Hornby International 2017

[tetsudofan]

Hornby have kept their word ..... details of all the international ranges are now on are the Hornby website!!

 

See that the Lima Expert ETR 610 Add-On coaches are available to buy on the website. Just chased The Hobby Shop at Faversham to ascertain standing of my pre-order made some time ago.

 

Keith

[robmcg]

Indeed the Hornby International brand is first-up today on the Hornby UK website, and how nice to see.

 

However I cannot find under the Rivarossi name any mention or reference to US prototypes.

 

Not sure if I am on the right web page, or have Hornby ceased to market US prototype steam? Does Hornby International have another, different, website? I could swear I saw the UP Big Boy and Virginian Allegheny locos advertised on a website as 'for 2017'.

 

In fact, a google search for 'Hornby International' brigs up a different page...

 

http://www.hornbyinternational.com/en/6-rivarossi

 

This brings up, under the 'United States' choice in the filter menu on the left of the page (scroll down) , 25 models including the Burlington Northern diesel electrics used in the new UK site header for Rivarossi,  but these US items are not on the new Hornby UK page under Rivarossi. Confusing, for me at least. 

 

Commendable consistency in photographic settings for Euro brands, but I hate to say it, a very slow clunky website experience, and a sad disjunct between product and advertising.. 

[jjb1970]

Splendid!! Some excellent models to order, it is nice to see Hornby offering these to UK customers.

[ozwarrior]

It's good to see the ETR610 add-on coaches available. I bought the original pack from Winco but they advised me they wouldn't be ordering the coaches. So when the Superior Authority gives the ok in a few days it'll be all systems go!

Les.

[toboldlygo]

Now what would be nice, if Hornby extended the club discount to their International Brands

[Frappington Jct]

Does anyone know if any versions of the Electrotren 0-6-0st (as used by OnTracks for various GWR/TVR variants) are currently available in the UK? I know there is a version available for pre-order on the Hornby website, but - having been inspired by the pug-bashing thread elsewhere on here (yes, I know it's not a pug!) - I have some ideas and a hankering to start hacking something up!

 

Thanks

[brushman47544]

Interesting. What's the difference?

 

https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/shop/brands/lima-h0-1-87/lima-junior-h0-1-87-car-loading-station.html at £8.99

 

https://www.modelrailwaysdirect.co.uk/Hornby-R8263-Car-Unloading-Terminal/ reduced to £19.21 (N.B. says cars and transporter not included)

[steve1]

Does anyone know if any versions of the Electrotren 0-6-0st (as used by OnTracks for various GWR/TVR variants) are currently available in the UK? I know there is a version available for pre-order on the Hornby website, but - having been inspired by the pug-bashing thread elsewhere on here (yes, I know it's not a pug!) - I have some ideas and a hankering to start hacking something up!

 

Thanks

There was a trader at Mansfield show last weekend who was selling them. Assume they are available?

 

steve

[jjb1970]

The Hobby Shop in Faversham are selling off their remaining Rivarossi U25C models for £72.50, a crazily low price for such a superb model. I just bought the PRR one they had. Their U25C tooling really is superbly done and makes it seem very sad if Rivarossi have indeed pulled the plug on their US outline models.

[Pacific231G]

Though the better availability of Hornby International products to UK modellers is most welcome it may also reflect Hornby's retrenchement. I understand that the Electrotren, Jouef and Rivarossi brands are now being run from Kent and the offices in France, Spain and Italy are being closed with only the German office remaining open. How good a team in Kent will be at understanding the market in say France is something I'd question so the H0 products may become more easily available here but I wonder how large the range will be.

 

At the moment for example, the Jouef range includes just five steam loco types though with a lot of variations. These are the 241P, 141R, 141TA, 150C and 030TU/USATC S100. The latter is also available in Austrian, Italian and its original USATC livery so was reasonably widespread; the 150C was the Prussian G12 so though a bit limited in its SNCF version to heavy coal trains in the east of France would have scope for reversioning for Germany, Austria, Poland and Jugoslavia.

.

By contrast  Jouef as an independent company produced nine main steam loco classes as scale models. Of those, updated versions of the 140C, 040TA, 231K and 141P would be really useful items in the range as they're native French types rather than ex German reparation locos  Bachmann did produce a 140C  fairly recently for the Liliput brand but it's been dropped- a great shame as these locos (most of them built in Glasgow and Manchester during the First World War) were a large class and very widespread. 

