For many years the US diesel roadswitchers from various makers topped the league for slow...RELIABLE..running....it has taken the UK scene a long time to catch up????
However, I am far from biased and I have one candidate...pre- Hornby 08, that is.....that makes an ideal shunter, and would be my recommendation for anybody thinking of starting the kids into model railways...and that is...the Hornby J94 Austerity tank.
I/we have several...I have an 8-year old son, whose model train criteria is, first and foremost, it must RUN, whatever!
This the Austerities do, without failure.
True, the quality control of the mechanisms is a bit.......hit 'n miss, but by annoying the model shop owner, and getting them to test-run each item fist, then choosing the one without the limp, is a good method.
The Hornby item has [to me] essential criteria for reliable running.....no traction tyres!
It has a fairly short , coupled wheelbase, which is long enough to not stall on dead frogs...(see, no wet leaves for us !!!]
plus, so many of them can be found today on Preservation lines, they are readily identifiable...not simply extinct relics of the past!
So, I propose the Austerity tank from Hornby!
However, I am far from biased and I have one candidate...pre- Hornby 08, that is.....that makes an ideal shunter, and would be my recommendation for anybody thinking of starting the kids into model railways...and that is...the Hornby J94 Austerity tank.
I/we have several...I have an 8-year old son, whose model train criteria is, first and foremost, it must RUN, whatever!
This the Austerities do, without failure.
True, the quality control of the mechanisms is a bit.......hit 'n miss, but by annoying the model shop owner, and getting them to test-run each item fist, then choosing the one without the limp, is a good method.
The Hornby item has [to me] essential criteria for reliable running.....no traction tyres!
It has a fairly short , coupled wheelbase, which is long enough to not stall on dead frogs...(see, no wet leaves for us !!!]
plus, so many of them can be found today on Preservation lines, they are readily identifiable...not simply extinct relics of the past!
So, I propose the Austerity tank from Hornby!
