Jump to content
 

Hobby

Members
  • Posts

    2,400
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Hobby

  1. I agree, but at the moment it's a free for all with e scooters, even in places where they are registered, accidents and even deaths caused by them are rising year on year, so do we just leave it be and hope for the best? Pavement riding is endemic, and that's no exaggeration so it'll get worse if something's not done.
  2. That's a good point, I do wonder how much of the "hype" we had around what was to come was driven by people clamoring for things and the likes of SK just saying things to "shut them up" (wrong phrase, I know, but you hopefully get the gist). Since he's gone it's been noticeable that we are starting to see more realistic estimates of delivery dates with a lot less set in stone. That's lead to some people saying it's a sign of the business failing but I wonder if instead it's a move towards better managing of expectations. Hopefully it's the latter and in my view it's no bad thing. Perhaps the HAA when it arrives, but my understanding is that the Class 66 is also an aim at the Continental TT market, so perhaps we're likely to see that in the Arnold range in due course, first of the trans continent locos (excluding the Kof!)...
  3. Some nice industrial 009 in the Light railways Stores/Narrow Planet range! Excluding the L&B RTR stock isn't most of the rest (Talyllyn and Ffestiniog RTR) industrial?! :) (Whilst I model in H0e, it's more mainline stuff, much of the industrial stock for it is a bit of a compromise (600mm gauge stock on 750/760mm gauge), I'd still be tempted to do 009 for industrial NG where i wanted to model 2ft gauge/600mm, but that's a personal preference, just not using Peco CrazyTrack or Mainline, code 60 or below looks much better.)
  4. The point I was making was not about what they preferred but what people "knew", many non railway people know what a Pullman is, they are well known as coaches for luxury travel, a teak coach, not. So selling a Pullman to a non enthusiast will be easier than a teak coach, regardless which looks the best (which is in the eye of the beholder anyhow), personally I prefer the Pullman, the only Gresley teak coach I saw was in blue/grey at Piccadilly in the 70s! Regards the market, they seem to have appealed to both markets judging by people's comments that they've bought some so perhaps they've managed it. What they haven't done is developed a fully coherent range, yet, but as i said it's early days and I'm not sure how they could have done it differently when launching a new scale. I see plenty of comments along the lines of "why didn't they make a "Class 30MT tender/tank loco with matching coaches and wagons", but it's one of those "damned if they do and damned if they don't" scenarios, if you ask 100 railway modellers what they'd like you'd get 100 different answers!
  5. Agreed! Though I do like the one with the small smoke deflectors for some reason! :)
  6. As it's only been going 12 months, perhaps? The range so far allows people to run passenger trains and small goods trains behind the 08. We know from that documentary on them that to take a loco from first idea to full launch takes a long time, in some cases many years. So it's a question of establishing the scale, which they've done, and then developing it, which from what they have said is coming up in the next 12/18 months they will do. OK it might not meet the standards of people who want exact scale 10ft wheelbase wagons (please let's not go down that route again, surely it's been done to death?), but for most of us it'll do... PS: Why isn't 009 on your list? Funnily enough that list looks just like what was available in the early days of 00, before more stock was added... As I said, give them chance, they've only just launched it! Regards "teak" stock, many people don't know there's a difference between the SR and LNER loco hauled Pullmans so would find the current range as acceptable to make up a model of the Yorkshire Pullman of the 30s, even though it might not actually be "right". PS: I do hope the wheelbase on that mineral wagon is correct, though!
  7. Who are certainly also pedestrians and in many cases cyclists as well... Perhaps it's the same people in all three categories that cause all the issues! EDIT: To WG's post!! 🤣 Over 30+ years of commuting into Brum I saw very few pedestrians running red lights, I could count the numbers of motorists on one hand, but I could guarantee at least one cyclist every week. Then we had the introduction of e scooters and e bikes in the past few years which made the whole experience much worse. I would say, however, that most of the miscreants were to be found within a few miles of the city centre, the rest of the commute was pretty tame, especially riding on pavements. I wonder if it's built up areas that encourage it? Luckily I've retired now so don't have to run the gauntlet except when one of the kids books a show at the Alex or Hippo! As an aside I wonder if cyclist and e scooter riders were made to show some form of ID like a motorist does whether we'd see the same level of law breaking?
  8. Looking outside the more "serious" forums such as this and away from specialised exhibitions I see lots of people who couldn't give two figs what their locos pull and whether they are "prototypically correct", they just play trains to enjoy themselves, that's why they have an oval or two of track and not much regard for how the prototype behaves. A lot of them, especially on the TT FB pages I'm on also seem to be new to the hobby, so perhaps Hornby have been more successful than you give them credit for! There's a whole world of model railways out there full of people who don't actually worry if the loco and coaches don't match and just enjoy running what they want... Sometimes I feel people can get too serious about what is, after all, just a hobby for fun, not life and death! :)
