Hornby ex-Lima Class 87s
Lima introduced their Class 87 main line AC electric locomotive in 1979 and produced 14
versions of it. The last was released in 1999 and was 87003 Patriot. As will be
well known by readers, Hornby acquired the Lima tooling in 2004 and, since then, have been
gradually adding upgraded ex-Lima models to their catalogue. It was the turn of the Class
87 in 2008, but it was not until very recently that I had the opportunity to examine
either version produced by Hornby. These are 87004 Britannia (R2772) and 87010 King
Arthur (R2787). Britannia is in standard BR blue livery while King Arthur
is in InterCity Swallow livery.
The models are both 'DCC ready' and have been re-motored by Hornby with a 5-pole skew wound bogie mounted motor. Each model has an extendable pantograph which is plastic and non-working, but finely detailed. The conspicuous Lima couplings have also gone and been replaced by neat changeable ones.