REVIEW- Hornby Railroad County

[siquelme]

My tester

Hornby Railroad County Class



Hornby states the county is for young or old, keen modeller or just a beginner, the Hornby RailRoad range answers the needs of many and is a perfect complement to the variety of locomotives, rolling stock, track, buildings, and accessories that can be found in the current Hornby catalogue. Devoid of easily damaged detail parts the suitably livered RailRoad locomotives are fitted with efficient drive mechanisms and have pickups on all drive wheels ensuring smooth running. All the RailRoad models are fitted with the standard Hornby hook and bar type couplings and will therefore easily couple to those locomotives and rolling stock in both the standard Hornby and Thomas & Friends ranges. With this in mind it is easy to see that those models that make up the Hornby RailRoad range are a simple and cost effective way of adding to a train set providing a suitable and most appropriate stepping stone into the varied and fascinating World of model railways.

The introductory range offers not only a selection of individual locomotives, rolling stock and accessories but an assortment of train and wagon packs ideally suited for either train set rolling stock enhancements or for those who wish to experiment and try their hands at developing their modelling techniques!

Pros:

Its amazingly priced I picked mine up for £30 which is unbelivable for a DCC ready locomotive.
Easily detailed... when weathered, details added such as crew, real coal, lamps etc the locomotive looks top of the range

Mine renamed and detailed

Negs:

Its is presented in a BR Livery (most noticeable around the cab area) however has "G W on the tender
Does slip on the rails sometimes when pulling a large load (7 or 8 carriages)


ANYONE ELSE HAVE COMMENTS TO ADD TO THIS REVIEW OF A GOOD PROJECT LOCOMOTIVE

[Lysander]

I'd pretty much agree with your assessment. I was looking again at mine last night [£35 - and I thought that was cheap] and felt that some easily-applied detail above the buffer beam [lamps] and crew would lift it considerably. It's difficult to fault really [if you are going to be reasonable] and the blackened wheels and motion are both commendably fine and realistic. It's heavy too, and pulls quite well. I'm not 100% certain about the shade of Brunswick Green for a GWR loco but no r-t-r GWR engine seems to be the same colour as the next one.

Good value, a smooth runner and ideal for a post-war GWR-themed layout. Would suit a rake of the new Hawksworths admirably.

Tony

[siquelme]

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

[Lysander]

Do you know, I honestly didn't notice that. I'll not bother, but it probably could be removed.

Tony

[siquelme]

Do you have any photos of your county running?

Thinking it might be nice to build up an image gallary of the locomotive.. mines been completely renamed so is more an example of how you can detail it

[Lysander]

Which one ? I have three ! [but not intentionally, it just happened like that].

No, but a still [below] that I've posted elsewhere too. Pleasingly atmospheric I thought. I might try to do a vid at the club in a week or too. It would be quite a nice idea to gather running shots of all GWR r-t-r locos really, but it would need the assistance of lots of members to make in interesting.....



Tony

[siquelme]

I'd like to do a proper review of the locomotive.

Get the view of a few owners who run the locomotive so have a good opionnon on the train. Also means we could get aload of photos of the locomotive in action most websites just use the photo i have used in the first post which doesnt really say anything about the locomotive.

The reason i choose the Railroad County to try this is because its the only real "popular" GWR locomotive I own that is cheap. If it works i will try the Bachmann 56xx and 57xxs

[Lysander]

OK - I will do a vid but it can't be for about a fortnight. Can we encourage others I wonder ?

Tony.

[siquelme]

I have come across the locomotive in a few threads so hopefully they will share thier views

Its a geat unrated locomotive

[GeoFF03]

So I hear you're looking for opinions and photos/vids of the Hornby County class. I find it a splendid looking loco and it performs well on my small layout. I don't know enough about them to comment on the accuracy of the outline or the livery, but thats of no great concern to me anyway. I must say that you guys must have got real bargins as mine cost rather more than yours, but its still good value for all that. I've taken some photos and shot some video of her in action (not the best quality, it was done in rather a hurry).





I'll need to have a word with the cleaners about that



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPOPEyIq_8k

[siquelme]

Review - Reviewed!

So here we go again

HORNBY COUNTY OF CORNWALL



Been doing some more research into the County class (The GWR group on yahoo)

The Hornby R2935 County of Cornwall locomotive is based on the single chimney verison in the post 1946 GWR green livery.

Positives:
Its amazingly priced I picked mine up for £30 which is unbelivable for a DCC ready locomotive.
Easily detailed... when weathered, details added such as crew, real coal, lamps etc the locomotive looks top of the range
Sprung buffers
Wire handrails on tender rather then molded ones
Blackened wheels and valvegears the real locomotive never had clean silver gears like Hornby models tend to show
Lininig is of a good quality and is the same standard of the premium range Castle and King classes

Negatives

Based on the original Airfix and Dapol county class models and has there errors such as the cab, firebox and incorrect tender wheelbases
BR style cab lining on a GWR livery
Tender back on the GWR livery was also lined when the model doesnt show
Cabside windows were brass in real life but also not shown
Does slip on the rails sometimes when pulling a large load (7 or 8 carriages)

Overall 8/10

There is room for improvement but for the price you cant go wrong

(Would of liked to do some fancy table and formatting but cant use HTML coding on the fourm)
GeoFF03 those are some great photos of the loco doing what it was built for pulling some what i assume are Bachmann Hawksworths

[Lysander]

Yes, nice photos Geoff. Looking at them, I tempted to get some etched plates for one of mine - I think that they would make the world of difference.

Tony.

[siquelme]

Some photos to show some of the points from the review (PLEASE NOT MY COUNTY HAS BEEN RENAMED AND DETAILED TO 1016 COUNTY OF HANTS)

Side view of my "premium" king class which is up to protocall with brass windows and the GWR livery around the cab


The county which none brass cabside windows and the BR livery around the cab


My king class with the lining on the tender


Tender of the county minus the lining


One of the best things about the county... you can easily add real coal to the top to make it look alot more real and factual

[siquelme]

What i would really really like to see is this model improved with the details above renamed 1014 'County of Glamorgan" in order to raise money for the 1014 'County of Glamorgan project like the Bachmann one did for Tornado

[bocaj]

I am thinking of getting this model, now I am getting it!
Most of Hornbies steam locomotives in the Railroad range have detail like this but the same can't be said for the deisels. I think Hornby have a thing for macking steam locomotives good but not all deisel/eletric locomotives are good