[Camborner]

Got these through the post thanks to the 'free gift' offer when Hornby realised I hadn't renewed my Hornby Collector's Club Magazine thing, a Blue Pullman shunter, and a 101 class 328. And then I thought that it was a bit weird that in all my travels of the web, I had NEVER seen a review of a Hornby 0-4-0. Well, here we go...

The historical bit-first up, the Class 06. This class of 10 locomotives was built for use on the Scottish Region of BR, by Andrew Barclay. Only one locomotive still survives-06003, currently owned by Harry Needle Railroad Company. The GWR 101, on the other hand, has no survivors. There was only one built at Swindon, in 1902, the only 0-4-0T built there in standard gauge. It's possible that the loco never even left Swindon, and it was withdrawn in 1911.

First off, the packaging. These models still use the boxs with holes in the back, which normally annoys me, but as these are older less detailed models, with no fine details to break, it's OK this time. Looking at the models themselves, the paint finish is up to the usual high standards of Hornby. Which helps to distract from the lack of detail compared to modern models. The 101 has moulded hand rails, whilst the Class 06 only has non-moulded handrails down the side of the body. Unsuprising really, as the mouldings are extremlly old-I remember seeing the 06 in a late 80's catalouge! Does anybody know when these moulds were created? Onto a slightly more 'rivet counter' point, sorry about this, but both chassis use the same chassis-one or both bodies must be inaccurate for the chassis. But who cares about that!?

Performance. The two models were run as analouge engines on my Select unit. Both started at a high speed, no slow crawling motors here. Also, both stalled on some of my points, and neither could haul a 5 coach train without slipping, although the 101 was a lot more slippy than the 06, which is also very slightly slower. The 0-4-0 chassis doesn't exactly look a joy to convert to DCC either, with lots of soldering around the chassis according to the Hornby DCC fitting guide.

So, the models are not the best runners, haulers, or detailed. Normally, this would result in a very low mark. But...

THEY'RE SO MUCH FUN!

Honestly, could you really ignore these two for long? They're such a joy to run around the layout, and the wide array of liveries mean you're not likely to come across two. However I have-I've already got the 101, but I've found some replacement number plates-lovely cheap project! 8.5 or 9/10-fun on four wheels!

[Boris]

thnks for that review, they are sooo much fun !
off topic slightley, sorry, but you said they could run them on dc using a select, can it be doneon the elete aswell? how?

[Camborner]

You run one as engine 00. It's not reccomended for long periods of time.

[Boris]

thanks, did you mean run one engine as dc?

[Camborner]

[TerryB]

Ahh ...."that" one .... ....



T.