My British Model Railway Locomotives

Cock o’ the North

This is my magnificant HO scale LNER P2 Cock of The North steam locomotive originally built around 1935 and designed by the great Sir Nigel Gresley. At the time this locomotive was one of the most powerful steam engines ever built and weighed about 110 tons. It is a 2-8-2 layout and the main drive wheels are over 6 feet tall! This locomotive was used on the tough Edinbugh to Aberdeen line where gradients and curves were some of the most extreme in the UK.



To maximise track adhesion 8 driving wheels were used instead of the more usual 6 in the "Pacific" layout used by most other big steam locomotives.
Shortly after the “Cock o’ the North” had emerged from Doncaster Works, a test run was made, with a train weighing 650 tons, from King’s Cross to Barkstone, just beyond Grantham, and back. The long gradient to Stoke Summit, partly at 1 in 200 and partly at 1 in 178, was surmounted at an average speed of a mile-a-minute for the whole distance, and without speed at any time falling below 56 miles an hour. The engine developed at the draw-bar the hitherto unprecedented figure for Great Britain of 2,090 hp.

The video below shows my Hornby Cock o’ the North locomotive pulling 10 Teak coaches around my layout. This locomotive seems to be able to pull anything!

Further reading:-
Railway Wonders of the World - Cock o’ the North