Hornby LNER Class A4 60016 'Silver King' BR (Early) Green (TT)

The LNER Gresley A4 is one of the most iconic express locomotives in Great Britain, with its streamlined casing a classic symbol of the attitude towards speed and design in the 1930s, which saw increased competition to the railways from road and air travel. The LNER Board knew that they had to make travel between the major cities faster, comfortable and more reliable. Nigel Gresley, the LNER's Chief Mechanical Officer, travelled on the Fliegende Hamburger diesel locomotive in Germany and was impressed by its streamlining, although he realized it was only efficient at high speeds. Gresley was certain that a modified A3 Pacific, with streamlining, could haul greater loads than other locomotives at the same speed or faster and a series of trials were conducted to confirm the A3's suitability. With the trials successfully completed, the LNER Board gave Gresley the go-ahead to create the "Silver Jubilee" streamlined trains, the first of the new streamlined A4s.The streamlining of the A4s' steam circuit, higher boiler pressure and extension of the firebox to create a combustion chamber made them more efficient than the A3 as they consumed less coal and water- especially later on when they were also fitted with a Kylchap double chimney. This improved their free steaming capabilities further. Their streamlined design not only made them capable of high speeds, but created an up draught of smoke, obscuring the driver's vision, a major problem on the new Class A4 engines. The story goes that during wind tunnel testing, after several unsuccessful efforts to get the smoke to lift clear, a thumbprint was inadvertently left on the clay model just behind the chimney. This succeeded in clearing the smoke and was incorporated into the final design. 2511 Silver King was the 3rd A4 locomotive to be built, designed to pull the Silver Jubilee service. The locomotive entered service in November 1935 in the unique LNER Silver livery designed for the service. The locomotive would go on to work under BR before being scrapped in 1965, making it one of the longest serving A4 locomotives. - NEXT 18 DCC Decoder Socket - TT:120 Scale

Hornby LNER Class A3 60078 'Night Hawk' BR (Early) Green (TT)

While the A1 was a fantastic locomotive that served its purpose as intended, it became clear reasonably quickly that some modifications could be made that would greatly improve its performance. These modifications however were too significant to avoid reclassifying the locomotives and as such the A1 Felstead 2743 was the first to be withdrawn from service only a handful of years after it was introduced, emerging from its shed in August 1928 as the first A3 ‘Super Pacific.’ The newly designated A3 locomotives had an improved boiler, larger cylinders and a conversion from right to left hand drive. 27 of the class were built as A3 locomotives from the get go, with all of the in service A1 examples being converted before 1950, the last such example to undergo this transformation was the then BR numbered 60068 Sir Visto. Night Hawk first entered LNER service on the fairly pleasing 24th October 1924 as locomotive number 2577 as an A1 locomotive. Rebuilt in January 1944 to an A3, the locomotive would go in to be numbered 78, and then 60078 under BR. Night Hawk would go on to be withdrawn on the 22nd October 1962, almost making it a nice round 38 years in service, before being scrapped at Doncaster in 1963. - NEXT 18 DCC Decoder Socket - TT:120 Scale