Hornby: BR 2–8–0 ‘5231’ 52×x Class – Early BR
The Great Western Railway’s large Class 42×x, 52×x and 72×x tank engines were an evolution of a design first conceived in 1906 by George Jackson Churchward, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway between 1902 and 1922.The 2–8–0 Class 42×x was the first of its type to be used in Britain and arose because of a need for a powerful freight locomotive capable of handling increasing heavy mineral loads, especially in South Wales.
Sharing a number of parts with the Class 28×x tender locomotives, some degree of side play in the rear two pairs of driving wheels, as well as thinner flanges on the middle two pairs, enabled the engines to negotiate tighter curves, right down to two chains in radius.The first production batch proved a huge success and 105 locomotives were built between 1910 and 1923. With rising costs and falling revenue during the 1920s, the new CME of the GWR, Charles Collett, decided it was more practical and economic to modify existing locomotive designs, rather than create new, untried ones. The class underwent extensive detail alterations and modifications, including having the cylinders increased in size and the addition of outside steam pipes, resulting in an increased tractive effort and a new classification of Class 52×x.
- Gauge: 00
- DCC Type: DCC Ready
- Livery: Early BR
- Class: 52XX
- Designer: Charles Collett
- Period: 1920s
- Entered Service: 1924
- Purpose: Heavy Coal
- Wheel Configuration: 2–8–0T
Hornby is a household name and is famous as the UK brand leader in the model railway hobby. The company’s founder was Frank Hornby (1863 – 1936) who applied for a patent in 1901 to protect an invention he called ‘Improvements in Toy or Educational Devices for Children and Young People’. Nobody then could have imagined how this product would influence the model railway hobby that we know today.