 

MKD ooesn't appear in the main Hornby International pages but does if you got to Hornby France though I don't know how up to date those pages are.

Edited March 8, 2017 by Pacific231G

[Mike at C&M]

The 2017 Rivarossi and Jouef catalogues are a lot slimmer than previous years, and much of their content is for release during 2017, rather than being currently available.

 

I too worry about the expertise at Hornby's Kent offices. And a couple of examples from the catalogue highlight this:

     - The diesels section has a full page picture of a Burlington liveried U25C, there are now no American items within the 2017 range.

     - Rivarossi are showing a number of coach packs to go with the Lima ETR610 e.m.u.s, but there are no ETR610 e.m.u.s listed within the Lima range. Definitely another case of First Great Western HST 1st Class coaches syndrome.

 

Time for someone to prove me wrong, and show us that there is some continental expertise within Hornby's offices.

[brushman47544]

     - Rivarossi are showing a number of coach packs to go with the Lima ETR610 e.m.u.s, but there are no ETR610 e.m.u.s listed within the Lima range. Definitely another case of First Great Western HST 1st Class coaches syndrome.

 

Time for someone to prove me wrong, and show us that there is some continental expertise within Hornby's offices.

 

The Lima Expert ETR610 packs with the driving trailers, including an SBB version for the Swiss market only, were produced a year or more ago and were advertised in the two Italian railway magazines I get. At that time the additional coach packs were also being advertised but they didn't appear, which was put down to Hornby's financial problems causing delays in their development and production. Those additional coach packs have now appeared, by which time the driving trailer packs appear to have sold out.

Images of the Frecciargento version here http://www.trenietreni.it/pp2347/lima-expert-hl1610-elettrotreni

[jjb1970]

Indeed, in fairness to Hornby, while I would have preferred the extension packs to have been released with the initial train pack release of the ETR610 (or at least a lot closer to it) those who will have wanted the Lima Expert model will have the first set and will have been patiently (or not) waiting for the extension packs. The models were widely available (and some versions are still easy to find on-line). Lima may have a bit of a low rent image but their Expert series is excellent and compared to what you’d pay for a similar model from a manufacturer like ACME (admittedly, ACME make a first class product) the Lima offering is terrific value for money.

On retrenchment, I think if you look at those areas of the Hornby business still receiving investment to produce new tooling and keep releasing models from older tooling, and those which are treading water or worse it gives a good indication of which parts of their empire are doing OK (Hornby OO) and which need to improve (pretty much the rest). That’s no reflection on product quality, as I genuinely believe that the various Hornby HO ranges (including Lima Expert) are fully capable of making models which are fully competitive with the best on the market. Their international ranges were already managed from Spain as I understand it, so not native to many of their core markets, and provided the UK team engages the right people I think they should be able to bring the international operation in house to their UK centre.

[Andy Hayter]

The 2017 Rivarossi and Jouef catalogues are a lot slimmer than previous years, and much of their content is for release during 2017, rather than being currently available.

 

 

 

This has become the norm for the French market.  Items are released and sell out (hopefully) rather quickly.  Therefore the active stock of rolling stock of any of the main producers (H Jouef, REE, LS  Models) is as close to zero as makes no difference. 

 

What this means for UK buyers is pre-buy or buy as soon as a model is released because a few weeks later the model may not be there any more.

[jjb1970]

This has become the norm for the French market.  Items are released and sell out (hopefully) rather quickly.  Therefore the active stock of rolling stock of any of the main producers (H Jouef, REE, LS  Models) is as close to zero as makes no difference. 

 

What this means for UK buyers is pre-buy or buy as soon as a model is released because a few weeks later the model may not be there any more.

 

This seems to be the way more producers are going, balance supply and demand to avoid inventory. The logical conclusion of the idea is manufacturing to pre-order so that the supplier has no inventory per se as the product goes directly to customers on delivery from the factory.

[Andy Hayter]

...........and in France, a number of those customers - ie the big traders - are doing the same thing.

 

I get the impression that FB Systems orders only a few more models than they have pre-orders.  They often stock out within a couple of weeks of the first review being published in the magazines.

 

The stock in the chain is becoming less and less.  The stock on shelves is non-existent.

[jjb1970]

As a business the model the arguments in favour of a pre-order system with manufacture only to pre-order numbers are compelling and I can understand why suppliers adopt it. Just as I can understand the arguments in favour of models such as crowdfunding. For all that, as a consumer I still like to be able to see models before buying and making my decision based on what I think of the model. Admittedly that now means seeing the model on-line rather than in person most of the time.

