Hornby Railways Catalogue and Box Art - An Advent Calendar Lookback

[New Haven Neil]

Found it:

 

Class D No.44 was rebuilt to an 0-6-0.....

[APOLLO]

On 12/12/2020 at 13:50, Steamport Southport said:

 

Anyone notice how short that shunter is?

 

He must be smaller than 4 foot tall!

 

 

Jason

 

Now THIS is a shunter !!

 

 

Not in the Tri-ang catalogue unfortunately !!

 

Brit15

[Nearholmer]

Never trust anybody in a red baseball cap.

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Not just red ones?

 
 

[Nearholmer]

OK then: especially red ones.

[RyanN91]

As it is the 40th Anniversary of this fantastic 1980 layout I thought It would be very "APT" of me to say Hornby Railways: Welcome to Our World!   anyone notice the pun? 

[JaymzHatstand]

2 hours ago, RyanN91 said:

As it is the 40th Anniversary of this fantastic 1980 layout I thought It would be very "APT" of me to say Hornby Railways: Welcome to Our World!   anyone notice the pun? 

 

My favourite catalogue! I always wanted to build that layout myself! Operationally, it's not really that great, but boy, it was superb for the catalogue, and a young imagination!

 

Cheers

 

J

[Legend]

6 hours ago, RyanN91 said:

As it is the 40th Anniversary of this fantastic 1980 layout I thought It would be very "APT" of me to say Hornby Railways: Welcome to Our World!   anyone notice the pun? 

Yeah the brilliant 1980 catalogue . Welcome to our world indeed. The layout , or at least everything to the right of the Flying Scotsman  was in the 5th edition track plans book . The big station and ore unloading set was added  for the catalogue . Agreed , operationally not brilliant eg where do the trains from that big station go? But it was inspiring and showed the range well . Apparently they had a few enquiries wanting to buy completed layouts.  Very reminiscent  of the layouts in the Amalgamation leaflet , 67 ,73 ,74 and the 1976 catalogues  . We just don;t seem to have that flair in modern catalogues , some close up dioramas in some , but not the grand layouts of old. 

 

I think you can also spot locos that didn’t quite make it . The Ivatt 2mt coming out of the marshalling yard was in LMS livery for instance . 
 

An exciting year . A revamped King , new B17, Fowler 2-6-4T , 2721 open cab Pannier, Caley Pug and of course the APT . We now know , from Pat Hammonds latest Hornby book , brought out as part of the 100 year celebrations, that an 87 and J36 had been planned , but were parked in favour of the APT . The whole range now had a paint finish . 
 

I remember having a go ballasting my layout for the first time as a direct result of this catalogue . They had a tie up with woodland Scenics at the time . 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Legend

[Nearholmer]

Without wishing to be too unkind, that layout looks utterly "furry" and scruffy compared with the stern engineering purity of HD illustrations.

 

Noticing that some of our train-sets have 0-6-0T locos has reminded me that Hornby did have a stab at providing an 0-6-0T for each of the Big Four at around this period, I think exploiting the Jinty under-pinnings: Jinty; Pannier Tank; J83; and, the E2 that I think morphed into Thomas fairly quickly.

 

The E2 was another one I had a go at, converting it to EM, but I didn't sort-out the body discrepancies. It was an odd choice really, because they weren't exactly a big class with wide application, and there were build variations even in the few. Barely ever used on passenger trains either!

[Legend]

3 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

The E2 was another one I had a go at, converting it to EM, but I didn't sort-out the body discrepancies. It was an odd choice really, because they weren't exactly a big class with wide application, and there were build variations even in the few. Barely ever used on passenger trains either!

 

 Yeah but I bet the new products decision went along the lines of , it'll be cheap to produce because it uses the Jinty chassis and its brown, and we don't have a brown engine in the range . 

[BernardTPM]

Perhaps not so very cheap given it had the separate handrails, dome, Westinghouse pump, brake handle, etc. The really cheap to make J83 hd been discontinued by 1980.

Two useful new A.B. wagons for 'Modern Image' too, the VDA van and HAA Merry-Go-Round hopper, and they also made an LBSCR brake van to go with the E2.

Edited December 16, 2020 by BernardTPM

[laurenceb]

4 hours ago, Legend said:

 

 

I think you can also spot locos that didn’t quite make it . The Ivatt 2mt coming out of the marshalling yard was in LMS livery for instance . 
 

