Hornby announce TT:120

[Les1952]

1 hour ago, Porfuera said:

 

August's TT Talk said they would be here in December so maybe they're coming through the Panama canal

 

Panama canal is closed to larger ships due to a lack of water.   Cape Horn?

 

Les

[Ravenser]

1 hour ago, Porfuera said:

 

August's TT Talk said they would be here in December so maybe they're coming through the Panama canal

 

Ships in the Far East trade have been ultra-Panamax for about 15 years, so they won't fit through the Panama Canal ... Between 1967 and 1975 when the Suez Canal was shut after the Seven Days War , the Far East trade did indeed go through Panama, but that's no longer possible

 

Cape of Good Hope or nowt

[britishcolumbian]

Sounds like we need to rebuild the East of Suez empire so we can all get our trains on time!

[ruggedpeak]

It shows that, geopolitics aside, a high capacity rail freight route from China to Europe would be the answer to many of these problems.

 

Some background that might be of interest:

 

https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-china-silk-road-railway/

 

 

Edited January 18 by ruggedpeak

[APOLLO]

19 minutes ago, ruggedpeak said:

It shows that, geopolitics aside, a high capacity rail freight route from China to Europe would be the answer to many of these problems.

 

Some background that might be of interest:

 

https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-china-silk-road-railway/

 

 

 

Interesting but look at the route, not many if any "politically safe & secure" countries. The local "bad uns" will still hold the west hostage.

 

Brit15

[Hobby]

I'd have thought it would have less capacity than the shipping route, I agree with Apollo that a rail route would be far worse both for capacity and volume. I doubt the rail route would be able to handle the shear volume of containers on that route. Just looking it up it seems that "New Panamax" ships which will fit through the new locks on that canal carry up to 14000 containers, on the Suez they can carry over that and up to 25000! That's an awful lot of trains, don't even think about lorries!

[Porfuera]

All three liveries of the TTA tankers are currently showing as "In Stock" and if you go to the individual item pages they are showing as "Order Now".

 

It is a bit odd... when displaying the "TT Wagons & Coaches" listing, the Esso variant doesn't show up. In order to get it to appear on you need to deselect the "Only show in stock items?" slider. Then when it comes up it says "Last Few" for that livery so maybe that's why it doesn't always appear with the other two liveries.

 

Maybe this will explain it better... When "Wagons & Coaches" are displayed as "Item Number Z - A", the Esso variant isn't displayed:

 

 

 

Then deselecting the "Show only in stock items?" slider the page displays the Esso variant, tagged as "Last Few":

 

[Porfuera]

For anyone interested in these TTA wagons...

 

The Esso livery is now showing as "Out of Stock" on the individual item page for TT6022 but it might be worth checking back later as this seems to change.

 

The other two (BP TT6024 and Total TT6023) are still showing as "Order Now" at the current time.

 

Edited January 19 by Porfuera

[Porfuera]

And someone on Facebook has spotted that the dates for the two Class 50s 'Sir Edward Elgar' (green livery) and 'Leviathan' (LL blue) have been put back to Summer 2024 (the same date as the sound fitted versions).

 

If that date is kept to then this means that they will now arrive after the April announcement - I guess we will learn more in April but maybe this is a precaution because of the ships diverting away from the Red Sea and the Suez canal.

 

The date for the GBRf Class 50 is still Spring 2025 with no sound version currently listed.

 

EDIT: the dates for the HSTs and the Mk2 and Mk3 blue/grey coaches seem to be unchanged so maybe it is a production issue rather than something to do with shipping.

 

Edited January 19 by Porfuera

[J-Lewis]

Looking forward to seeing those tank wagons in the flesh.  

[MartinRS]

3 hours ago, Porfuera said:

For anyone interested in these TTA wagons...

 

The Esso livery is now showing as "Out of Stock" on the individual item page for TT6022 but it might be worth checking back later as this seems to change.

 

The other two (BP TT6024 and Total TT6023) are still showing as "Order Now" at the current time.

