Hornby announce TT:120

[philsandy]

1 hour ago, Nile said:

 

All the Hornby TT stuff seen so far has much larger flanges, relatively speaking. The flange may be the same size as OO, but as the model is smaller it looks larger.

 

They are on the large side. Hornby TT120  Wheel Standards are to NEM 310, ie. the wheel flange thickness is 0.6mm - 0.7mm.

Whereas The 3mm Society, wheel flange thickness for 12mm gauge Intermediate Standard is 0.4mm - 0.6mm and 0.3mm - 0.4mm for 12mm gauge Fine Standards. 

[Hroth]

4 minutes ago, philsandy said:

 

They are on the large side. Hornby TT120  Wheel Standards are to NEM 310, ie. the wheel flange thickness is 0.6mm - 0.7mm.

Whereas The 3mm Society, wheel flange thickness for 12mm gauge Intermediate Standard is 0.4mm - 0.6mm and 0.3mm - 0.4mm for 12mm gauge Fine Standards. 

 

At least Hornby are using a standard.  I expect they chose a larger flange size as the locos and rolling stock are targeted at the domestic environment, where track alignment may not be as accurate as on an enthusiasts layout.  Carpet can be SO bumpy!

 

The only loco seen running so far seems to be the A4. If that has the production wheelsets, then the flanges aren't disproportionately large, neither are those on the 08 shunter EP.

 

 

[Robin Brasher]

33 minutes ago, meatloaf said:

The club magazine arrived today and it mentions what the next train sets are going to be. An HST set and a british pullman set. They say the pullman set will be an A4 William Whitelaw and 3 lit pullmans. Seems an odd choice to use the same A4 as they are in the first set.

 

Also mentions that DCC sound fitted sets will also soon be coming.

I think it would make more sense to have 'Silver King' as the motive power for the 'British Pullman' but not many people will buy two train sets because they will waste money on two ovals and two controllers.  In Hornby Dublo days the firm produced goods and passenger sets with the same tank locomotive so I suppose Hornby is carrying on the same tradition with its passenger sets.

 

On page 11 of the magazine it says that the 'Scotsman' set features 'three Pullman coaches, each with working lights'. On previous replies people have said that the Pullmans in the sets will be unlit so I think that this shows that the Pullmans will have lights.  I think the set looks more like the 'Queen of Scots' which was a Pullman train than the 'Flying Scotsman' that had LNER teak coaches.

 

 

[5Dublo2]

6 hours ago, JohnR said:

 

Fairly certain that all libraries are available - the only restriction is 50 track pieces. 

It is definitely available without a subscription you just download the latest version from Anyrail and upgrade your installation.

The is at least one track item not represented in m the current library TT8037 the extended half straight. Probably not in the library as Hornby don't seem to have stated what the length is yet

 

[D9020 Nimbus]

I was wondering if TT8037 might actually be extendable — I.e a pice of track whose length may be varied (within limits). There is one such in the Tillig Modellgleis range.

[Johan DC]

20 minutes ago, Robin Brasher said:

 

On page 11 of the magazine it says that the 'Scotsman' set features 'three Pullman coaches, each with working lights'. On previous replies people have said that the Pullmans in the sets will be unlit 

 

 

Nice, thanks for that, back in pre-order!

[Robin Brasher]

9 minutes ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

I was wondering if TT8037 might actually be extendable — I.e a pice of track whose length may be varied (within limits). There is one such in the Tillig Modellgleis range.

Minitrix made an extendable straight track in N gauge which was very useful for taking the track over baseboard joints on a portable layout so that would be a good thing for Hornby to make in TT 120.

[Moxy]

6 minutes ago, Robin Brasher said:

Minitrix made an extendable straight track in N gauge which was very useful for taking the track over baseboard joints on a portable layout so that would be a good thing for Hornby to make in TT 120.

 

 I remember those on a club N gauge layout I used to be involved with. They were useful.

 

Sadly, looking on their website I think that TT8037 is just a 'slightly longer than half straight' piece of straight track (92mm instead of 83mm).  Doesn't say anything about being extendable in the way the minitrix ones were.

[MarkSG]

11 minutes ago, Robin Brasher said:

Minitrix made an extendable straight track in N gauge which was very useful for taking the track over baseboard joints on a portable layout so that would be a good thing for Hornby to make in TT 120.

 

It would be useful in any gauge. I'd use one to cross the joint between my 00 shunting plank and the traverser.

[5Dublo2]

49 minutes ago, Robin Brasher said:

 

On page 11 of the magazine it says that the 'Scotsman' set features 'three Pullman coaches, each with working lights'. On previous replies people have said that the Pullmans in the sets will be unlit so I think that this shows that the Pullmans will have lights.  I think the set looks more like the 'Queen of Scots' which was a Pullman train than the 'Flying Scotsman' that had LNER teak coaches.