 

At least one got out into the wild. Our local evening paper held a competition with Hornby & one of the prizes on display was the LMS liveried Ivat

[Steamport Southport]

4 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Without wishing to be too unkind, that layout looks utterly "furry" and scruffy compared with the stern engineering purity of HD illustrations.

 

Noticing that some of our train-sets have 0-6-0T locos has reminded me that Hornby did have a stab at providing an 0-6-0T for each of the Big Four at around this period, I think exploiting the Jinty under-pinnings: Jinty; Pannier Tank; J83; and, the E2 that I think morphed into Thomas fairly quickly.

 

The E2 was another one I had a go at, converting it to EM, but I didn't sort-out the body discrepancies. It was an odd choice really, because they weren't exactly a big class with wide application, and there were build variations even in the few. Barely ever used on passenger trains either!

 

Worth bearing in mind the SR didn't really have many 0-6-0Ts and most were tiny or in small classes of about 10. Even the large classes such as the Terriers which had fifty originally had mostly gone as they sold many of them.

 

So the only large 0-6-0Ts were the E2 and R1 (which had been done previously). It was quite accurate for Hornby at the time.  Pity it was ditched for that blue thing.....

 

 

The J83 still had the old chassis with the cab full of motor and was binned to be replaced by the much better J52. They reissued it a few years ago with the new chassis and with a bit of a make over.

 

https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/railroad-lner-0-6-0t-class-j83.html

 

 

Jason

[LNWR18901910]

Day 16

The way of the future...or the way of the past, more like. This was the early days of photo editing, but it looks pretty impressive for its time, I suppose. Let's travel back to the eighties when you're slapping high-fives with Pee-Wee Herman, travelling in time and space with Doctor Who, jamming to Kylie Minogue, eating a bowlful of Mr T cereal, playing on your NES games console, and - wait, all that's before my time, so let's look at this.

 

This APT was supposed to be the way of the future and screams "Modern Train, people!" The APT is at an angle because of the curve and it looks very impressive at certain angles. At first impression, it looks like it's going over itself or maybe a railway bridge the other class member is going under. And what's this? 150 MPH Scale Speed? Surely it can't be that insanely faster or you'll need a time machine attachment to it to make it go faster at 88mph! On a model, it's kinda nice (thanks for bringing it back again, Hornby, kudos to you and all), but in real-life, well...from what I heard, it was a failed experiment that tried hard but failed miserably. We all know why...

 

The BR Class 43 HST was the real way of the future even if it didn't grow in bunches on trees in the jungle nor did they sometimes secretly contain killer spiders when shipped overseas. I'm not what you call a modern diesel expert, but I'll leave you with some 80s colours. Stare at them long enough and you'll grow a mullet.

N/B: Special thanks to those who liked and agreed with my last post and special thanks to Nearholmer and Steamport Southport for sharing some facts and research, I agree with you guys. Sorry I didn't have much to say on this one but I will on the next advent post - not long until Christmas! How about that? Anyway, see you tomorrow with another post!

[SD85]

This is a good nostalgia trip. I especially like the 39th edition of the catalogue as that was my first Hornby one and I spent ages looking through it at the time. I also remember the 1998 one which was when Hornby started to refine their products a bit and reintroduce some of the old Mainline/Airfix tooling they had acquired as a prelude to their transformation from a mainly train set oriented company into one supplying precision models.

[robmcg]

I have never bought catalogues between 1960 and 2007 but can well relate to the nostalgia old catalogue art can arouse. 

 

I slept with a Mecano and Hornby Trains catalogue under my pillow as Christmas approached in the 1950s, it included Hornby Dublo, A5 landscape format matt full colour, oh the joy!  One year I received Meccano Set No.2. Another, around 1961, a 2-rail S1 0-6-0 tank engine, such detail! 

 

For me the Terence Cuneo art was beautiful in later catalogues as have been mentioned here, and a train lover from the 50s and 60s his painting really was and is superb.

 

I don't think I quite understand these moden trains.

[Steamport Southport]

Looking at the APT at Crewe it still looks more modern than the Pendolinos and others going past.

 

We all know what stopped it. A government that was not interested, the media complaining about wasting taxpayers money and ASLEF and the NUR playing politics. They all put their oars in to stop it going ahead.

 

Just look at what we could have had!

 

Steven Duhig from Wiki.

 

 

Jason

[Nearholmer]

Rob - would I be right in thinking that you now produce some of the art for the catalogues?

