Hornby's M7 - pictures at last!

I note that many companies employed the 0-4-4s for push-pull working, the M7 seems (to my eyes) quite long in the body, what chance of someone making alternative bodies for NER or MR versions?

I ask because I was thinking about the Dalpol offering as a possible chassis donor for an MR engine. I am no expert at all on engines, I lack the time, space, skill and facilities to make my own so I have until now left it to the manufacturers to come up with the goods. Recently I have been messing with Continetal engines with a view to converting these for use on a freelance UK light railway layout bit it is a lot of work and I do rather like the look of the 0-4-4s.

Mike

Mike

The Hornby M7 models look nice, let's hope that they've succeeded in putting sufficent weight far forward over the driving wheels so that the model can pull a reasonable load . Most 0-4-4 models suffer from poor pulling power. Perhaps they've run a drive through to the trailing truck, then we'd get something better than a rice pudding loco. Regards, Bill.

Squinting at the wheels in the pictures, it looks as though there are no gears on the trailing wheels, the main gear seems to be on the rear driving axle (a change from the previous model where it was at the front).

Incidentally I think picture 7445 and 7446 are actually the same photo, with the different crests added later :-) try flipping between the two photos using a "tabbed" browser to see what I mean....

They are quite, quite beautiful... especially that Southern one.

My layout is set in the north west of England around 1956, so there is absolutely no call for one of these. However, I already occasionally run Bulleid pacifics and a Q1 on it. I have no doubt that one of these will find its way there eventually.

Hey, it's *my* layout and I'll run what I like! ;-)

They seem to be exquisite models, but I wonder if anyone agrees with me that the prototype was a rather cumbersome and ill-proportioned machine. In particular, the cab seems ridiculously squat in comparison with the height of the chimney: the front and back ends seem to be built to two different scales. I'd far rather have a pretty little Adams O2.

Andy

Bill,

In a discussion I read about the elegance of the Johnson designs for the Midland, it was noted that a feature of the design of his 0-4-4T was the same - i.e. a straignt line through the top of the chimney, dome and cab roof. In a way, the loco designers didn't have a lot of choice. the chimney would have to be as high as the loading gauge would allow to keep smoke and steam clear of vision, and the cab roof would only need to give adequate clearance above the boiler and the crew's heads. So the one variable was the height of the dome casing or, in the case of a lot of the 0-4-4s, the top of the safety valves in the dome.

Jim.