Morning everyone! What loco would you like to see in RTR that currently isn't available? I'll start things off with this, the Thompson A2/1! The A2/1 class was built at Darlington Works in 1944 and are essentially modified Gresley V2s, with the boiler and cab being carried over. Rather than rebuilding an existing locomotive, Thompson ordered the remaining 4 Gresley V2s to be rebuilt to the new A2/1 specification. The four locomotives of this design performed adequately but proved to be under-boilered for their size and lacked adhesion. They were less problematic than the A2/2 class but did not distinguish themselves. They were built with a small 6 wheel tender and wing type smoke deflectors. After the introduction of the A2/3, they all gained Large Deflectors, and 60508/9/10 received a Peppercorn A1 type tender, with 60507 receiving an A4 tender - the one-off SIR RALPH WEDGWOOD, blown up at York during a bombing raid. When they entered service, all 4 locos were un-named, but later received names. 60507 Highland Chieftain (scrapped 12/1960) 60508 Duke of Rothesay (scrapped 2/1961) 60509 Waverley (scrapped 8/1960) 60510 Robert the Bruce (scrapped 11/1960) Unfortunately, since every A2/1 was different in one way or another, we'll probably never see one in RTR. But who knows, we've just had the A2/2 and A2/3 delivered, and about to get the W1 in nearly every guise!

Posted by Dylan Sanderson at 2021-06-24 10:19:09 UTC