 

The APT, eh?

 

By the time it got to pre-service operational trials, I had been working for BR for several years, and we all got the chance to apply for tickets to ride on it as "dummy passengers". Somewhere, I've still got my Glasgow to London ticket, a rather large pale-blue cardboard affair with the APT logo on it. A lot earlier, 1974 or 75 I think, I remember a sneak visit to Old Oak Common with my brother, to see APT-E and the HSDT together in the long shed near the turntable. We got a guided tour of stuff we didn't really understand from a technician on board APT, which was pretty good going considering that we were casual trespassers!

 

There was a lot more than politics to the cancellation of APT though. There have been books written about it as an example of how an innovation project can go wrong.

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Steamport Southport]

10 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Rob - would I be right in thinking that you now produce some of the art for the catalogues?

 

The APT, eh?

 

By the time it got to pre-service operational trials, I had been working for BR for several years, and we all got the chance to apply for tickets to ride on it as "dummy passengers". Somewhere, I've still got my Glasgow to London ticket, a rather large pale-blue cardboard affair with the APT logo on it. A lot earlier, 1974 or 75 I think, I remember a sneak visit to Old Oak Common with my brother, to see APT-E and the HSDT together in the long shed near the turntable. We got a guided tour of stuff we didn't really understand from a technician on board APT, which was pretty good going considering that we were casual trespassers!

 

There was a lot more than politics to the cancellation of APT though. There have been books written about it as an example of how an innovation project can go wrong.

 

 

 

 

Ah. But if you haven't got the political will and public support to invest you don't get APTs you get these instead....

 

[Nearholmer]

I remember seeing the development for that going on at Derby Tech Centre too - it was a sort of child of work to design LWB freight-wagons with suspension that didn't cause them to derail at high speeds, and the development shop was full of chopped-up freight wagons.

 

More of a development in parallel with APT, to serve a different purpose, than an "instead", though.

 

One thing I'd say both shared in common was a want to "break the mould" of old railway thinking, which was necessary and commendable in many ways, but led to a re-learning of old lessons the hard way because of an unwillingness to listen to experience.

 

Anyway, the result was horrible, both in reality and in model form. Does anyone get dewy-eyed and nostalgic about Pacers, as they became?

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Being named after a chewy mint sweet, Pacers...

 

 

OK, I suppose it was a brand name to tie in with the Sprinters, and Super Sprinters.

 

 

Those 142s originally destined for the West Country were named Skippers...and painted in a version of chocolate and cream livery...

 

The long fixed wheelbase of them didn’t agree with the sharp curves of the lines they were put on...

 

Didn’t the instruction sheet specify the minimum radius?  

 

 

Was it the Class 158 that reminded me of the Budd Railcars? (But two car units)

[robmcg]

37 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Rob - would I be right in thinking that you now produce some of the art for the catalogues?

 

....

 

 

 

Well I have done bits and pieces for Hornby over the years including some which was to go in a recent catalogue but they changed their mind at the last minute to a more art deco style for a frontispiece.

 

There's no accounting for taste!

 

I don't mind at all, I do all my pictures for pleasure.

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

Looking at the APT at Crewe it still looks more modern than the Pendolinos and others going past.

 

We all know what stopped it. A government that was not interested, the media complaining about wasting taxpayers money and ASLEF and the NUR playing politics. They all put their oars in to stop it going ahead.

 

Just look at what we could have had!

 

Steven Duhig from Wiki.

 

 

Jason

 

At least the HST emerged from the fiasco, otherwise who knows what the traveling public would have had inflicted upon them...

 

2 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Ah. But if you haven't got the political will and public support to invest you don't get APTs you get these instead....

 

 

For my sins, I once had to commute between Liverpool and Wigan and as I arrived at platform 4 (probably) I would pray that there would be a conventional DMU waiting to take me onwards, to be disappointed too often by one of the above hell boxes, as if I had upset some Humane Mikado...

 

[RyanN91]

19 hours ago, JaymzHatstand said:

 

My favourite catalogue! I always wanted to build that layout myself! Operationally, it's not really that great, but boy, it was superb for the catalogue, and a young imagination!

