Built for the LSWR as class 415 these engines represented an
enlargement of earlier locomotives designed for the LSWRs rapidly
growing London suburban and outer suburban traffic. The well-balanced
design is considered a classic of British locomotive
engineering, featuring 4 driving wheels with a 4-wheel leading bogie to
guide the locomotive into curves at speed and a more rigid radial
trailing axle allowing a large bunker to be accomodated. The first of 71
locomotives entered service in 1882, but the ever growing train
weights saw them replaced with the still larger M7 0-4-4 tanks
(modelled by Hornby) from 1897. Like their predecessors the 415 class
Radials migrated to lighter duties on country branches and during WW1
some surplus engines were loaned or sold on, the military authorities
sending them to depots, supply dumps and deploying them to other
railways short of locomotives, including the Highland Railway in
Scotland!
The last 'radials' were still active until 1962, working
the Lyme Regis branch, where the fleet included LSWR number 488, BR
30583, which had been sold to the Army and purchased back by the
Southern from the East Kent Railway in 1946 to supplement the fleet.
Still carrying an original pattern boiler 488/30583 was purchased for preservation on the Bluebell Railway.
Model Specifications
| 5 Pole skew wound motor
DCC and Sound Fitted
Geared for slow running and prototypical operation
Sprung Buffers
Detailed Cab Interior
Weighted Chassis for extra pulling power
All over spray painted finish with precision printing
NEM couplings pockets
Pickups on all the wheels
1:76 Scale |