There was an interesting succession of large 2-6-4 tanks that
developed from the Fowler 4P tank, first modelled by Hornby in 1980. The tanks were
developed by the London Midland & Scottish Railway to pull heavy commuter trains in
the North London suburbs, a job they were particularly suitable for. When Stanier
succeeded Fowler as CME for the LMS in 1932, he was soon to develop his own version of a
4P 2-6-4 tank which had its distinctive tapered boiler - an influence of Stanier's former
days at Swindon. 
This is the version that
has now been modelled by Hornby with two new versions of it detailed below. Stanier was
succeeded briefly by Fairburn who introduced a lighter version of Stanier's tank and the
final version was one developed by Riddles for British Railways and quickly modelled in
the Hornby Dublo range in 1954. The Fairburn and Riddles tanks have both been modelled by
Bachmann.
This year's releases bring to six the number of versions available from Hornby and illustrated here are LMS 2484 (R2730), early BR 42587 (R2731) and late BR 42616 (R2732). The models come with separate brake rods, front steps, front NEM coupling, cylinder drain-cocks, vac pipes and imitation articulated couplings.
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For Hornby and spares for Hornby, Electrotren, Lima (HO), Jouef and Rivarossi visit www.hornbyspares.co.uk
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