Hornby : A festival of Southern locos

Hello and welcome once again to The Engine Shed. In preparation for this week's blog we've been taking a look back at comments on various forums about previous blogs - right back to day one when we first announced our venture into cyberspace. As everyone knows, The Engine Shed is our attempt to give you a little insight into the goings on here in the Hornby Development Office, keeping you up to date with how our current projects are progressing as well as giving you a sneak peek at things to come. What started as an experiment has developed into an integral part of our workload and a feature we can't imagine not having now, as comments we get about the models and prototypes we show have helped to develop our projects further, and turn them in to what we think are some of the most detailed and well researched items. Without wanting to sound like a broken record, it is clear from reading comments that people enjoy our fortnightly blog and it has become a regular part of your internet reading. We just wanted to extend our thanks once again for coming back every two weeks to catch up on all the latest news and development updates. So, on with Edition 59…

Electric fans were treated to a behind the scenes look at the building of our latest Class 87 sample last time, (all comments on that one are greatly appreciated). But this week we want to take a look at a loco that was re-introduced for 2017 and one that hasn't been in the range since 2010. It's one of our favourite locos of all time, due in no small part to its unique, stripped back 'brutish' appearance and its running capabilities. This loco, devoid of any ancillary 'furniture' was stripped back to the bare bones of a locomotive and was just as good running tender first as it was going forward - in fact it was able to reach almost 75mph in both directions! Of course, we're talking about the Q1 Class.

Decoration sample for R3559 - Southern Q1 Class

Back in March we showed you some early decoration samples for the loco that we'd received in order to check the tooling was performing as it should be. This was an important process as we'd changed factories since the last time the loco was in the range and we needed to check that it was still up scratch to be put back into production. However nothing needed adapting on our designs for the tooling aside from some changes to the tender to make it sound ready.

Work has continued and just the other day we received a final packed approval sample, and we have to say just looking at them on our layout really does put a smile on our faces. Expected early next year, take a look at the final sample for R3559 - SR 0-6-0 'C24' Q1 Class below.

Final Approval Samples for R3559 - Q1 Class

We will have more to show you as the year progresses and as soon as we're ready we'll be able to show you the Approval Sample for its BR counterpart as well.

The H Class goes down South

Continuing with our Southern theme, it seems a week just can't go by without featuring the first of our 2017 announcements, the Wainwright H Class in one way or another. After the Late BR version went down so well (and why wouldn't it?) many of you were keen to see its Southern counterpart take centre stage. Well without further ado feast your eyes on the latest pictures below:

We are nearing the end of or our Wainwright journey now. All that's left to show you is the arrival of the approval sample and we can't wait to see the images you will upload to our Customer Images section of our website when it is released. But, you never know, in the meantime we might have some other HUGE H Class related surprises left, you'll just have to watch this space…

Picture this...

It's that time of year again when we're on the hunt for one of your Customer Images to feature on our Desktop Calendar Wallpaper - simply head over to our News section for details, plus how you could win £100 to spend on the website. Get snapping!

Testing a Test Train box

Before we leave this week, we wanted to show you one last thing. Our Class 800 IEP Test Train project is really gathering momentum now and we cannot wait to show you what we have planned later this year. In the meantime though, before the first decoration samples arrive we wanted to show you just how these Limited Edition models will arrive when they hit the shops! Something of a first here in The Engine Shed, take a look at the final box designs.

Those of you lucky enough to have snapped up this limited edition run can expect to receive their models early next year.

Well that about wraps it up for this week. As always, we love to hear what you think about any of the models shown, so please do let us know in the usual places (Facebook, Twitter, Forums, carrier pigeon, smoke signal… etc). Our next blog in two weeks' time will be our 60 edition - can you believe it? 60! (There's a bad joke about our age in there somewhere, but let's not get into that!). Make sure you join us then, when we may just have a big (or small)surprise or two for you!

Until next time, happy modelling!

The Engine Shed Team

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