Although HS2 isn’t carrying passengers yet, it’s using a lot of trains, and Hornby has released a model of one of its locomotives.
The 00 gauge class 66 (66796) miniature locomotive – rebranded in 2021 by GB Railfreight (GBRf) as The Green Progressor with an HS2-inspired design is now on sale from Hornby.
The Green Progressor has now joined a select group of other classic Hornby model locomotives including ‘Flying Scotsman’, ‘Mallard’ and ‘Rocket’.
Simon Kohler, Marketing and Development Director for Hornby, said: “Hornby has always tried to be relevant when it comes to trains and locomotives and when I saw that HS2 was producing a train with GB Railfreight it was really a no-brainer.
“When HS2 first takes its Hitachi-Alstom train in a few years’ time we will be there with our model that will – again – be 76 times that little bit smaller”.
The locomotive is on the Hornby website.
Using rail freight, HS2 has already transported over 10 million tonnes of materials by rail in just over two years. It is expected that HS2 will move 20 million tonnes of aggregate across the Phase One programme between the West Midlands and London across a fleet of freight locomotives, removing three million HGVs from the UK’s road network.
Along with freight operators and aggregate companies, there are now over 28,500 jobs supported by Europe’s largest infrastructure project and over 3,000 British-based businesses have delivered work on HS2 so far.
And each one will no doubt cost you 10X the amount you were first quoted as its price, will be delivered 10 years after they promised and will require you to saw your model railway in half whilst destroying all the trees in your street. Now that would be a realistic HS2 model