Hornby 2019 Speculation

[gwrrob]

That's the ones I was thinking of Miss P.

 

Close coupled or conventional, just like the B sets then.

 

Keith

 

An interesting thread here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/70103-the-suburban-b-set-coaches/

[SweenyTod1]

No-one has mentioned the Tyneside electric stock yet, so I thought I would.

 

M & GN locos would appeal to me as would other ex-GE locos not yet produced,e.g. the E4's sister, an F6 tank. GN of SR locos are very pretty with their different lining.

Boring re-runs are more likely, so when we wake up from this dream, same old s................................. Stuff!  What were you thinking?

 

Tod

[Miss Prism]

Some bow-ended B sets were close coupled, but AFAIK none of the flat enders were.

 

E116 were flat-ender close-coupled.

[lochlongside]

I get the impression that what you would like is just the old Airfix/Dapol/Hornby body with a better chassis under it?  

 

That's certainly the only route that might bring it in on your desired price point. An all-new version would inevitably run into, or very close to, three figures, just as the Hatton's model did.

 

Are there any old Airfix 14xx that still work? The last of mine died nearly a quarter century ago. I currently run one of the Hatton's/DJM breed and an old and got-at Dapol one.  

Yes I,ve got one and a 2nd awaiting new gear fitting from Branchlines  (thank you for reminding me to get on with It !! - its in spares box )

[melmerby]

 

Are there any old Airfix 14xx that still work? The last of mine died nearly a quarter century ago. I currently run one of the Hatton's/DJM breed and an old and got-at Dapol one.  

Yes

I have two Airfix originals both S/H bought yonks ago and still running reasonably well.

Keeping the pickups clear of crud is essential, I soaked both sets in alcohol (no not beer!) to remove all traces of solidified grease and they work as intended, nice & springy.

 

Pity about the size of motor!

I wondered about something smaller like a small Mashima until the Hattons one arrived.

 

Keith

[The Johnster]

I partially hid the motor in mine by modelling the sliding shutters in the closed position, thus reducing the opening in to the cab.  These shutters were fitted on the inside of the cab reveal on the smaller GW tank engines, outside on the bigger ones, so it is an easy job to make them out of plasticard and glue them inside the cab.  Fully slid back, they came level with the cab door and were a boon in winter crosswinds if the loco was standing in an exposed spot; no doubt they still are on preserved examples.  

 

Doing this means that there is less of a space to see the offending motor through and the amount of light by which you can see it is lessened as well; a crew member looking out above the door helps further and distract's the viewer's attention.  I pulled the same stunt on a Mainline 57xx that I converted to 8750 with an old K's cab; this body is still in existence and running on my layout, but now has a modern Bachmann chassis which includes backhead detail.  My Airfix 14xx ran very well for some time but eventually succumbed to the dreaded plunger pickup problem, and was binned years ago, and I have no need for a 14xx on my current layout.

 

That's right, folks, you read that correctly, a GW BLT which does not feature any 14xx!

[tomparryharry]

I partially hid the motor in mine by modelling the sliding shutters in the closed position, thus reducing the opening in to the cab.  These shutters were fitted on the inside of the cab reveal on the smaller GW tank engines, outside on the bigger ones, so it is an easy job to make them out of plasticard and glue them inside the cab.  Fully slid back, they came level with the cab door and were a boon in winter crosswinds if the loco was standing in an exposed spot; no doubt they still are on preserved examples.  

 

Doing this means that there is less of a space to see the offending motor through and the amount of light by which you can see it is lessened as well; a crew member looking out above the door helps further and distract's the viewer's attention.  I pulled the same stunt on a Mainline 57xx that I converted to 8750 with an old K's cab; this body is still in existence and running on my layout, but now has a modern Bachmann chassis which includes backhead detail.  My Airfix 14xx ran very well for some time but eventually succumbed to the dreaded plunger pickup problem, and was binned years ago, and I have no need for a 14xx on my current layout.

 

That's right, folks, you read that correctly, a GW BLT which does not feature any 14xx!

