Hornby announce TT:120

[JSpencer]

8 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Cough.

 

https://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/collections/triang

 

They also used it on some of the retro models such as Rocket.

 

 

Jason

I just received an e-mail from Oxford diecast annoucing a diecast TT range.

 

Those ships look awful. (Otherwise I'd fancy HMS Chatham).

[Hroth]

22 minutes ago, HonestTom said:

If they ordered their set online, the chances are they'll be making follow-up purchases the same way. If not, well, Peco and Heljan have them covered.

 

This is definitely a bold move, and I will be interested to see how it goes. Sets are a good idea if you want to hook people into your new scale, especially if you're looking to the beginners' market. I feel like they're aiming more at the serious modellers' market - there's a distinct lack of Coca-Cola wagons and Santa Expresses. The prices are also (mostly) rather attractive as compared to the 00 range. Certainly I'll admit that I'm tempted.

 

There's no legacy models "cough" Railroad "cough" to draw on for inexpensive starter sets, no dog tired 0-4-0 locos and elderly wagons for a start!

 

It all looks rather interesting.

 

[Barclay]

The Hornby brochure says this, as below: 1" to 1'.

 

Am I reading this wrong, because to me it looks like they have missed a decimal place?

 

Introducing Hornby TT:120, a Table Top model railway format that uses an internationally recognised scale of 1:120 or in simple terms, 1” to 1’ and is a perfect scale for those of all ages who maybe limited for space.

[apbolton]

Hartlepool show 15th and 16th October has an exclusive. 

Come along and see the first public showing of some of the new TT range.

The TT magazine are currently building a layout based on the new range  announced today. It will be on show, although still in development you will be able to see some of the new items close up.

 

Edited October 10, 2022 by apbolton
Spelling

[wombatofludham]

Mixed feelings about this - the huge amount of investment in what is an impressive range of stuff is what the new scale needed and I think will push it over the line as a serious contender (quality assumed) so kudos to Hornby, who clearly saw this as a way to get back to market leadership in at least one area (it does also suggest they might be seeing their impending end of days in OO!) but the online only retail offer still rankles with me.  I do wonder if the TT train sets will be offered to the toy superstores and catalogues to snare the Christmas market, in which case offering online only for the "add-on" sales makes some sense, as even nan and grandads use online retailing, and so for the normals using the Hornby website to buy more trains for their offspring won't be so alien, plus they capture the total price paid without retailer commission.  However, for me it is a huge pointer to where Hornby want to go in the retail sector and doesn't sit happily with me.

I can see this being popular with the normals being smaller than OO but not quite as fiddly for youngsters as N, and they are probably a market who would be the least likely to use a model shop, at least at first, so the online retailing is probably a sound business move for Hornby.  

[57xx]

1 hour ago, Coldgunner said:

Wonder how compatible it will be with the old Triang stuff.

 

Not very given that it's a different scale.

[Geep7]

Just watching the full video now, but sorry, what sort of nonsense is SK spouting in his video. OO is a "cradle to the grave" scale, and not for modellers, and 'N' gauge is a modellers gauge, with people over 50 giving it up? I model in OO, but i've also over the years modelled in N, O, On30, HO..... And I actually make models in OO, well in 4mm scale, just on 16.5mm track....

 

I know he is trying to big up and market the new TT:120, but I think he does a lot of us serious modellers a huge disservice in that statement.

[57xx]

51 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

I notice Hornby are ignoring the old Great Western again.

 

No they're not, they have GW vent vans on there, they just spelt GW wrong and slapped NE on the side.

[Downer]

Are Liz and Kamikwasi behind this?

[JohnR]

6 minutes ago, wombatofludham said:

I do wonder if the TT train sets will be offered to the toy superstores and catalogues to snare the Christmas market, in which case offering online only for the "add-on" sales makes some sense, as even nan and grandads use online retailing, and so for the normals using the Hornby website to buy more trains for their offspring won't be so alien, plus they capture the total price paid without retailer commission.  However, for me it is a huge pointer to where Hornby want to go in the retail sector and doesn't sit happily with me.
 

 

My thoughts exactly. I wouldn't be surprised to see the sets in say supermarkets and on Amazon. Bung in a voucher of their next purchase on the Hornby TT website and they've got them. 