 

Cheers

 

J

It certainly is one of my favourite catalogues although this was published 11 years before I was even born!  , I love the layout of the catalogue  how all the family are engaged around the fire looking through various Train sets, (pictured No king Size set as this was a 1980 one-off a fantastic huge set! with everything to start off! ignore the Electric Starter Set that was released in 1981!) The girl holding up the BR MK3 coach from the Inter-City 125 Set. To kitchen table layouts with a medium sized oval with a siding with the dad placing the wagons onto the track to this full layout! and it is full of classic Hornby gems released from the 1960s, late 1970s and early 1980s Hornby really did produce some common features across all of Great Britain's railways in 1980 including   , BR Class 08 first introduced in the 1960s,  BR Class 25 introduced in 1977 ( mine is the 2001 one), BR Class 29 in 1978 (mine is the 1999 or 2000 one), Class 35 (Type 3) Hymek which Hornby first introduced way back in 1966! ( mine is the 2004 weathered issue in BR Blue)  (even as an Assembly Pack D.I.Y set between 1968 and 1970). One of my favourites (come to think it everyone is actually! )  the BR Class 37 ( the 2017 BR Railfreight TTS Sound fitted I have) which Hornby first time introduced in 1965 ish I think!, BR Class 47 ( mine is the 2014 Railroad TTS sound) and BR Class 52 Western first issued in 1979. (last issued between 2005-2007 I bought the weathered one in Maron)   My favourite 4 introduced locos rolling stock etc from this year are from the big four are: ( LMS  Coronation Class Locomotive - Duchess Of Abercorn, GWR King Class Locomotive - King Henry VIII, ( I have 3 of 2015 retooled) LNER Class A3 Locomotive - Flying Scotsman, (No Southern Class locomotive this year so it'll have to be the   S.R. Sheep Wagon! ) Including the APT-P  although I wonder why it was missing from this layout photo. I can't help but think the HST looks rather lost with just the two power cars and 1 BR MK3 coach. Perhaps they could have added a few more standard class opens, a 1st class carriage and the introduced MK3 TRUB Buffet car. 

[Legend]

9 hours ago, RyanN91 said:

It certainly is one of my favourite catalogues although this was published 11 years before I was even born!  , I love the layout of the catalogue  how all the family are engaged around the fire looking through various Train sets, (pictured No king Size set as this was a 1980 one-off a fantastic huge set! with everything to start off! ignore the Electric Starter Set that was released in 1981!) The girl holding up the BR MK3 coach from the Inter-City 125 Set. To kitchen table layouts with a medium sized oval with a siding with the dad placing the wagons onto the track to this full layout! and it is full of classic Hornby gems released from the 1960s, late 1970s and early 1980s Hornby really did produce some common features across all of Great Britain's railways in 1980 including   , BR Class 08 first introduced in the 1960s,  BR Class 25 introduced in 1977 ( mine is the 2001 one), BR Class 29 in 1978 (mine is the 1999 or 2000 one), Class 35 (Type 3) Hymek which Hornby first introduced way back in 1966! ( mine is the 2004 weathered issue in BR Blue)  (even as an Assembly Pack D.I.Y set between 1968 and 1970). One of my favourites (come to think it everyone is actually! )  the BR Class 37 ( the 2017 BR Railfreight TTS Sound fitted I have) which Hornby first time introduced in 1965 ish I think!, BR Class 47 ( mine is the 2014 Railroad TTS sound) and BR Class 52 Western first issued in 1979. (last issued between 2005-2007 I bought the weathered one in Maron)   My favourite 4 introduced locos rolling stock etc from this year are from the big four are: ( LMS  Coronation Class Locomotive - Duchess Of Abercorn, GWR King Class Locomotive - King Henry VIII, ( I have 3 of 2015 retooled) LNER Class A3 Locomotive - Flying Scotsman, (No Southern Class locomotive this year so it'll have to be the   S.R. Sheep Wagon! ) Including the APT-P  although I wonder why it was missing from this layout photo. I can't help but think the HST looks rather lost with just the two power cars and 1 BR MK3 coach. Perhaps they could have added a few more standard class opens, a 1st class carriage and the introduced MK3 TRUB Buffet car. 

 

Thats a great pile of sets isnt it . Classy packaging too .  Yes the 1980 catalogue was good . Very inspiring  if a little bit cluttered .  80/81 possibly Hornby at their peak , although their holding company DCM was in serious financial trouble  and Hornby was eventually a Mgt buy out .   Its probably an age thing with me . I know Hornby now is much more detailed  but I think for me the system peaked with that catalogue and went down hill from then . the 80s from 82 onwards and 90s never really had the same level of excitement for me