Get another pannier on the job. You know you want to... Apart from the Penygraig branch, and Llantrisant-Pontypridd, I can't think of a 48xx on the South Wales coalfield. Broadly speaking, the South Wales coalfield is bordered by the M4 motorway in the south, and the A465 heads of the valleys road.

 

Bucolic? Well, I did see some grass once, Cardiff Arms Park. "We used to run trips to look at it....."

 

Cheers,

 

Ian.

[dana]

expanded junior range

 

tunnel and train station  are cardboard

 

 

re package some of these for the line

 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hornby-R657-Gauge-Girder-Bridge/dp/B000PR56IO

https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/shop/new-for-2018/mid-year-releases/station-over-roof-kit.htm

https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/shop/layout-scenery-additions/bridges/platform-subway-section-plastic.html

 

the competion

 

marklin my world airport range

 

 

marklin my world

 

found on amazon

https://www.amazon.ca/Train-Set-Tracks-Battery-Operated/dp/B009P540O8/ref=sr_1_5?s=toys&ie=UTF8&qid=1545465847&sr=1-5&keywords=battery+train+sets

 

[Hroth]

The Junior Express Train requires a lot of development, its almost like a clockwork train in the sense that you have to catch it to turn it off and it can't become part of a larger system.  Hornby needs to address that or just drop the idea.

 

Compared with the Marklin offerings, its very crude. 

 

Compared with other plastic tracked battery trains, its overpriced.  I saw a "Christmas Tree" set in a bargain* store for £10 earlier in the month.  It had a battery operated loco and tender (with lights and sound), two coaches, a lot of plastic track, including two points, plastic trees and a station.  The only disadvantages were that it was approximately S gauge and you had to catch it to stop it!

 

* Retail chain, not secondhand junk.  They have the sets every year.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Hroth

[MGR Hooper!]

The Junior Express Train requires a lot of development, its almost like a clockwork train in the sense that you have to catch it to turn it off and it can't become part of a larger system. Hornby needs to address that or just drop the idea.

 

Compared with the Marklin offerings, its very crude.

 

Compared with other plastic tracked battery trains, its overpriced. I saw a "Christmas Tree" set in a bargain* store for £10 earlier in the month. It had a battery operated loco and tender (with lights and sound), two coaches, a lot of plastic track, including two points, plastic trees and a station. The only disadvantages were that it was approximately S gauge and you had to catch it to stop it!

 

* Retail chain, not secondhand junk. They have the sets every year.

Some parents will go for the "brand name" over the possibility of actually comparing sets and so on and so forth.

 

The Hornby Junior range will do better if they add more to it. Basic things like different trains and so on. I know the Hornby International ranges already have added new wagons and coaches.

 

Hornby should add things like the Flying Scotsman and Mallard and some of the modern stock like a Pendolino, Javelin or HST look alike.

 

Kids will quickly identify these and instantly ask for a set like that over a generic £10 one.

 

Most kids won't grumble about picking up the train to stop it. Modellers will, not kids.

[Hroth]

The generic £10 one was more a price-point example.  Compared to Marklin, the Hornby offering has less play value, once you've got over the excitement of watching it go around the oval there's not much else to do.  You can't put passengers or other toys in/on it, you can't make it go backwards.  You could stage accidents, but thats about it...

 

As I said, it needs a lot of development.  Hornby brought it out for the UK market last year.

 

Its not changed, no new trains, no accessories.  Hornby have just reduced the price slightly.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Hroth

[Robin Brasher]

Some 4-wheeled brake coaches so that engines can run round the Hornby 4-wheeled trains produced since 1976 safely.

[Legend]

I said I wasn’t going to join in this , but I’ve fallen at the first hurdle!

