2P or not 2P? That is the question!

Now that winter is here in earnest and the garden is permanently driech and dreary, I have nowhere to pose my models. So when a new Hornby loco-drive 2P came to stay, after a quick test it was placed on the very incomplete "winter project" layout, and an "Elmbridge Cycle Users" display photograph was used as a backdrop.

A Scottish 2P "borrowed" by the Bath shedmaster runs light through Mineries Wood.

Anyone expecting the 2P to be to the same standard as those other Hornby 4-4-0s, the Schools and the T9, will be disappointed. It's certainly an improvement on the old tender-drive version, running smoothly and quietly. But those Hornby steam-roller bogie wheels are very obvious on the 2P, and you don't have to be a rivet-counter to spot some of the other compromises carried over from the old version.


On the test rig, the 2P generated a respectable tractive force of 23g before the wheels slipped, which equates to 6 typical coaches up a 1 in 50 gradient; about the same as the prototype, I suspect. The model weighs only 170g (loco only), and achieves its reasonable hauling power with the help of rubber traction tyres on the front driving wheels.

In summary, a good runner, conveying the atmosphere of the prototype, but not reaching the level of detail attained by some of the new models from Hornby and Bachmann. And I think I might be tempted to put "new bogie wheels" on my list of things to do ......