 

I wonder if Hornby was inundated with pre-orders for the Esso variant from modellers placing large orders because they want to create block trains it's or an indication of the popularity of that eara? That would be bad news for anyone wanting models of this tanker now but good news for the TT:120 niche of the hobby as it would suggest high demand, indicating the established (and profitable, from Hornby's point of view) status of the scale.

[J-Lewis]

4 hours ago, MartinRS said:

I wonder if Hornby was inundated with pre-orders for the Esso variant from modellers placing large orders because they want to create block trains it's or an indication of the popularity of that eara?

Is there anything in the current range that would pull these in block trains?  It feels like we are still a bit of a way from the stage where there would be a need for bulk buying of these tankers?  They are lovely models but it feel like a stretch to imagine bulk purchases of them yet?

[natterjack]

32 minutes ago, J-Lewis said:

They are lovely models but it feel like a stretch to imagine bulk purchases of them yet?

Not so sure about that. There have been a few 'block' buyers of earlier stock and given the erratic nature of releases to date I wouldn't be at all surprised if pre- orders account for much of any new supply. Those who have 'suitable period' continental locos would doubtless get good use until the UK outline arrives- others may happily tow them with an A3.

[MartinRS]

Buying in anticipation of there being a suitable loco at some time in the future is permitted. Doing so spreads the hit to the wallet.

 

Although I'm interested in the three BR green eras and rolling stock found in the former GCR area it's not stopped me from buying a blue Class 08 and Big Four and PO wagons. I'm going to resist temptation to buy these particular tank wagons though. Not everyone models a specific time and place, and those that do probably buy the occasional 'foreigner' because they like the look of it.

 

The first Hornby wagon to be listed as being out of stock was the Mobile tank wagon (not even listed today and the same with the Carless Petrol tank wagon), which might have influenced buyers.

 

BTW I just noticed that none of the TTAs are listed as being down to the last few now. A lot of nonsense and speculation (mea culpa) can be found on this thread probably because of the level of demand, enthusiasm for the new (for UK modellers) scale and the disproportionate influence of one supplier.  

[GenericRMWebUsername]

The Esso one still is showing out of stock for me. They'll probably add more inventory to the website in due course. It seems like someone has to manually add more to the system. It will likely be back in stock tomorrow. They probably have already sold several hundred of them between preorders and sales today. Not off to a bad start.

 

The one reason to buy the train now rather than later is that 15% discount. Lots of people preordered to lock in the price. If someone had purchased 20 of those tankers when they were first released, they would have saved some good money. They originally retailed at 20.99 GBP. (20 x 20.99 x 0.85 = 356.83) In addition, you'd get 10% back in rewards points or 35.68 GBP to spend on the Hornby website. 

 

Today, at their price of 24.49 GBP RRP and no discount, you'd be paying quite a bit more. (20 x 24.49 = 489.80). While you'd get just under 50 GBP back in rewards points, that's little comfort when you had to pay 132 GBP more!  

[MartinRS]

This thread on the Hornby site gives a blow by blow account of stock levels as reported by Hornby to a customer on their forum. I'm not sure what to make of the varying (diminishing) stock levels, as being reported by Hornby and the absence of an out of stock notice on Hornby's current sales page. That's enough pointless head scratching for one day.

Edited January 20 by MartinRS
Insert link. Opps!

[J-Lewis]

8 hours ago, MartinRS said:

Buying in anticipation of there being a suitable loco at some time in the future is permitted. Doing so spreads the hit to the wallet.

 

The first Hornby wagon to be listed as being out of stock was the Mobile tank wagon (not even listed today and the same with the Carless Petrol tank wagon), which might have influenced buyers

It’s a good point, the preorders might be ahead of an expected loco like the class 37 or similar.

 

The mobil tank wagon is still listed but it’s been out of stock for months.  The Hornby website seems to have changed to show ‘in stock’ as the default.  If you uncheck that option the Mobil wagon is still there at the very end of the list.