[Pacific231G]

As a business the model the arguments in favour of a pre-order system with manufacture only to pre-order numbers are compelling and I can understand why suppliers adopt it. Just as I can understand the arguments in favour of models such as crowdfunding. For all that, as a consumer I still like to be able to see models before buying and making my decision based on what I think of the model. Admittedly that now means seeing the model on-line rather than in person most of the time.

 

I can't help feeling that the manufacturers are increasingly serving a market for collectors rather than layout builders, or at least not the sort of layouts that do more than just run whatever locos or trains may have taken their owner's fancy. I wonder if that's the direction the hobby is taking - or perhaps it was ever thus. The idea of gradually acquring the locos and rolling stock you need as you develop a layout seems rather lost unless you're a kit or scratchbuilder. I'm guessing that to probably be rather less true for Britain than the rest of Europe and even less true for North American prototypes but a bit concerning for those of us modelling European prototypes.  

[jjb1970]

Based on personal experiences with other modellers and collectors and anecdotal evidence, I think the collector market is a much bigger proportion of the market for locomotives in particular than most modellers like to accept. Even amongst modellers, most modellers I know also collect locomotives alongside their layout building and operating. Collector is often used as a pejorative term however without the collector market I suspect that new development projects for locomotives would fall off a cliff. You only have to look at S/H and how much of it has clearly never been used.

[Pacific231G]

 

Based on personal experiences with other modellers and collectors and anecdotal evidence, I think the collector market is a much bigger proportion of the market for locomotives in particular than most modellers like to accept. Even amongst modellers, most modellers I know also collect locomotives alongside their layout building and operating. Collector is often used as a pejorative term however without the collector market I suspect that new development projects for locomotives would fall off a cliff. You only have to look at S/H and how much of it has clearly never been used.

 

Nothing wrong with collectors or models that end up in showcases (or in their boxes in cupboards) and I'd agree that if the only rolling stock sold was for immediate use on layouts then the market probably would collapse. It does seem a shame though if the basic core of locos and other rolling stock needed for working layouts lsn't available. I don't think that's true for Britain's main railways unless you're very picky about liveries and details but it can be the case when modelling other European railways.

 

ISTR an estimate that the proportion of Airfix kits sold that were ever assembled was quite low.

Edited March 9, 2017 by Pacific231G

[jjb1970]

I must admit I'm a collector myself. I have a weakness for HO brass models, US outline from companies like Overland, and European and Japanese outline from companies like Fulgurex and Tenshodo. These models I only display (partly because running brass is a nightmare, partly because I worry what I'd do if I crashed one and wrecked it and partly because I just admire them as beautiful objects) and they give me an enormous amount of pleasure. I consider collecting and modelling two seperate hobbies/interests (I have a passion for both) and always think it a bit sad some modellers can be a bit dismissive of collectors.

[Chris116]

I received an email extolling the virtues of the new Hornby International section on the Hornby website. The email was full of pictures of very nice Burlington and other railroads diesels. As I have a small interest in USA railroading, I clicked on the link and was taken to the Hornby website which again had nice pictures of US diesels. But when you click on all the links within the site there are no US based stock to be found! So having got my hopes up Hornby have annoyed me and I will be unsubscribing to their useless emails.

[MGR Hooper!]

I received an email extolling the virtues of the new Hornby International section on the Hornby website. The email was full of pictures of very nice Burlington and other railroads diesels. As I have a small interest in USA railroading, I clicked on the link and was taken to the Hornby website which again had nice pictures of US diesels. But when you click on all the links within the site there are no US based stock to be found! So having got my hopes up Hornby have annoyed me and I will be unsubscribing to their useless emails.

It might be better to wait and let them put up the entire listing? They've been adding models to that particular section for a few months now. Un-subscribing to what you call "useless" emails won't harm anyone. It's not useless!

[Chris116]

It might be better to wait and let them put up the entire listing? They've been adding models to that particular section for a few months now. Un-subscribing to what you call "useless" emails won't harm anyone. It's not useless!

An advert showing a picture of a model that is not available from the source that is advertising it is useless in my book. If the US items have not been added to the site then don't use pictures of US items in the advert, use pictures of items that are available.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Chris116

[jjb1970]

The Rivarossi U25C/U28C models are still relatively easy to find, in fact they're available heavily discounted and there are some cracking bargains on these models. I'd recommend you have a look as the models are beautifully done and as good as any RTR US HO outline locomotives I've seen.