Hornby, A Model World. Series 2.

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, Delta_Who said:

 

Now stick the tablet to your head :)
I thought it was a cool idea to have it in VR.

You can be his first customer.

 

There are several VR model railway programs using such devices as Oculus goggles and camera & cab control of real model railways.

Just a short journey to marry the two.

 

He seemed to be starting from scratch.

 I do like the idea though.

Edited March 21, 2023 by melmerby

[figworthy]

7 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

 

Also - Hornby needs a presence outside the usual channels if it is to attract new customers (although I'm not sure a display consisting of boxed "end of line" items is necessarily the best way of doing that). Perhaps surprisingly, what we didn't see on the stand was any Corgi or Oxford Diecast traction engines.

 

 

Oxford Diecast have their own stand, usually on the opposite side of the site to Hornby.  Oxford have been a supporter/sponsor of the steam fair for several years.

 

Adrian

[Godfrey Glyn]

I am a regular day visitor to the Great Dorset Stream Fair, a fascinating event on a whole range of levels. It's always interesting to see the the huge range of steam driven machines working, and the people who spend hours on bringing them back to working condition. The range of stalls on the site is huge, as is the site itself and just watching the people there is a topic all on its own! I have only ever visited early on day one and usually head off home around mid afternoon so I have never experienced the music performances in the evening but many people go for the whole event and camp on site.

Both Hornby and Oxford have supported the event for many years, when Taffy was just Oxford he could usually be found in the small tent alongside the main route through the event. Hornby have always been near to the western side of the site and Simon has usually been there to sell and talk to punters. Getting there early on day one provides the opportunity have a long talk with Simon and very occasionally to get a bargain of something, ( assuming of course its something you have haven't already bought for a lot more!)

I happily admit to having enjoyed this second series, its just television light entertainment, not Panorama and whilst much of the terminology in the voice over is often irritating it works well as a programme for the general public and will have done Hornby no harm.

all the best

Godfrey

 

[melmerby]

5 hours ago, maico said:

The bit about the Jacobs bogie had me a bit confused. He said there was no room for the motor there?

I've got a Trix model made in 2004 of the pre-war SVT-137 which has the motor, carriage pivots, and corridor connector on a smaller Jacobs type bogie.

Maybe the fact that the Flirt's smaller corridor connection makes a difference, the Trix one is using the full width of the body end, which isn't available on the Flirt.

There is also a large window almost at the body end.

Edited March 22, 2023 by melmerby

[The Stationmaster]

23 hours ago, spamcan61 said:

The Steam Fair attracts around 200,000 visitors a year, so it's pretty big, even if only 10% of those attending have any interest in toy trains then that's still a lot of potential punters. Surely it would be a lot less effort to dump them on the usual box shifters, but that's not so TV friendly I guess. 

The various events local to us have long attracted purveyors of model railways in various forms plus other sorts of models and as some of them used to come back every year I presume they found it worth their while.  However one - alas long gone due to increasing costs - also usually had steam running on rails - both 5" gauge and 2 ft gauge plus a display of large scale models always including railway models (live steam type)..

 

The market at these sort of events is very varied and I think Hornby have dome the Great Dorset Steam Fair in the past as well

 

20 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

I did like the way Montana’s diorama of the Channel Tunnel mid-point (viewed from above) brought the customers back in during last night’s episode - while also increasing the footfall to impress the CEO (seeing as several had four each).

 

Any more would be a plot spoiler 😀 .

 

An enjoyable series of light entertainment in my view, Keith.

I only saw the first half of the Hornby Show then off to BBC 2 for Uni  Challenge.  So tomorrow night  I'll watch out for the diorama of the midpoint of that Tunnel have seen it not only from the driving cab (in both running tunnels) but having also been pretty near to it on foot (in both running tunnels and the Service Tunnel).  And, according to the nav system, I've passed directly above it onboard ship.  So the diorama could be fun.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

1 minute ago, The Stationmaster said:

I only saw the first half of the Hornby Show then off to BBC 2 for Uni  Challenge.  So tomorrow night  I'll watch out for the diorama of the midpoint of that Tunnel have seen it not only from the driving cab (in both running tunnels) but having also been pretty near to it on foot (in both running tunnels and the Service Tunnel).  And, according to the nav system, I've passed directly above it onboard ship.  So the diorama could be fun.

