Bachmann Class G2A 31-478

It was partly due to MREmag readers voting for it in previous polls that Bachmann went ahead with designing this model. It arrived in the shops last year and received immediate praise for its fine detail. Examples were seen running on the Bachmann Club layout at the TCS Sandy Exhibition last July.

The prototype was designed by the LNWR for heavy mineral traffic. The G2As were the final development of a long line of LNWR 0-8-0 locomotives (totaling 836 in all) and were developed during the period that Beames was CME, immediately before Grouping in 1923. The G2As were converted from G1s and fitted with Belpaire fireboxes in LMS days (continuing into the BR period). 478 former LNWR 0-8-0s survived into BR ownership. The last members of the class were withdrawn in 1964.