GordonC

🤷‍♂️ I've got better things to do with my time than sit through 45 mins of video on a scale I'm not interested in. An answer wasn't obvious to a casual observer

For any Class 37 model, I would have thought BR Blue and Large Logo Blue options would be right up there to produce straight away. If they want to encourage people to the scale then it needs to be things that people want and thats a huge gap between Era 6 and 9. Relatively speaking, it must be lower sums of money to offer more liveries rather than more tooling

I think your logic holds up if the product were all exactly the same in terms of quality and reliability and demand, but that I feel is where Hornby have fallen down. I think the smaller entrants will have a couple of big advantages over Hornby. In producing to pre-orders, they're generally offering a range of perhaps 8-10 liveries in a batch but with the pre-orders, they'll be able to gauge percentages of one livery against another to better tweak production numbers to match demand. Of course there can be some left at the end, but even those tend to sell quickly certainly in the popular liveries and detail combinations. Hornby generally produce one or two livery options at a time and production quantities will be plucked out the air either by them or in response to retailer orders. It would be interesting to know what the level of pre-orders are for Hornby relative to overall sales. Personally, I have such little faith in Hornby following too many times in the past that they've snatched defeat from the jaws of victory that I want to see whats produced before placing any orders. I feel that when Hornby make an effort, they can make beautiful, well designed, well decorated and smooth running models that are a match for anyone .... I just dont think they make that consistent effort enough and there's too much "that'll do" attitude. The smaller manufacturers really care and go the extra mile to get everything exactly correct and I probably am more accepting of flaws knowing it'll be the best they could produce or a small oversight. I think Hornby has certainly up until now been expecting to play the long game in focussing more on niche liveries or variations with the intention of stretching out demand for their tooling with the result of pretty significant liveries that havent appeared in 20 years on Class 31s for example. There's certainly some times they could have done with picking some 'dead-cert' liveries to cash in on and make the most of their tooling. Now that smaller manufacturers are duplicating more of their high-spec range, I think they'll struggle to offload what they've produced.

One thing I find odd about their TT:120 range is the liveries offered. We're always told that tooling costs are the expensive bit, but if you're starting a new scale and you want to encourage buyers to take it up, would you not make what tooling you have available in as many liveries as you can? Things like Mk1 coaches ... crimson and cream or maroon are the options. Could they not have squeezed a blue and grey option in there too? Ok maybe they dont have locos from that era yet, but the Class 50s are being progressed. I would have thought it would have been better to offer more livery variations that tooling. Are both LMS coaches and Pullmans necessary? ok they go with the Pacifics that are available first, but it does seem a lot of tooling and therefore costs

🤣 cat and pigeons spring to mind

I'd noticed these on sale and am tempted for a second rake at that price. Surprised the Intercity Swallow ones ended up discounted, I thought that would have been one of the more popular releases unless they over-estimated quantities

Did the RLOs not have loose seating rather than a normal 2+1 interior?

How about diversions that way from WCML engineering works? ... you could get all kinds of things passing by in that case

can you not order online with someone like Shapeways and get it delivered to you?

have they both got the same catalogue number #2543A? are they sold as a pair?

I presume its just standard in case its to be used as loco hauled stock

To be fair, I do think you've got a point here - to have 2 locos in stock for 3 months and not gotten through pre-orders for those in that time it does seem very odd. There must be a fair amount of money paid out to the factory for production that will need collecting in on dispatch. If it's taking this long I do wonder if they've taken on more than they can manage as a small team and potentially part time (I don't know if it's a full time job for them or not). Maybe distribution could do with being outsourced. There's no doubting the product quality is outstanding and will be worth waiting for, but it's frustrating when I'm waiting for more than these first two and looking forward to several pre-orders

That Class 81 looks great, how did you build that one? Was it a kit or a conversion?

I hope it wont be eventually, thats one thing that frustrates me with the models picked for production - the everyday that there was hundreds of getting overlooked for random niche or celebrity liveries.

Its bound to come out at some point, they will certainly have the tooling for it, but you could never be sure when. Keep an eye on the quarterly updates

think you've got that the wrong way round - 444 cars are almost the same length as 185, 450 vehicles are much shorter

Pretty much one of each ... Hornby released a rake

It was just a standard Mk4 set same as the Class 91s

what was the grid under the bufferbeam for?

There was a Mk2F FO which was a spare for the Edinburgh-Glasgow push-pulls in Scotrail livery. I think that would sell well, Scotrail liveried stuff normally does

a Gridski?????? were plans stolen from those build in Romania and thats the result?

I did buy one initally purely because its my favourite livery combination on the 87s, but I did think the red stripe mistake was shockingly poor and while Hornby offered to 'correct' it, I expect they would have gone darker where I think the bright red looked better and intended fixing it myself at a later date.

There's an absolute ton of livery variations that could be possible even just within intercity livery the early IC Executive variation with yellow cabsides to the cab windows and nameplates centrally on the bodyside on the stripes (e.g. 87012/87018) The Later IC Executive with the cabsides split between dark grey and yellow but yellow front up to the bottom of the cab windscreens Intercity Mainline with the livery coming right to the cab front and full yellow front But I suspect Hornby would be wanting to sell them for a higher price than the market will allow. I'd really have thought the 87009 would fly off the shelves even at full price, but a dodgy livery application and possibly jumper/MW box configuration may have limited that.

where would smoke from the low level have been visible at the high level?

I'd be pretty certain you'll struggle to find a Bachmann Class 90 much cheaper anywhere