 

[J-Lewis]

All the TAA tankers are showing as sold out now.  Will be interesting to see if there are any restocks once they are back to work on Monday.

 

Certainly an impressive debut for these wagons.

[Porfuera]

2 hours ago, J-Lewis said:

Certainly an impressive debut for these wagons.

 

But wasn't it the same for the 7-plank PO wagons and the 12T tank wagons - and possibly the vent vans and the brake vans, too? Probably also the initial releases of the carriages (although tbh I don't follow those as closely as the wagons).

 

I think there is so little coming through that the first run of almost anything is bound to sell out - and probably the second and maybe the third runs, too.

 

Not a critism - it is still impressive and it is all good for Hornby. Perhaps it is better this way than having too much flooding in leaving unsold stock in the warehouse/retailers. Although perhaps the retailers would like more.

 

Also it is good because we are now over a year in to UK outline TT:120 and clearly buyers are staying the course rather than losing interest and leaving due to the lack of availability.

 

Edited January 20 by Porfuera

[J-Lewis]

1 hour ago, Porfuera said:

 

But wasn't it the same for the 7-plank PO wagons and the 12T tank wagons - and possibly the vent vans and the brake vans, too? Probably also the initial releases of the carriages (although tbh I don't follow those as closely as the wagons).

 

I think there is so little coming through that the first run of almost anything is bound to sell out - and probably the second and maybe the third runs, too.

 

I don’t remember if all of those sold out, but for me the impressive thing about the TAA wagons is that they’ve sold out in less than 48hrs.  I don’t think any of the other releases have done that?
 

 Although maybe the Arnold container wagons had a similar sell through?  Certainly they were quick to go out of stock too.

 

How does this compare to the OO releases?  Do those sell out like this at launch?

[Porfuera]

1 hour ago, J-Lewis said:

I don’t remember if all of those sold out, but for me the impressive thing about the TAA wagons is that they’ve sold out in less than 48hrs.  I don’t think any of the other releases have done that?

 

ISTR that the 12T tanks and the LNER Toads sold out pretty quickly - but then there wasn't anything else available at the time - and there were lots being sold at ridiculous prices on a certain auction site...

 

But with the TTAs maybe they're bringing over larger numbers of wagons now that they've proved the concept, which would make it more impressive.

 

If there is a Q&A in April then perhaps someone will ask how many they brought over (if they're willing to share that sort of info - it may be company confidential).

 

Edited January 21 by Porfuera

[Les1952]

9 hours ago, Porfuera said:

 

ISTR that the 12T tanks and the LNER Toads sold out pretty quickly - but then there wasn't anything else available at the time - and there were lots being sold at ridiculous prices on a certain auction site...

 

But with the TTAs maybe they're bringing over larger numbers of wagons now that they've proved the concept, which would make it more impressive.

 

If there is a Q&A in April then perhaps someone will ask how many they brought over (if they're willing to share that sort of info - it may be company confidential).

 

 

My gut feeling (and only that- no evidence) is that they've shipped as many as are ready in order to get them to market and the rest of the batch are on the high seas or still being made, and that we will see them in a "few" weeks...

 

It would make sense, but sense and people's perception of Hornby's actions don't always occupy the same planet.

 

Les

 

[J-Lewis]

4 hours ago, Les1952 said:

 

My gut feeling (and only that- no evidence) is that they've shipped as many as are ready in order to get them to market and the rest of the batch are on the high seas or still being made, and that we will see them in a "few" weeks...

 

Could be Les, although they have seemingly shipped an almost equal number of each livery so this may have been the whole of the initial run?

 

 

[gc4946]

Hornby hasn't yet invoiced me for my three preordered Total TTAs, I'm hoping they'll arrive next week or so

[moawkwrd]

9 minutes ago, gc4946 said:

Hornby hasn't yet invoiced me for my three preordered Total TTAs, I'm hoping they'll arrive next week or so

Yeah they appear to be having email issues. No “your preorder has arrived” email and no order confirmation yet for an order I placed yesterday morning which I’ve been charged for and is showing in my account.