Just arrived - the J50 running sample
The time has come! We’ve been teasing you for a few weeks now about the recent sample that has just arrived for the J50. We showed you a photo a while ago showing the initial stages of what is usually a rather mammoth task of constructing the first shots. The sample arrived as they always do, in pieces, in plastic bags and it is up to us (or rather a combination of us and our R&D engineer) to build it up so we can get a sense of how the tooling is working and if there are any tweaks that need to be made. We quite often decorate these PPs for package imagery as well.
We noticed a couple of things that we felt needed to be corrected but overall we were very pleased with the way this sample has come together. It often takes a lot of work to get the parts to fit and connect together, but the main body components on this little gem simply clicked in place and the locomotive was ready to go. However, the smaller components and the chassis still require some painstaking model making by our R&D department to construct, it's by no means a straightforward process!
Originally, the first J50 locomotives were introduced in 1926 when the LNER adopted the locomotive as their preferred design for a mid-power tank engine. This came about because of the need for more powerful locomotives, which were necessary to operate on the steep gradients prevalent on the West Riding lines and saw the introduction of the J51 locomotives. Changes to the size of the J51’s boiler diameter gave rise to the creation of the J50.
There were 102 J50 locomotives built which featured the distinctive sloping full length side tanks making them arguably the most distinctive locomotives of their type. Designed by Nigel Gresley the tanks of the J50 were sloped in such a way so as to assist the driver’s line of sight.
We started work on this project back in March 2014 and as it as progressed we’ve become really rather fond of this little loco, so you can imagine our excitement when we received the first running sample!
It arrived one afternoon last week and after our initial tests were carried out, we grabbed our camera and shot this sneak peek of it running around our test layout! It’s running smooth, it’s quiet and whilst design-wise there are still a few tweaks to be made, we have to say this is one of the best first running samples we’ve ever received.
The three Hornby J50 locomotives are due to arrive in December 2015, and are available to pre-order now.
What do you think of the J50 so far? What else would you like to see covered on The Engine Shed?. Let us know on Twitter or Facebook with #HornbyEngineShed, or on The Engine Shed Forum.
Until next time, thanks for reading and happy modelling!
The Engine Shed Team
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