REVIEWS FEATURE
The first batch of Hornby’s highly anticipated LNER ‘J36’ 0-6-0s arrived at the end of December. MIKE WILD gives BR liveried 65311 Haig the once over.
FIRST REVIEW
SCOTTISH modellers have finally got their wish – a ready-to-run locomotive of their very own. Like the North Eastern Region, until recently the Scottish Region has been neglected by ‘OO’ ready-to-run models, but Hornby sought to buck that trend with its decision to model the LNER ‘J36’ 0-6-0 in its 2018 range.
The first version, modelling 65311 with its unofficial BR name Haig, arrived in the shops in the final days of December and now we have had chance to thoroughly test our sample and inspect all of the detail which has been invested in this compact, rugged and long-lived 0-6-0 goods engine.
The first of the ‘J36s’, originally North British Railway (NBR) ‘C’ class, were built in 1888 and 168 were completed over the next twelve years. They were designed for goods work primarily and some even found service with the Railway Operating Division in France during the First World War. In 1913 a rebuilding programme began and all but eight of the class had been completed with a new larger diameter boiler, injectors, a side window ca…