 

On the Bachmann thread somoeone suggested Transpennine mk5s . I’d rather Hornby did them , I also think there’s more chance . They will probably be less expensive and arrive quicker. Really don’t want DCC gubbins on the DVT , although I appreciate there are those that will. Best plan is to make a base model with ability to upgrade for those that want it . Hornby have made a Calder Valley 110 before , so it shows they are prepared to model items that ran on limited routes up north . Only problem , of course , is they don’t have a 68 to accompany it. Not sure if they can apply to make one . Is there exclusivity with Dapol ? I have a Dapol 68 and it’s a fantastic model , if not the best D&E model I have , but Dapol won’t reach the market that Hornby has.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Legend

[Pandora]

I was told by a person with considerable practical knowledge of model railway manufacturing.  Total Production runs of 55,000 units or greater including variations (current or future releases) is a parameter for the viability of a new model by Hornby.  Accepting this as a fact must constrain the agenda for viable models from Hornby

[John M Upton]

It would be nice if Hornby rummaged around in a dusty forgotten box and found the tooling for the round non sandbox front splashers for the M7. Issued just the once and then never seen again.

 

Instead it will be yet another long frame push/pull I expect.

Edited December 22, 2018 by John M Upton

[Dunsignalling]

I was told by a person with considerable practical knowledge of model railway manufacturing.  Total Production runs of 55,000 units or greater including variations (current or future releases) is a parameter for the viability of a new model by Hornby.  Accepting this as a fact must constrain the agenda for viable models from Hornby

I can't see them selling 55,000 of anything if that were a single run, but that's presumably an overall total spread over maybe eight or ten years.

 

Given that most locos released in recent years would seem (from observation, Hornby only give numbers for "limited editions") to have consisted of 2,500 to 5,000 pieces, so on that criterion, they can only consider prototypes of which between eleven and twenty-two variations can be made.

 

OK, in most cases, that's just going to be a change of identity every year or so, but it carries a real danger of locking in the practice of producing follow-on models too soon after the initial releases, which has forced Hornby into panic clearance sales far too often in recent years. 

 

John

Edited December 22, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

... Total Production runs of 55,000 units or greater including variations (current or future releases) is a parameter for the viability of a new model by Hornby.  Accepting this as a fact must constrain the agenda for viable models from Hornby

 If we accept that this is correct, it is nevertheless only a planning number for the business as presently constituted.  It simply begs questions in the style of 'what is the market volume outlook over the short to medium term future?' and  'what actions are required to reduce that volume requirement?'.

[Dunsignalling]

I said I wasn’t going to join in this , but I’ve fallen at the first hurdle!

 

On the Bachmann thread somoeone suggested Transpennine mk5s . I’d rather Hornby did them , I also think there’s more chance . They will probably be less expensive and arrive quicker. Really don’t want DCC gubbins on the DVT , although I appreciate there are those that will. Best plan is to make a base model with ability to upgrade for those that want it . Hornby have made a Calder Valley 110 before , so it shows they are prepared to model items that ran on limited routes up north . Only problem , of course , is they don’t have a 68 to accompany it. Not sure if they can apply to make one . Is there exclusivity with Dapol ? I have a Dapol 68 and it’s a fantastic model , if not the best D&E model I have , but Dapol won’t reach the market that Hornby has.

If anybody really wants a model of a Class 68, they will find the Dapol one. Hornby won't make one because Dapol will already have satisfied a big chunk of the potential market with a product Hornby probably couldn't better.

 

Internet searches make it easy for the least informed newcomer to access even obscure information that, in times gone by, would have been tucked away in the small ads at the back of the Railway Modeller. 

 

The idea that Hornby is the only significant producer of UK-outline model trains ceased to be even half-true almost fifty years ago. Even if "outsiders" still start off thinking so, the misconception will be blown away as soon as they hit a link to any of the big retailers' websites.

 

Bachmann have a long history of making coaches that will inevitably run more often with locos made by others than their own. Hornby don't. 

