Hornby B17/2 Class R3448 Review!

Welcome back to another review blog post! in todays post we are talking about Hornby's B17/2 Class 4-6-0!

Taking a look at the box we can tell that this engine is finished in BR Lined Brunswick Green livery, and as well as this we can find out the standard information, such as the minimum radius, in this case 438mm. This engine is also DCC Ready, and will accept 8-pin decoders. While removing the engine from Hornby's standard packaging we can find the instructions as well as the pack containing spare parts and detail parts.

In 1926, with increased loading on the East Anglia passenger services and the introduction of modern, vacuum-braked coaching stock, there was a desperate need for a locomotive that could supplement the Holden B12 Class on the former Great Eastern routes of the London North Eastern Railway. Track limitations prevented the transfer of locomotives from other regions and so Nigel Gresley was tasked by the LNER to produce a three cylinder 4-6-0 design, using the cylinder and motion arrangement of the D49, but with a tractive effort of about 25,000lb and a relatively light axle loading of 17 tons.

Locomotive 61619 Welbeck Abbey entered service on November 8, 1930, having been built at Darlington in the first batch of B17/2 locomotives and was converted to a B17/6 in January 1953, whilst allocated to March Shed. Renumbered under British Railways in August 1948 to 61619, Welbeck Abbey was withdrawn from service on September 19, 1958.

The engine is finished in BR Lined Green, and features brilliant lining down the boiler, around the cab and on the tender. This is up to standard with the previous models we have looked at - another great livery replicated by Hornby.

Multiple pipes are fitted down the boiler, and other details including multiple rivets, handrails, whistles chimneys and nameplated adorn the body of the engine. The wheel arches also feature the same great lining, with no blurring between the colours, as well as this the nameplate 'Welbeck Abbey' is finely moulded.

As with Hornby's K1, we see some complicated valve gear, which is very impressive and finely crafted to allow peak running performance. Along the front we see more details on the buffer beams, including rivets and sprung buffers, as well as printed details.

One of the smallest, but in my opinion impressive, details is the adjustable hatch in the roof, which adds a small bit of 'play value' and customization.

For me the area that stands out the most to me is the cab, there is a multitude of separately fitted and separately painted parts, including the brakes, the reverser, valves, piping and dials. We can also see the drivers seats, and various parts on the inside of the tender, including a large red wheel.

Speaking of the tender, this is easily the most detailed one that I have seen yet, with great looking coal, a decently decorated underframe, details on the inside of the coal bunker, handrails and attachment points for head code boards and nameboards. the tender is of an interesting design, with the coal shifted to the left to allow a large pipe to run down the right side of the tender.

Once on the layout, the loco performed very well and ran incredibly smoothly, the valve gear looks great while it was running and there was no issues running with no derailing or any incidents. I highly reccomend this for anyone mdoelling the british railways eastern region!