Robin Brasher

I was comparing my Hornby Flying Scotsman with my Graham Farish Flying Scotsman. Another comparison would be my Dapol A4 Union of South Africa compared with my Hornby Silver King.

The first TT:120 layout I have seen at an exhibition is the Hatley St George layout at the Lymington Model Railway Exhibition on Saturday 30 March 2024. This layout received a lot of favourable comments. I thought that the locomotives were better looking than the Graham Farish N gauge locomotives and they ran better. I also thought the Hornby points were more realistic than the N gauge set-track points. I think that TT:120 scale is the largest scale that you can take to an exhibition in one piece in a medium size hatchback, Once you go on to 00 gauge you need at least two boards and it takes me ages to align the track when taking an 00 gauge layout to an exhibition. My main interest is Southern but I have just made use of the existing north eastern region locomotives and Mk1 coaches for my own layout. I am still unashamedly playing with trains rather than counting rivets because that is what I and some visitors to exhibitions enjoy.

It costs Hornby roughly the same amount of money to produce a TT:120 model as an 00 model yet their TT:120 Flying Scotsman is considerably cheaper than their 00 model. The TT:120 Flying Scotsman is a high quality model and Hornby are selling it at a low price to entice new entrants into the scale. As TT:120 becomes more popular I expect Hornby will put its prices up and their new HS 125 with just a power car and a dummy trailer costs over £200 which will not appeal to budget-conscious modellers.

Hornby's latest version of the 'Flying Scotsman' as R30208A as a restored gold plated A3 in LNER lined green with two tenders as it appeared in the United States is probably the most expensive locomotive that Hornby has ever produced. The price is £534.99.

I wonder what I wrote. The Railway Modeller used to publish a lot of my articles about the Swanage Railway in the 1970s but now my articles appear in the Hornby Railway Collector and the Swanage Railway Magazine.

Hornby does need to improve its marketing of the Corgi brand. I was not aware that Corgi are still producing the Vanguard range although I did know about the Corgi Model Club models which, I understand, have been a huge success. The Corgi Model Club marketing does not suit me as I am only interested in a few models which I like to cherry pick. If you join the model club you get a huge discount on the first models and then you receive a model each month at around 60% of the full price whereas if you just buy the models you are interested in you know that other people are paying a lot less. I thought that at around £34 plus postage the models were rather expensive compared with a discounted price of around £11 my Oxford Diecast Rolls Royce from Hattons but I understand that £34 is the going rate for diecast cars now.

Some of the Corgi Toys are useful accessories for 0-gauge layouts. I have heard that the recent Corgi replicas of the Corgi Toys of the 1950s and 1960s have been very successful,

The preserved 01 is going to visit the Swanage Railway from 22 March 2024 so I will be able to run it on my model of the Swanage Railway

I bought a set of three as I am modelling the Swanage Railway and I wanted to make sure that the Co-op did not run out of bananas. I should think that most people would just want one banana van so it would be in Accurascale's interest to sell them individually as well.

Thank you for the advice about removing the wheels. You will be pleased to see that my banana vans have reached Evercreech Junction on the Somerset and Dorset Railway.

Thank you for the information. I made the goods shed from a Metcalfe kit which is no longer available and I have made some Kingsway cardboard kits. I will look out for the others.

All this talk about Terriers has encouraged me to buy a couple from Rails together with a Peco ST-701 starter track set. There is some variety in performance. My Southern Terrier is quieter than my British Railways version and has brighter firebox glow. Surprisingly the British Railways version is faster than my Southern version. After I had run in the British Railways Terrier I put a drop of oil on the connecting rods and axles which was sooner than recommended in the instructions. This is my first two-rail 0 gauge electric train. I started in 0 gauge about 70 years ago with Hornby clockwork and more recently I ran Airfix and Darstaed course scale. O gauge benefits with a huge range of model cars and vehicles but there are not many buildings to choose from. There are lips on the tables at Winterborne Kingston village hall so I put some card down under the track to provide a level surface.

My Southern banana vans arrived last Thursday. I was impressed with the packaging and leaflet. I have not had a chance to run them on my Southern layout yet but I took them to Winterborne Kingston village hall on Friday and they ran behind some friends' locomotives on their test track. Although the locomotives don't match the era for the wagons I was able to see that the wagons ran faultlessly. I also displayed them on a short length of ballasted track.

Still available on Rails site.

Sold out of all types of banana vans on their website. I ordered mine from Hattons on 14 December 2022. I had no idea that Hattons would cease trading before the banana vans came out. I cancelled my Hattons order and reordered from Accurascale on 12 January 2024 as Acurascale told me that they are not taking pre-orders redirected from Hattons, This means that I am at the back of the queue. Accurascale took the money from my credit card on 12 January 2024. The vans are being despatched now but I have not heard when or if they were going to be delivered. I am surprised that they have all sold out. It looks like Hornby have left an open goal by not producing Southern banana vans of that quality in the first place.

I was touched by my message from Richard Davies. It is the first time any model shop has thanked me for my custom and probably the first time anyone has thanked me for doing anything. I started ordering items from Hattons in August1966 when I ordered six Hornby Dublo Pullman cars which I have still got. They arrived while I was on holiday in the Isle of Wight with my 0'level results as my post had been diverted to my holiday address. Over the last 20 years I have been keeping my Hattons receipts which amount to 100. I was surprised by how many model cars I had ordered. I have also kept a couple of their Best Sellers Brochures.

I am very impressed with the Dapol Mk1 coaches. The interior is so well detailed that I feel that I could walk into the coach and sit down. I will have to buy some 1/43 scale passengers.

Does anyone remember the opening sequence of the Six Five Special Steaming Down the Line on BBC1 on 16 February 1956? The opening sequence was 'Coronation' heading off on an express train.

Rails are now advertising themselves as UK's Largest Railway Supplier.

Thank you for the information about exports. You may be interested to read that the chairman of the Hornby Railway Collectors' Association has written about Hattons closing down in the February journal. As with me his interest in Hornby Dublo was reignited with items purchased from Hattons 50 years ago. My first purchases from Hattons were a set of Hornby Dublo Pullman coaches which were considerably cheaper than the Pullmans from my local model railway shop even allowing for postage. I had been shopping from Hattons ever since until Hattons had problems with Bachmann and Hornby. Then I pre-ordered my models from the Swanage Railway shop but continued to use Hattons for existing items like 1/43 scale Oxford cars and Dapol goods wagons. I also used Hattons for selling model railway items and they offered me more money than Rails or local traders,

Following my recent experience I looked very carefully at the price before buying the Hornby Magazine and I was delighted to find it was not a special issue and did not have a DVD attached. Instead it had some interesting articles about a southern region layout called Redbridge Wharf, Dawlish, the Great Gathering and a show guide.

My final order this morning was a circle of R609 Hornby 00 gauge radius 3 track. Hattons stock level is now 3,008.

I wonder if I will get a 75% reduction on a circle of Hornby R609 3rd radius double curves if I wait to 1, 45 pm on 31 January.

Here are some pictures of the Wimborne layout which has been exhibited for several years. I am modelling the Swanage Railway and similar trains went to Wimborne. This layout runs trains from the 1950s to 1964 which is one of my favourite periods. I also liked the Lego and Thomas the Tank engine layouts.

The queue had probably died down a bit by the time I arrived at 10:46 and I thought the people collecting the money were very efficient. Model railway shows seem to have stopped issuing discounts for senior citizens a few years ago as most visitors fall into that category. I went straight to the canteen after arriving and I thought the food was very good and the whole exhibition was very well organised.