Hornby’s all-new model of Rocket was a stunning and award winning addition to its range in 2020. TREVOR JONES saw simple ways to enhance this tiny model ’s haulage capacity and appearance.
Like many modellers I was delighted when Hornby announced a 21st century model of the world famous steam locomotive Rocket and the production of the open wagons to go with it putting the icing on the cake.
It’s a charming model which proved exceptionally popular in its first production run during Hornby’s 2020 centenary year and Hornby has since followed up with a further batch in the 2021 range which is due for release in the first part of 2022. The original closed carriages have been followed by open carriages and now flat wagons have arrived too. The 2021 train pack includes a new Royal Mail coach offering an increasing variety of stock for the very early period of railway operation on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway between 1829 and the 1860s.
With such a small locomotive – Rocket is just 90mm long including its tender – there will always be a challenge of operation due to its restricted adhesive weight, but we were impressed by its performance in the office and on basic level track straight from the box. However, the quest…