 

 

At GETS, I specifically asked Simon Kohler about the Pullman lights in The  Scotsman set  and he confirmed that the set won't be lit although other than the lack of illumination they will be the same standard of finish and detail as the lit versions (so definitely not the equivalent of a Railroad release.

Bear in mind that there are a number of mistakes in the magazine and catalog, both of which unfortunately went to press before all the mistakes were noticed.  The same errors in some cases made it through to printed 3rd party magazines covering the hobby too
 

While the general advice is don't believe everything you read on the internet, it looks like we can't believe everything in print either ;)

 

[5Dublo2]

2 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

I was wondering if TT8037 might actually be extendable — I.e a pice of track whose length may be varied (within limits). There is one such in the Tillig Modellgleis range.

There has been some feedback (possibly in the Hornby Forum) that the Extended Half Straight is designed to be used with left and right handed points to from the correct spacing (and geometry) to have a loop surrounding a station platform. This will be something much wanted, as even back to the days of Hornby Dublo, this has not really been possible using OO gauge settrack (even when  using the Short Straights it was still a close 'fudge' of correct geometry) 

If this info is correct then we might be able to work out the length with Pythagoras theory (except we don't know how wide the platforms are and have to somehow calculate the effect of the curves)

Edited November 9, 2022 by 5Dublo2

[Moxy]

Straight Platform: 108mm x 48mm x 14mm approx.

Ramp: 90mm x 48mm at the widest point x 14 mm at the highest point.

 

according to Hornby website

[Pacific231G]

4 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

Indeed, I have Kadees on my 00 stock which is fine if a bit finicky uncoupling sometimes, with all the resources of the entire industry I find it odd that a reliable delayed industry wide coupler hasn’t yet been designed, the laziness of “that’ll do for them” attitude I think.

Well. On the big railway,  with all its resources, the UIC has been trying to agree an industry wide automatic coupler since soon after it was founded a hundred years ago (1:12:1920 to be exact)  there are new trials going on now. Something  based on the Willison coupling seems to always be favourite but I think it was a question of the perfect getting in the way of the good as they wanted to incorporate braking conduits and electrical connections . The AAR coupler used almost universally in N. America is only semi-automatic though it does achieve its main aim of avoiding railway workers having to go between cars.

I also use Kadees (in H0) but with European stock with buffers it's not easy to achieve close coupling without the buffers getting in the way. It was so much easier when I used them with N. American stock- everything just worked (apart from my loss of interest in the prototype)

I don't know why Microtrains have never produced a version of the Magnematic coupler for the N (and TT) NEM pocket but, unlike H0 (and 00 when the makers get it right), it may just not be a large enough market  

[frobisher]

3 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

I don't know why Microtrains have never produced a version of the Magnematic coupler for the N (and TT) NEM pocket but, unlike H0 (and 00 when the makers get it right), it may just not be a large enough market  

 

Hopefully Hornby's move into TT will give them the faith they need for an enlarged market...

Edited November 9, 2022 by frobisher

[Les1952]

Having now decided on a width of 2'6 for the layout baseboards rather than 2' I've been back to Hornby's shop and deleted my order for a circle of radius 1 track.  I substituted two of track pack 2, which between them will give me some more straights and two more points together with a complete circle of R2.  This circle will get me the hidden curves at the end of what will be an exhibition layout.

 

Hedging my bets I've also ordered a Piko Class 290 diesel from Gaugemaster as part of scoping the German alternative....  Currently about 99% of Tillig's offerings are unavailable in the UK- a shame as there are a couple of tank locos I quite fancy.

 

Tomorrow off to the Local Model Shop to put in an order for enough Peco track to make it worthwhile him sending it as a separate order.

 

Les

 

[Robin Brasher]

I don't know how you ordered the Hornby track.  The track is in their warehouse.  I have not been able to buy any because when I click on an item of track there is no option to buy: it just says 'add to your wish list.'

[Moxy]

13 minutes ago, Robin Brasher said:

I don't know how you ordered the Hornby track.  The track is in their warehouse.  I have not been able to buy any because when I click on an item of track there is no option to buy: it just says 'add to your wish list.'

 

Maybe not individual items of track, but you can pre order track packs.

[Legend]

16 hours ago, 5Dublo2 said:

At GETS, I specifically asked Simon Kohler about the Pullman lights in The  Scotsman set  and he confirmed that the set won't be lit although other than the lack of illumination they will be the same standard of finish and detail as the lit versions (so definitely not the equivalent of a Railroad release.