  9. I don't think it's a scattergun approach at all. They need to establish the scale and to do that they need to produce stuff that will sell in large numbers, not to people like you but to the general public which you might remember was their target market. So the choice of A1/3s and A4 is a very logical choice. An HST is the next big one due out and again a very well known train, even outside the railway enthusiast fraternity. They will, and have, sold to the existing model railway enthusiast, I'm one of many, but I've also seen a lot more new people to the hobby. As regards the anniversary and what they've done, we were told the discount was only for a year and people who joined later got charged 30 quid, so I suppose a free magazine every 3 months and being able to access the club pages where announcements will be made isn't bad. The way it was done wasn't brilliant I agree, but at least we are still getting something for nothing!
  10. I was thinking the latter, you're probably right about Arnold!
  11. 😂 Yes I had to look up toucan crossings as well, though I suspect that there's not too many around except in large cities? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toucan_crossing Puffins just seem to be an updated, pedestrian friendly, version of a Pelican crossing so you're safe there! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffin_crossing As far as us drivers are concerned they all have traffic lights so stop if the light is red!! Pelican - PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled Puffin - Pedestrian user-friendly intelligent Toucan - “two can” cross together (pedestrians and cyclists!)... Groan...
  12. In the main with British locos "modified" to fit on Continental chassis?! It's "interesting" looking at that early stock that comes up at swapmeets from Minitrix, etc! Imagine if Hornby had tried that with some Arnold locos...
  13. Agreed, in fact how would they get the 'bike across! In the UK Highway Codes 81 and 82 cover it. Do not ride across a pelican, puffin or zebra crossing. Dismount and wheel your cycle across (81). 82 covers Toucan Crossings - and says cyclists are allowed to ride across but must take care when pedestrians are also crossing.
  14. From what I have seen it was Social Media that blew everything up out of all proportion so people expected more than what was delivered. This is what caused all the froth, direct quote from the Hornby FB page: "Join us next week as we celebrate our first anniversary of Hornby TT:120! We have planned a jam-packed TT Takeover day and would love to share your Hornby TT:120 photos to mark the special day. Tag us in them, share them in the comments below, or email them to us at marketing@Hornby.com to be featured. It's been an amazing journey so far, and with lots more to look forward to, it's sure to be a brilliant day. Stay tuned for updates, and mark your calendars for an unforgettable week ahead!" As far as I'm concerned that was typical of FB hyperbole, and I suspect reflects the type of the people "write" the page for the company. For them all the posts on the day being about TT120, the double points day, free membership for another year (without the discount but with free magazines) and competition (for a prize worth £764!) would seem to have been exciting, for the rest of us who wanted something a little more concrete, perhaps not! But other than that i see nothing to say that things have changed and that TT120 is still proceeding as planned, I'm not sure what more they can do.
  15. I'm sure I've seen the figure of 14750 somewhere (summer club mag?), so as you say keeping it free (no obligations!) would seem a logical step, most people who are at all interested will, I suspect, continue their membership, especially as it doesn't cost them anything to do so.
  16. Really? Where do you get that impression from?
  17. Your evidence for that is where? Another way of reading what's happened is that the initial offers were to get the scale going, once it was (is!) there is no need for all the extras, especially ones like a paper magazine which would have been costing them a lot if money with no return. What they've done seems perfectly logical.
  18. They were in the Summer 2023 edition of the club magazine.
  19. Well, they have to get from one pavement to the other... ;)
  20. I think many of you were, there was no way it was going to be any of things you or others said, but Social Media went wild about it and, as usual, came back down to earth with a bump... I think I was one of the few that didn't expect anything special so wasn't disappointed! 😂
  21. I've just renewed. I suspect (guess!) that there will be some offers over the year to members but as its free anyhow it doesn't make any difference to me. I'll buy where I get the best deal, like most people.
  22. Much, I suspect, to their joint surprise, the two cultures can and have worked together extremely well, the Austin/Rover - Honda collaborations of the 80s and 90s spring to mind. AR were producing cars up to Honda's standards and proved a UK workforce could do it if given the chance.
  23. Quite! Regarding the second sentence, the majority of new cars sold in the UK top ten are in the £20 to £40k range, secondhand obviously lower than that so I have to disagree with you, perhaps best that I agree to differ with you and Ron so that the thread can get back on track (or off track bearing in mind half the line's been dumped!)? @jjb1970 I nearly mentioned MG (and other Chinese manufacturers as the ones who are pushing forward affordable EVs in that last post. I am on a Motability FB page which looks at EVs and much of my views on EVs and Hybrids are formed listening to people like me who have them and use them on a daily basis. The MGs seem to be, on the whole, fairly reliable and people seem to like them, they were one of the first to do affordable reasonable distance batteries as well. Fingers crossed they keep developing!
×
×
  • Create New...