[Billystanier]

Huge gamble by Hornby. 

i get the gist that this is aimed at people who want to run trains rather than be the concerned with the finescale aspects of modelling.  It also railway modelling from a clean slate with commercially available correct gauging and compatability with overseas products.
 

So lets hope that:

• products are detailed, but not overly-detailed so that things break off easily when you are doing simple things such as getting them out the box for the first time.
• relative cheap alternative to OO.  Less detail, less raw material, smaller size means cheaper freight from China?
• mechanisms are simple and accessible so you can service them. Loads of my more recent 00 stuff just sits there as they are either dreadful runners through rubbish design or malfunctioned and I don’t have the ability to see what is wrong to repair them (even removing the body is a faff on lots of them). Older 70s and 80s stuff is bulletproof and even a cack handed clown like me can repair 
• no mazak rot.

I’ve got shedloads of 00 stuff, so I’m probably too far gone to make a complete switch, but might try a perspective layout with a 00 branch or industrial line in the foreground where I can do my ‘serious’ modelling, with the running express trains in the background at TT scale,

 

Also, wonder if this is the start of the gradual phasing out of Railroad, as Hornby pushes towards TT for newbies?  Leaving OO for finescale modellers.

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, mozzer models said:

brochure

 

https://d63oxfkn1m8sf.cloudfront.net/7016/6513/9759/2022_Hornby_TT_Brochure_32pp_AW_ANALOGUE_WEB_OUTPUT_04_10_22_V2.pdf

 

I think the size compared with N is  a bit of a crafty one.  British N is 1:148,  TT120 is, not a surprisingly, 1:120  so hardly a massive difference. 

1 hour ago, Legend said:

 

Its not really. They are keeping the profit to themselves . Quite a shrewd business move  but a bit of a gamble . Assumes people will readily take to ordering on line instead of trotting down to their model shop

 

 

 

But there is a bigger gamble in getting the after initial sales support network up & running as well.  If a product has any shortcomings or fails in operation etc they are going to need a proper support network and that means more cost for them.

 

Very critically will all this stuff be ready to purchase for the Christmas market and exactly wh are they then targetting it at.  Lots of trainset sales - judging by what I have seen in retailers' premises - are by older relations buying  a trainset for a grandchild or other related youngster.  Many of those folk might well be on the 'net but they also are the sort who like reassurance from a real human when buying something - and a 'puter screen isn't a real human.  I bet that Hornby will also be placing sets for sale with some big department shop chains and the likes of Argos etc (who all like very healthy, for them, trade discounts) because if they don't they'll have a sales problem.

[DavidLong]

48 minutes ago, Mel_H said:

They are the same as the standard in Europe, which opens a market (4472 and 4468 are popular there...). And, why invent a new coupling that's not going to be compatible? Certainly better than the 'hook and pin' type of earlier TT couplings.

Original Triang TT3 used tension locks. Peco even made a version called the Anita (geddit?) which could also be used in TT3. Some people in the 3mm Society still use them. Lord knows why . . .

 

David

[franciswilliamwebb]

3 minutes ago, Billystanier said:

probably too far gone to make a complete switch, but might try a perspective layout with a 00 branch or industrial line in the foreground where I can do my ‘serious’ modelling, with the running express trains in the background at TT scale

 

Now that's an interesting idea!

[Hobby]

I see the negative vibes from some are already here, sadly! Well I hope Hornby prove you naysayers wrong!! Look at the other threads on the 1:120 section, @The Stationmaster and you will see from the size comparison thread that there IS a noticeable difference in size between British N and 1:120.

 

I've no SG stuff and I'm one of those who have modelled in 1:120 scale, albeit not UK outline, and I'm more than happy with the announcement, when phase 2 models are released I'll have nearly everything I need for a model based on what i saw as a spotter in the late 60s around Preston. Black 5, 9F and Brit, all I need is an 8F to make it perfect!

 

Thanks, Hornby!

Edited October 10, 2022 by Hobby

[SteamingWales]

Everyone talking about the target market yet no one has managed to full define it yet?

 

So far all I have seen is:

• Internet
• Youngsters
• Trainsets

Do I fall into this bracket being a 25 yo?

