Hornby 'Schools' Class Cheltenham
Hornby's first model of a 'Schools' Class locomotive arrived in 1981 along with three other brand new 4-4-0 locomotives, as well as three or four other completely new engines. This resulted in 1981 being dubbed 'the year of the locomotive'. This had been brought about by the threat to Hornby's market dominance by Airfix and Mainline Railways and, ironically, that year Airfix called in the Receiver.
The 'Schools' model proved more popular than the other three 4-4-0s (an LMS 'Compound', GWR 'County' and LNER 'County/Hunt') and remained in production until 2001, selling in 18 versions. After a break of seven years and with the high popularity of Southern Railway models, it was decided to retool it, placing it in Hornby's new super-detailed range tnat eas started in 2000. This has been very popular and with the completion of this year's programme Hornby will have produced 10 versions of it in just three years. R2827 Cheltenham is in SR malachite livery and is this year's National Railway Museum model.