Duchess of Atholl train set EDP2 (Hornby Dublo)

Exhibit
Duchess of Atholl train set EDP2 (Hornby Dublo) Duchess of Atholl train set, boxed, detail (i)
location:
Arch Four , Area 37 The Adventures of Paddington (display)
Shelf  9

The Duchess of Atholl, featured on the cover of the 1939/40 issue of the Hornby Book of Trains [image info]

Launch of the Hornby Dublo "Duchess of Atholl" train set, 1939 [image info]

A Hornby Dublo EDP2 passenger train set, including a dark red LMS Duchess Class 4-6-2 "Duchess of Atholl" locomotive, running number 6231, LMS tender, and two 1st/3rd class carriages, numbered 4183 and (28135?).

Hornby Dublo Duchess of Atholl loco 6231, from the 1939 Hornby Bookof Trains

Historic significance

This was one of the most famous early Dublo sets, partly because it was one of the first "large" Hornby Dublo locomotives, but also because its unfortunate timing ("the train that waited") probably made it one of the most anticipated train sets, ever.

The set was originally announced and advertised in Meccano Ltd.'s publications in 1939, just before the outbreak of World War Two, but it didn't quite manage to go into production before the shutdown in toymaking at the commencement of WW2, with the result that people who wanted to buy the train set didn't get a chance to see one until a few years after hostilities had ended, nearly a decade later.

By this time, some of the original would-be buyers would have been grown-up, and others would have been casualties of the fighting.

It might seem surprising that Hornby Dublo didn't get back into its development stride until 1948, considering that WW2 had ended in '45, but after WW2, industry then faced further metal shortages and war work because of the Korean War.

External links

• Duchess of Atholl, Hornby (hornbytrains.blogspot.com)
• Duchess of Atholl (4)6232 (LMS forum)
• Duchess of Atholl cutaway diagram, Eagle comic (mtrains.co.uk) (pdf)