Hornby RailRoad BR Class 9F 92221 R2880
The choice of Class 9F, back in 1968, was influenced by the Rivarossi 'Big Boy' and caused quite a stir in 1971 when it reached the shops before Christmas. It arrived as the parent company, Lines Bros, was in meltdown and being broken up and sold off in bits. However, its Rovex subsidiary was still financially healthy and was allowed by the liquidator to carry on trading and launch what was a revolutionary new model. Never before had the company had to design a model with more than six coupled wheels and yet the 9F had 10. Moreover, this was their first model to have tender-drive which, at the time, was seen as the way ahead, allowing greater flexibility in design and reduced production costs. It was described in the press as, "one of the finest proprietary models manufactured in the British Isles". Over 12,000 orders were received in the first year alone.
Over the following years a large quantity of the models passed through the stores at Margate. In 1988 it was felt time to upgrade it by adding wire handrails. A new model arrived in 1999 which had a more accurate chassis, blackened metalwork and a choice of tenders, but still with tender-drive. Then, in 2006, Bachmann released their super-detailed loco-drive model of a 9F. Hornby realised that their model could not compete alongside the Bachmann version but, in the budget market, at the right price, it could sell well. They went to the expense of converting it to loco-drive and relaunched it as a RailRoad model in 2008, as Evening Star. Now we have a standard black version as No.92221.