locomotive is a very good runner and reasonably quiet
- The lack of detail in the instructions about connecting the tender to the loco was a let down, although most people should find this self explanatory I didn't so it wouldn't hurt to include more detail in the instructions -1
- The locomotive does not derail on Hornby Points which really is very good
- The commerative packaging wasn't as good as I think I imagined it to be but really I can't hold this against the loco
- It comes DCC Ready so is easily converted to a DCC Loco which I chose to do.
- It retails at the exact same price as the standard Hornby Flying Scotsman Loco (not the RailRoad one or Thomas one) at £119.35 which to tell the truth is a bit pricey for a DCC Ready loco (my EWS Class 56 DCC Fitted only cost £118.50 so there is about a £1 difference!) but I suppose the detail makes up for this
- It comes fitted with spring buffers
- It has very good instructions which could be better had detail about the tender fitting been included.
- It comes with additonal addons features
Thanks for reading
