Sir Nigel Gresley was introduced to the Hornby Minitrix Range of Steam Locomotives around 1983.  Physically, it is identical to the 1980 A4 Model of the Mallard locomotive, but the Gresly has the distinctive 'garter blue' body and red spoked wheels.  Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s the real life locomotive could be seen regularly on weekend trips through the Aire Valley on its way to steam up the Settle Carlisle Line, and it is still often seen on heritage lines and hauling excursions for Saphos Trains, with occasional visits to the 'Heartbeat' location of Grosmont on the Heritage North York Moors Railway line.

For many years, a quality version of this model has eluded me.  A friend, Les, trusted me with his model which was running erratically, and it had not responded particularly well to being professionally repaired.  So I took it apart, cleaned it up, found a number of electrical and mechanical faults - so typical of the faults found on my own Mallard and documented on these pages, and I sent it back running like a sewing machine.   I was so reluctant to see it go - it was running so perfectly.  I took photos of the repair for this site, but forgot to take one of it fully assembled.  Jeremy, another on-line friend provided me with a photo for this site.  I now have my own version of this which is now pictured above.

Please note that I have nothing to do with Trix, Minitrix or Märklin Inc. whose trademarks I respect and acknowledge. The information and opinions on this web site are my own and are provided as a record of my own experiences of maintaining a Minitrix model. They are not provided as a definitive instruction manual.