Thanks Mike - please can I manage your expectations (ie: my comment may not have been entirely serious).  Keith.

[The Stationmaster]

9 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Thanks Mike - please can I manage your expectations (ie: my comment may not have been entirely serious).  Keith.

Don't worry Keith - with the The Hornby Show my expectations are already managed down and they definitely are more at the 'will it amuse me?' level for this.  and ay t least managed down expectations does allow for occasional moments of surprise or real information.  The only thing I'm wondering is what diameter of pipes she used and hoopfully one of them was smaller than the other two 👀

[Darius43]

5 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Don't worry Keith - with the The Hornby Show my expectations are already managed down and they definitely are more at the 'will it amuse me?' level for this.  and ay t least managed down expectations does allow for occasional moments of surprise or real information.  The only thing I'm wondering is what diameter of pipes she used and hoopfully one of them was smaller than the other two 👀

Woof Woof.

 

That’s a clue, by the way.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[Keith Addenbrooke]

2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Don't worry Keith - with the The Hornby Show my expectations are already managed down and they definitely are more at the 'will it amuse me?' level for this.  and ay t least managed down expectations does allow for occasional moments of surprise or real information.  The only thing I'm wondering is what diameter of pipes she used and hoopfully one of them was smaller than the other two 👀

Sorry - need to lower your expectations much further than that 🙄.  Think “bad Vicar’s joke” 😬 (as in a bad joke by a Vicar, not a joke by a bad Vicar - I hope 😇).

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Keith Addenbrooke
Add emojis (it’s lunchtime and I’m bored)

[DY444]

We are slightly behind on these, just watched the Turbomotive episode and I've finally been given an official reprimand by Mrs DY444 for excessive screaming of "it's a ******* locomotive not a ******* train!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".  🤬

[ELTEL]

Having been a regular visitor to the Great Dorset Steam Fair for well over 30 years, I can definitely confirm that SK has been on many of my visits to the Hornby Marquee.

 

Also Oxford Models have been going for a long time as has Trevor from Cheltenham Models.

 

But don’t book a date in your for regular GDSF which normally the now ends on August BH Monday .

 

The reason being due to the high costs of putting on the event the 2023 show is not going ahead, so you will have to wait till 2024

 

Pity as I was looking forward to the event as the last time I was there 2019 

 

Terry 

[The Stationmaster]

17 hours ago, DY444 said:

We are slightly behind on these, just watched the Turbomotive episode and I've finally been given an official reprimand by Mrs DY444 for excessive screaming of "it's a ******* locomotive not a ******* train!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".  🤬

You might now understand why Mrs Stationmaster retires to bed when The Hornby Show begins!

[caradoc]

I've just watched this programme rewrite model train history - The 1950s Hornby Princess? After that it hardly seems worth mentioning the Bulleid Pacific on the turntable with the tender the wrong way round. Unbelievable. 

 

 

 

 

 

[RJS1977]

And apparently Hornby made Minic Motorways too .... :-(

[GoingUnderground]

Tonight's "Top 10" programme was full of inaccuracies. The Rovex later Triang Railways Princess being the most obvious, never having been made by Meccano or carrying the Hornby brand.  But it also gave the impression that Minic Motorways and Scalextric were made by rival independent companies when both were part of the Lines Bros group, and both ended up being made at different times in the Lines Bros Margate factory so prominently featured in the series.

 

The 007 Aston Martin and the success of Corgi completely whitewashed the fact that Corgi, the brand name used by tbe Mettoy company, was in competition with the Dinky Toys made by Meccano who also made Hornby Dublo. Corgi models had interiors, windows, and steering when Dinky Toys had none of those features and was another reason that Meccano went broke in 1964. 

 

The 1960s version of Rocket was made by Triang, but that didn't stop it being referred to as the "first Hornby Rocket". 

 

The 1920 O gauge clockwork loco was the only true Hornby item in that it was created by Frank Hornby and was made by the company that he founded namely Meccano. But even there the fact that Frank Hornby's educational toy was Meccano, and the Hornby O gauge tinplate railway system was derived from Meccano. IIRC, everything else in the "Top 10" came from the businesses who were competitors to Meccano and hence Hornby Dublo, namely Lines Bros Triang Railways and Scalextric brands, Ralph Ehrmann's Airfix, and Mettoy's Corgi. or from their successor companies or businesses which are the continuation of and direct descendants of Rovex, not of Meccano's Hornby and Dinky Toy businesses. The only connection with Frank Hornby is the Hornby name which was saved from oblivion by Lines Bros acquisition of the Meccano company and its Hornby Dublo and Dinky Toy branded ranges.

