One of the mainstays of the Hornby Dublo range from its inception in 1938 until its demise and then subsequently produced by Wrenn, was the A4. Pre-war it was available as either clockwork or 12v DC powered but, after the war, no more clockwork Dublo was produced. By present day standards, it leaves a bit to be desired in accuracy but, in its day, was one of the best models around. I have a post-war LNER example (Sir Nigel Gresley), a BR green one (Mallard), and a rather battered but intact BR green body which I plan to repaint in BR blue as the Commonwealth of Australia (I have the nameplates, transfers and a spare 3 rail A4 chassis for when I get around to doing it. A few weeks ago I added another A4 to my collection - one that had been repainted in wartime black livery for £49.99 from John Winkley (JW Model Railways). There were a few things to fix - chipped paintwork obviously and there is a slight bend in the left side of the cab roof, where I would guess it has been dropped on the floor. It had been brush painted rather than sprayed but whoever did it did a good job of it although, for some reason, they left the smokebox door mounting plate for the number on, something that I decided to correct. Another bonus was that I wouldn't need to buy any transfers, as the ones that had been used when it was repainted were in good condition as was, at least, the paintwork around them. I was going to do an A4 in wartime black, but this would save me a bit of time..... I have cleaned and serviced the chassis but, at the moment, I don't have anywhere to run it (you can't really set up tracks on the dining room table over the Christmas/New Year period, can you?) so I'm not sure if the magnet is still in good condition or not but, if it isn't, I do have a couple of neomagnets in my box of spares. Here are before and after photos of the loco:
I was given a new Hornby Dublo "Sir Nigel Gresley" train set for Christmas in about 1953, Grandad made me an 8ft x 4ft baseboard to mount the sizeable oval of track plus siding on, and I had it for a number of years, adding various accessories to it as time and pocket money allowed. It was sold on some years later as I moved on to dabbling in electronics, mainly involving Ex-WD radio and early radar equipment, later the first few commercially available transistors (Mullard OC44/45 and OC 71/72's) in the late 50's/early 60's. I returned to railway modelling some 5 years ago after retirement gave me the free time to 'play trains' again! Keith.
