Gresley 4-6-0 B17/6 No.61662 Manchester United

Now available and exclusive to Key PublishingCollectors Limited Edition Model No.6Ex-LNER Gresley 4-6-0 B17/6 No.61662 Manchester United in late British Railways weathered green livery The Gresley B17 4-6-0 came about through the need to introduce a powerful 4-6-0 steam locomotive to haul heavy passenger trains on the Great Eastern section of the LNER. Chief Mechanical Engineer Sir Nigel Gresley was given the task. Production was handed to the North British Locomotive Company under contract and, after some modifications to its design, the first B17 4-6-0 was introduced in November 1928. A further 52 locomotives were built at Darlington Works between 1930 and 1936 in five batches while a final group of 11 were built by Robert Stephenson in 1937. Initially the first B17s were allocated to Cambridge express workings and coupled to 3,700 gallon Great Eastern tenders, the B17/1s , while the later B17/4s which had LNER group standard 4,200 gallon tenders, were allocated to Leicester, Sheffield, Neasden and other sheds on the LNER network. A third sub-class was introduced in 1943 when Gresley increased the working pressure of the boiler to 220psi using the 100A boiler and these were classified B17/6 . A number of B17/6 4-6-0s were named after high profile football clubs including the subject of Hornby Magazine s new limited edition, 61662 Manchester United. Key Publishing have commissioned Hornby Hobbies to produce this newly tooled exclusive weathered model, which is limited to just 750 certificated units.