 

John

Edited December 22, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[Robin Brasher]

I was told by a person with considerable practical knowledge of model railway manufacturing.  Total Production runs of 55,000 units or greater including variations (current or future releases) is a parameter for the viability of a new model by Hornby.  Accepting this as a fact must constrain the agenda for viable models from Hornby

Tri-ang's most popular locomotive was the black Princess. Tri-ang sold over 720,000 R50 black Princesses according to page 129 of Tri-ang Railways The Story of Rovex Volume 1 1950-1965 so a total production run of 55,000 is possible. I thought that each batch of Hornby's current locomotives is between 1,000 and 2,000 units so making 55,000 seems optimistic.

[nnich]

It would be nice if Hornby rummaged around in a dusty forgotten box and found the tooling for the round non sandbox front splashers for the M7. Issued just the once and then never seen again.

Instead it will be yet another long frame push/pull I expect.

Absolutely agree. And never issued in BR livery at that. A surprising omission

Norm

[Flying Pig]

If anybody really wants a model of a Class 68, they will find the Dapol one.

It is, for instance, the first link returned when I google 'Class 68 model'.

 

I for one hope that Hornby do not get bogged down trying to develop a childrens toy range. They haven't been primarily a toy company for a very long time and past forays out of their core 00 gauge model railway activity have mostly been unprofitable wastes of resources, which they emphatically cannot afford at the moment.

[Steamport Southport]

I get the impression that what you would like is just the old Airfix/Dapol/Hornby body with a better chassis under it?  

 

That's certainly the only route that might bring it in on your desired price point. An all-new version would inevitably run into, or very close to, three figures, just as the Hatton's model did.

 

Are there any old Airfix 14xx that still work? The last of mine died nearly a quarter century ago. I currently run one of the Hatton's/DJM breed and an old and got-at Dapol one.  

 

Yes. One of the first releases from back in 1978ish. Nothing wrong with it.

 

It was the third loco I got as a kid. Holden 101, Hornby 8750, 1466 and then Kneller Hall.

 

For some reason my parents thought I wanted GWR things....

 

 

 

Jason

[The Johnster]

Get another pannier on the job. You know you want to... Apart from the Penygraig branch, and Llantrisant-Pontypridd, I can't think of a 48xx on the South Wales coalfield. Broadly speaking, the South Wales coalfield is bordered by the M4 motorway in the south, and the A465 heads of the valleys road.

 

Bucolic? Well, I did see some grass once, Cardiff Arms Park. "We used to run trips to look at it....."

 

Cheers,

 

Ian.

 

Get thee behind me, Satan.  And push...

 

No. i'm gonna be a good boy and not buy any more locos until replacement time for the Limbach 94xx (so not for a while, then).  2019 is scheduled to be the 'year of the coach'; my passenger stock is hardly representative of the Tondu valleys, and a series of Comets are planned to eventually provide a flat ended B set, a 2 coach local, and A43/4 auto trailers.  I'm hoping for a diagram N auto trailer from Dapol but might end up having a go at scratchbuilding one.  Rue d'Etropal of this parish does 3D printed bodies for them, which sorts out the panelling.

 

You can't have too many panniers, but if you're a poor pensioner like me, you can arguably have enough.  I have a 2721, 57xx, 8750 x 2, and the Limbach 94xx, half my loco stud.  

[The Johnster]

It is, for instance, the first link returned when I google 'Class 68 model'.

 

I for one hope that Hornby do not get bogged down trying to develop a childrens toy range. They haven't been primarily a toy company for a very long time and past forays out of their core 00 gauge model railway activity have mostly been unprofitable wastes of resources, which they emphatically cannot afford at the moment.

Or at least do it as a separately budgeted range, so that it's failure impacts less on the 'proper' models.

[PaulG]

With a number of newly released GER locos, B12, D16, J15, and N7 and J70  to come early in 2019, (plus hints of a J69), it would be nice to see some GER carriages, many of which lasted until the end of steam on the GE Section.

 

Over 200 NER carriages were sent to the GE Section and GCR carriages were also common, so these would also be welcome to balance the Gresley/Thompson/BR Mk 1 carriage stock seen on most East Anglian based layout (including my Colchester layout!).

 

Paul

Edited December 22, 2018 by PaulG