King Class 4-6-0 6023 King Edward II Hornby Locomotive Review

King Class 4-6-0 6023 King Edward II Hornby Locomotive Review

In today's blog post we will be talking about Hornby’s brilliant King Class 4-6-0 steam locomotive - in particular 6023 King Edward II.

As we have a lot of these locomotives available at the moment, I thought I should show you all the great things about this engine so that you can get yourself a bargain!

Personally, i haven't got a huge interest in steam engines, being more of a modern image diesel era modeller, however i was blown away when i first took this model out of the box!

It's not often I get the urge to sell all my diesels and replace them with steam, however the quality of this model did give me thoughts about it!

Even from a distance the detail is apparent on this locomotive, immaculately painted, with incredible black and orange lining, and proper great western green paint - when it comes to steam trains Hornby knows what they are doing!

The leading bogie and the cylinders again have immaculate orange and black lining, with multiple separately fitted parts attacked on the front end of the model. The lining on the boiler is intricate and very well done, and the chimney features the great western’s signature copper topped chimney. The separately fitted nameplate bearing the name ‘ King Edward II’ is very well painted, and as well as this the wheel arches are also decked out with quality lining.

On the sides of the cab you can see the factory printed GWR route availability code, showing two red circles, meaning the engine could only run on the Great Westerns mainlines between London Paddington, Plymouth and Wolverhampton. Below the number of the loco, 6023 is finely printed, but if this is not enough for your liking, the model also comes with optional numberboards that you can fit yourself! Underneath the cab more separately fitted parts are visible, and even on the ladder up to the cab, more orange lining is finely applied. It's a very well finished model!

Everywhere you look there are rivets upon rivets, with a load of detail on the front end of the loco, and the rivets continue all the way down the running board, and cover the cab and tender too. You can be sure that hornby have made sure they have the exact amount of rivets!!

There is so much detail packed into this model, and moving on to take a look at the cab you can see more exquisite lining, and brass coloured handrails and window frames, these engines must have been quite the sight in real life, and you can really see the splendour of the GWR ‘Kings’ come out in this model! Back onto the cab, you can see there are a lot of separately fitted and individually painted parts, such as the reverser and the brake, as well as piping and numerous dials. Even the wooden seats are separately painted, there is a lot of detail going on in this small area, and bear in mind our low price on this model, you are getting a lot of quality for the price you pay!

Moving onto the tender you can see there are even more separately attached details, such as handrails and the vacuum braking pipe on the bufferbeam, and the stands to attach lamps and headcode disks to. The buffers on this model are sprung, meaning they move back and forward as they do in real life, decals and high quality lining continues onto the tender, as well as many rivets, which you wouldn't see on a railroad model!On the tender the great western logo is finely printed, featuring the GWR coat of arms between the words ‘Great’ and ‘Western’. There is even lining printed on the underframe of the tender, and this helps to sell the quality of the Era 3 Hornby model. Even the top of the tender is finely detailed, with realistic coal, storage boxes, and rivets on the latch for the door to the water tank.

After a decent running session on my own layout, I can tell you that this model runs smoothly and quietly, it can cope at slow speeds even with my Ancient 90s hornby controller! I can highly recommend this loco as it has so much detail and such a high standard of overall finish, with its amazing lining and impressive size, and it would look the part hauling the express trains on your layout!

Buy One Here:

https://www.railwaymodelstore.co.uk/hornby-gwr-600...

Appropriate coaches:

https://www.railwaymodelstore.co.uk/hornby-oo-gauge-br-mk1-brake-composite-corridor-w-21083-era-4-r40021/

https://www.railwaymodelstore.co.uk/hornby-00-gauge-br-collett-bow-ended-corridor-brake-third-right-hand-w4925w-era-4-r4685a/

https://www.railwaymodelstore.co.uk/hornby-00-gauge-gwr-collett-57-bow-ended-d98-six-compartment-brake-third-right-hand-4972-era-3-r4877/