Silver Link locomotive (Hornby M-series)
| Exhibit |
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Silver Link locomotive (Hornby M-series).jpg) Hornby No.0 streamliner, catalogue image from (1939?) (i)
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| location: |
| Arch Three , Area 30 Classic Locomotives (display) |
| Shelf 1 |
A highly stylised and "toylike" model representation of the streamlined LNER A4 "Pacific" 4-6-2 "Silver Link" locomotive (running number 2509), the first LNER A4 loco to enter service (in 1935). The most famous A4-series loco was the Mallard.
This silver and grey model is part of a boxed Hornby M Series train set that appeared in around ~1936.
To fit onto the small-radius track, the loco and its coaches have been dramatically foreshortened, with the 4-6-2 wheel configuration of the original train compacted down to an almost unrecognisably stubby 0-4-0, and with similar artistic licence applied to the set's hinged coaches.
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The Original Locomotive
Although we tend nowadays to think of the A4 streamliners as being either blue (like Mallard) or liveried in later British Rail Green, the locomotives were originally launched in silver, to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V, and had their own sets of special coaches with articulated shared bogies, collectively making up the "Silver Jubilee" express train. The first A4 locos also all had names starting with "Silver-".
Unfortunately for LNER, the King died not long after, and in 1937 LNER then brought out a new A4-hauled train in blue, the Coronation, to compete with the publicity generated by the new LMS streamliner, Coronation Scot.