 

But why let factual accuracy get in the way of a good story. 

 

I'm sorry, but I do get very annoyed with the way that today's Hornby company seems to go out of its way to ignore, if not deny, its Rovex/Lines Bros/Triang Railways origins.

 

 

[Hroth]

I'd venture to suggest that the first Hornby Rocket was the 3.5" gauge live stream one of 1979. I've still got one, I wish I'd bought a couple of coaches to go with it at the time!

 

[Phil Parker]

19 minutes ago, GoingUnderground said:

I'm sorry, but I do get very annoyed with the way that today's Hornby company seems to go out of its way to ignore, if not deny, its Rovex/Lines Bros/Triang Railways origins.

 

The full range of logos can normally be found on the banner at the back of the Hornby exhibition stand. And there are train set in the range with Tri-ang on the box. The TV series has dramatically simplified the history, that’s not the same thing.

[Butler Henderson]

Thankfully PVRed and skip-watched it in 10 minutes - thats 70 minutes lost with the clock change.

[melmerby]

26 minutes ago, Phil Parker said:

 

The full range of logos can normally be found on the banner at the back of the Hornby exhibition stand. And there are train set in the range with Tri-ang on the box. The TV series has dramatically simplified the history, that’s not the same thing.

"Scalextric was bought by the company that is now known as Hornby Hobbies"😄

 

Just sounds over convoluted.

[GoingUnderground]

28 minutes ago, Phil Parker said:

 

The full range of logos can normally be found on the banner at the back of the Hornby exhibition stand. And there are train set in the range with Tri-ang on the box. The TV series has dramatically simplified the history, that’s not the same thing.

The banner seems to be a relatively recent addition to their PoS materials.

 

Personally.I wouldn't say that the TV series "... dramatically simplified the history", to me it's more like rewriting the history by omitting references to Triang and Lines Bros.

 

 

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, GoingUnderground said:

Corgi, the brand name used by tbe Mettoy company, was in competition with the Dinky Toys made by Meccano who also made Hornby Dublo. Corgi models had interiors, windows, and steering when Dinky Toys had none of those features

Corgi introduced their "Ones with Windows" in 1956,  Meccano reacted to the new Corgi competition by adopting the same features almost immediately. I had a Dinky Rolls Royce with windows, sprung suspension and IIRC an interior in the late 50s

Lines Bros didn't buy Meccano until 1964, AFAIK Dinkies were still selling well at the time.

It was Hornby Dublo which sank Meccano.

[Phil Parker]

8 hours ago, GoingUnderground said:

The banner seems to be a relatively recent addition to their PoS materials.

 

Personally.I wouldn't say that the TV series "... dramatically simplified the history", to me it's more like rewriting the history by omitting references to Triang and Lines Bros.

 

 

 

The banner has been around since the centenary celebrations, and they have been trotting out the "Hornby Dublo" models for a long while too.

 

The problem the TV series has, is that Hornby has such a convoluted history, it would take an entire programme to explain, and of interest to very, very few people, most of whom will already know it from the various books on the subject. For the sake of simplicity, the writers of the series, who are not Hornby, have sidestepped the whole thing. Those of us who know more of the history just have to sit back and chuckle at the errors and ommissions (Did you forget the live Steam Rocket Simon?) and let it go. This is light entertainment, not the Open University.

[RedgateModels]

7 minutes ago, Phil Parker said:

let it go.

 

There's a song in my head now Phil, just you wait until I see you next......

 

 

[ikcdab]

So I am confused.  I watch on catch up.  I see there are 11 episodes...I thought that episode 11 had been shown as the first one.... Is the "top ten" episode a brand new one? If so what happened to the original episode 11...?

[Phil Parker]

6 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

So I am confused.  I watch on catch up.  I see there are 11 episodes...I thought that episode 11 had been shown as the first one.... Is the "top ten" episode a brand new one? If so what happened to the original episode 11...?

 

Episode 11 was released online right at the start to make up for the weeks delay in transmission.