Hornby: LNER 0–8–0 Raven Q6 Class

At the end of the first decade of the 20th century, the upsurge in the growth of mineral traffic in the North-East exceeded the amount of steam haulage available to transport it. The existing North Eastern Q5 locomotives, designed by Wilson Worsdell, were extremely capable engines but the new Chief Mechanical Officer, Vincent Raven, felt a more powerful, superheated design would be justified in the circumstances.

Between February 1913 and March 1921, 120 examples of Raven’s new T2 eight-coupled locomotive were built, in six batches, resulting in a powerful, sturdy and reliable engine design that fulfilled its requirement to haul mineral and heavy freight traffic, right through to late 1967. The first seventy were built at Darlington, with the last batch of fifty being constructed by Armstrong Whitworth & Co. of Newcastle. The class was not intended for passenger traffic and was therefore purely equipped with steam braking for bother engine and tender, five different types of which were used with the locomotive which ranged from the early 3,940 gallon tenders to the later 4,125 self-trimming type.

Specifics:

• Gauge: 00
• DCC Type: DCC Ready
• Livery: LNER
• Class: Q6
• Designer: Vincent Raven
• Entered Service: 1920
• Purpose: Heavy Freight
• Wheel Configuration: 0–8–0

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.