Hornby Model Railways “GREAT SNIPE” A4 Pacific LNER NO.4462 R3131

A brand new 00 gauge example especially developed by “Hornby Model Railways” as part of their SUPER DETAIL series. This A4 Pacific locomotive in LNER Garter Blue livery is named “Great Snipe” with running number 4462. A highly detailed version being DCC READY. The Class A4 is a class of streamlined 4-6-2 steam locomotive designed by Nigel Gresley for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1935.

Their streamlined design gave them high-speed capability as well as making them instantly recognisable, and one of the class, 4468 Mallard, holds the world record as the fastest steam locomotive. Thirty-five of the class were built to haul express passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line route from London Kings Cross via York and Newcastle to Edinburgh, Scotland.

They remained in service on the East Coast mainline until the early 1960s when they were replaced by Deltic diesel locomotives. Several A4s saw out their remaining days until 1966 in Scotland, particularly on the Aberdeen – Glasgow express trains, for which they were used to improve the timing from 3.5 to 3 hours.