Bear in mind that there are a number of mistakes in the magazine and catalog, both of which unfortunately went to press before all the mistakes were noticed.  The same errors in some cases made it through to printed 3rd party magazines covering the hobby too
 

While the general advice is don't believe everything you read on the internet, it looks like we can't believe everything in print either ;)

 

 

Unfortunately,inconsistencies in Hornby publications are not unusual especially with this tendency to photoshop stuff and amend the couplings!  I believe it when I see the model now. A further inconsistency is that the magazine does state the 66 is being designed completely new, yet its priced lower than the 50, why would that be? Could this be another instance of left hand not knowing what the right hand is writing?

[Hroth]

Many years ago, I bought a Hornby tinplate O gauge trainset from a jumble sale, including an oval of track mounted on a 34"x48" baseboard (It might have cost me a pound or so).  I've still got it (baseboard, track and trainset) though I took the track off ages ago.

 

Anyhow I thought I might see how I could use the baseboard for a TT:120 layout so using the free version of Anyrail, I laid out a number of ovals within the space.  The squares are 1ft.

 

The outer oval is 4th radius, the inner oval is 2nd radius.  If I felt I could get away with the 2nd radius oval, the board would be adequate to get a nice trainset in the area using the track from the initial set, a 2nd radius inner oval and a couple of extra points....

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2022 by Hroth

[JohnR]

24 minutes ago, Legend said:

 

Unfortunately,inconsistencies in Hornby publications are not unusual especially with this tendency to photoshop stuff and amend the couplings!  I believe it when I see the model now. A further inconsistency is that the magazine does state the 66 is being designed completely new, yet its priced lower than the 50, why would that be? Could this be another instance of left hand not knowing what the right hand is writing?

 

From reading about the design process in the magazine, its clear that all the stock is designed from new. That doesn't mean that compromises arnt being made - these are models after all. 

 

As for the price, I would imagine that Hornby feel they will be selling a lot more class 66s than class 50s. And being able to order 10,000 or 20,000 units makes the price cheaper than just a few thousand. 

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Legend said:

A further inconsistency is that the magazine does state the 66 is being designed completely new, yet its priced lower than the 50, why would that be?

 

I suppose it depends on which bit of the 66 is being designed from new.  It might be that it will get a centre-mounted motor, powering the bogies through cardan shafts, rather than the old-fashioned motor bogie approach as seen on the OO version, with the bodyshell derived from the OO model.

 

However, if Hornby feel that they can shift a shed-load of 66s in appropriate livery on the Continental market, they may well do a proper job of it and do a root and branch redesign, and the economies of scale will take care of the price, compared with the 50.

 

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, Legend said:

 

Unfortunately,inconsistencies in Hornby publications are not unusual especially with this tendency to photoshop stuff and amend the couplings!  I believe it when I see the model now. A further inconsistency is that the magazine does state the 66 is being designed completely new, yet its priced lower than the 50, why would that be? Could this be another instance of left hand not knowing what the right hand is writing?

Standard problem with Hornby for a long while - poor proof reading (if any) and poor research in the first place for some descriptive captions with catalogue illustrations.  Presumably some of it comes down to a need to get stuff through quickly and some of it relates to the simple human factor that nobody knows everything and they don't know which information sources can be trusted plus they are dealing with very large amounts of information.

 

It's a shame that it's cropping up with their much needed initiative to develop a new market area and promote sales of it.  So I hope the errors don't damage their image with any of the newbie customers they need to find.  But yet again it is one of those irritating little examples of Hornby not actively managing a potentially important part of their business image.

[frobisher]

40 minutes ago, JohnR said:

As for the price, I would imagine that Hornby feel they will be selling a lot more class 66s than class 50s. And being able to order 10,000 or 20,000 units makes the price cheaper than just a few thousand. 

 

I think it's mostly the expanded opportunities of the European market that is helping there as well.  Whilst we haven't seen Arnold announce theirs yet it's only a matter of time after the initial UK batches are done.

 

2 minutes ago, Hroth said:

However, if Hornby feel that they can shift a shed-load of 66s in appropriate livery on the Continental market, they may well do a proper job of it and do a root and branch redesign, and the economies of scale will take care of the price, compared with the 50.

 

It's a complete ground up design according to the magazine (and would make sense as they had no existing CAD or similar to work from in any case).

[JohnR]

18 minutes ago, frobisher said:

 

I think it's mostly the expanded opportunities of the European market that is helping there as well.  Whilst we haven't seen Arnold announce theirs yet it's only a matter of time after the initial UK batches are done.

 

 

It's a complete ground up design according to the magazine (and would make sense as they had no existing CAD or similar to work from in any case).

 

Even in cases where there is CAD, the designer says they have to do most things from scratch, due to material issues, and fitting of components etc.

[boxbrownie]

On 09/11/2022 at 09:54, Legend said:

and I'm not sure the renders of Evening Star and Tintagel Castle aren't 00 renders with coupling grafted on. A touch too much photoshopping I think. 

They most definitely are, just a look at the flanges tell you they are no where near as coarse as the TT120 flanges.