[HonestTom]

9 minutes ago, Billystanier said:

 

i get the gist that this is aimed at people who want to run trains rather than be the concerned with the finescale aspects of modelling.  

 

I think it's halfway between the two. Obviously the sets they've chosen are very much aimed at the kind of person who wants to run top link expresses, but at the same time they're doing a decent range of workaday wagons and less glamorous locomotives down the line. I suspect the idea with the release schedule is to enable people to get a train running, then enable them to turn it into a proper railway (perhaps after saving up for a bit).

Edited October 10, 2022 by HonestTom

[The Stationmaster]

46 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

No information has been provided on specification, construction or detail. At all. On anything.

That says a lot - in a rather, er. 'negative' manner.

[No Decorum]

Courageous. I hope for Hornby’s sake not in the Sir Humphrey sense. I have far too much 00 to contemplate a new scale, although I have been tempted by a couple of 0 models. The size and bulk impress me. Historically, it seems to me that scales which are half the size of the previous smaller scale succeed and intermediate scales wither, leaving a tiny if devoted following. Having said that, the true scale track attracts me and I can see appeal in the space and size argument. For grandchildren starting out, it could be worth a flutter. Plenty of financial inducement to start.

 

The one weird thing is the direct selling. This is an expensive physical product. Would most people not rather see the thing before purchase?

[wombatofludham]

11 minutes ago, Geep7 said:

Just watching the full video now, but sorry, what sort of nonsense is SK spouting in his video. OO is a "cradle to the grave" scale, and not for modellers, and 'N' gauge is a modellers gauge, with people over 50 giving it up? I model in OO, but i've also over the years modelled in N, O, On30, HO..... And I actually make models in OO, well in 4mm scale, just on 16.5mm track....

 

I know he is trying to big up and market the new TT:120, but I think he does a lot of us serious modellers a huge disservice in that statement.

Alongside the "steam is more charismatic than diesel" comment after announcing serious new investment in D+E models back in January, somebody either needs to instruct him to stick to the script, or put him on secondment to the Ukrainian army as chief bridge burner.

[Harlequin]

It's a sad world where everything gradually shrinks because of constant pressure on resources and space...

 

[KeithHC]

No doubt at some point in the past Hornby probably had a conversation with Peco. Also surely Hornby have left the field open for other manufacturers to join in so maybe they would look at the gaps. With todays modern ways of designing models it should be a simple! exercise to rescale a 3D design.

 

Keith

[Talltim]

40 minutes ago, Pmorgancym said:

Is there a TT 66 in their European range?

I don't think so, in fact so far as I can find there hasn't been one in TT at all, although Hobbytrain/Lemke were planning to make one back in 2014.

I'd always thought the that the proposed Gauegmaster model was going to be repainted existing model, but it would seem not.

Presumably, if its a good enough model, it could be in their Arnold range too, however that fact that its cheaper than the rest would imply it has a 'railroad' level of detail which may not sell well on the mainland.

[Fireline]

Just now, Harlequin said:

It's a sad world where everything gradually shrinks because of constant pressure on resources and space...

 

They've recently built some houses near me that I swear are so small, if you fart on one side, a rosette appears on the opposite wall. This is the kind of scale that takes into account that many people are living in much smaller spaces than they'd ideally like to, and consequently have less room for a "train set".

[Ravenser]

Well, that's quite a range. Some big moves there. A high cost and therefore high-risk project. Will it stay online only or is that just for Christmas??

 

Just to address the question of possible duplications - Hornby have an 08 in Phase 1. Heljan talked about doing one later maybe. That looks to me like Heljan duplicating rumoured Hornby. The 31 will be decided by when Heljan get theirs out - Hornby have enough items in phases 3/4 diesel quietly to drop theirs. Gaugemaster are seeking expressions of interest in a 66 , and have been for a couple of months . Hornby are doing one in Phase 2 , so the tooling must be well advanced . This looks like Gaugemaster accidentally duplicating Hornby who were already well advanced. Hornby can clearly market a 66 on the Continent in the Arnold TT range , which might explain the lower price

 

The track is sectional /setrrack so does not really duplicate Peco. Again it can be sold on the Continent under the Arnold TT brand

 

So when will the first consignments arrive ? Can they deliver this for Christmas??

 

Still a huge expensive and therefore high-risk move