REVIEW- Hornby Railroad County

[siquelme]

It is a great locomotive you wont be disappointed

I'm watching a few on ebay which are around £30-£40 I am thinking of buying purely for the reason of using the chassis and motor for some of my older models.

[RAF]

I've got an older version of this before it was part of the railroad range. Mine is County of Caernarfon.

Now that one does have the lining of the back of the tender and the brass lining around the window.

[Turkey]

I recently picked up a Dapol one for €36 [thats euro] ,needs some slight body repairs, cannot fault it tbh.

[Lysander]

A running-session at the club tonight saw my earlier [early 90's] County - Somerset - out for a play. This one appeared in full GWR lining and with the cab side windows picked out in brass also. A nice fall-plate was fitted too. Photos below show the obvious difference between this and the current Railroad version. The rear of the tender was not lined out however - was this prototypical or not ?

This version came in a boxed set with three Centenaries - all different numbers quite usefully. I think I've posted elsewhere that this was a ridiculously cheap eBay buy. It hadn't run for years and required oil and a clean, but runs nicely enough now.

Can anyone post the various counties that the ['OO'] GWR model appeared in ?







Tony

[roadie stu]

The green is certainly GWR as its the same shade as my King and Castle that are from Hornby but its the lining around the cab that gets me... its the one detail that lets down the model

I'll have a look for my book GWR liveries 1923-1948 by Brian Haresnape (very old book covers everything from loco liveries to buildings and road vehicles, not sure if it's still in print, but very handy for railway modelling) to check about the lining around the cab and the back of the tender,

As for the cab window surround, during the war years any loco with a side window cab had them plated over and painted to match the colour of the cab, this along with a tarpaulin that covered the back of the cab to the tender and the drop down from the cab roof to the footplate were used to reduce the glare from the fire so loco's were harder to spot by the Luftwaffe, (like on 3822 at didcot), after the war the glazing was replaced and the surround returned back to brass

hope this helps

Stu

[roadie stu]

sorry for the delay, but I have finally found my book, so this is what is written about the post war Hawksworth livery:

Express Passenger Livery
from 1945 onwards the basic locomotive body remained the middle chrome green of pre war days,although due to inferior paint quality and poor finishes this often apperared to be very drab and yellow in charater, inclining towards olive green, as better paint became avaliable it took on a richer and bluer shade (nearer to the shade of mature holly leaves) eventually reaching the original shade,
the standard orange chrome and black lining out was restored to the principal express passenger classes but only on the green portions. one engine, the prototype Hawksworth "county" class 4-6-0 no 1000 County of Middlesex, had the full pre war lining out, with orange chrome on the black cylinder covers, tender side frames, footsteps ect,and the buffer beam lined, however, the standard livery dispensed with these features and all black areas were unlined. copper chimney caps and brass safety valve castings were reintroduced, the insignia of wartime was retained with the letters G and W flanking the coat of arms,

From the pictures in the book, the post war cab lining from 1945 - 1948 was the same as it was pre war (following the outline of the cab), the lining around the numberplate area only is the BR(W) take on the livery,

Hope this clears things up

Cheers

Stu

[bocaj]

As I have already said I am hoping to get the model. Well, I think I might get it at this years Shipley model railway Exhibition!

[whynot]

While I do not have any, the Railroad Range seems to me to be excellent - plenty enough detail for my less than nimble fingers and less than perfect eyesight!

As to "shades of green" - or any other colour - I very much doubt that they were entirely consistent between batches/years. Certainly, whether because of economic decline in the '30s or raw material shortages during 1939-45 and up until the mid-'50s, exact specifications surely took second place to prices and availability? Remember "eau d'neal" (?spelling) in bathrooms and kitchens - there were no other colours available!

[siquelme]

I do have to say the Railroad range from what i have seen (this county and the A4) is very good value and an excellent addition to any collection espically if you buy them from a certain online auction site were you can get them for about £30/£40 they are an absult steal

[Garethp8873]

I am interested now in getting one of these, but from what I have been reading can someone tell me what livery it is in please? Sorry to sound stupid.

Garethp8873.

[siquelme]

Post war GWR

[Garethp8873]

Excellent. Would it require much to turn it to pre-World War 2 livery and how good a runner are these?

[siquelme]

Stunning by far the best Hornby runner i have... i am actually considering buying another one purely for the chassis to replace the one of my Winchester Castle. It wouldnt take much work to back date it as its the cab lining area that is the major difference but if i am being honest but its kinda pointless as they were built pre world war 2 . They were introduced with some of the ideas that were being tested for the MYTHICAL GWR pacific

[roadie stu]

to be historically accurate, you wouldn't have seen any County's pre war ( F W Hawksworth design from 1942), but it's your own personal preference to what you run on your layout,

Hope this helps

cheers

Stu

[Garethp8873]

to be historically accurate, you wouldn't have seen any County's pre war ( F W Hawksworth design from 1942), but it's your own personal preference to what you run on your layout,

Hope this helps

cheers

Stu

Yes I just noticed from reading Wiki. I do want to get one, but I wouldn't want it to stick out like a thorn in a Big Four themed layout.