Hornby 2024 range announcements

[Halvarras]

1 hour ago, Butler Henderson said:

Have existed on preserved locos

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65480188@N07/18867434693/

 

and

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/british-finnish-railways/8864756351/

 

Thank you BH, that explains everything - the 48DS has been produced in preserved liveries (I have 'Jim'*) so no surprise that the 88DS is being similarly adorned.

OHLE flashes on "D2959" are a nice touch!

 

* Mulling over whether to overlay his name with 'DS1170'..........just going with the present flow, I seem to be getting less precious about these things in my old age 🤓!

[Fair Oak Junction]

46 minutes ago, Metropolitan said:

B2 would be close enough for me. After all, Hornby are more than happy to paint locos with a Beatles livery?

 

While that is true, those are aimed at a totally different part of the market. Now if a Peckett B2 had been painted in LT/MET livery in preservation, then I could see it being done.

[1andrew1]

1 hour ago, elmtree-line said:

 

One wonders how much real long term thought was put behind canning the Thomas and Friends range.  Whether down to greedy execs not wanting to pay for the licences, or something else is up for debate, but it's clearly a viable product range or Bachmann would not have been so quick to snap up the licenses and get production rolling.

It could have been greedy executives wanting to charge higher licence fees; we simply don't know. But Bachmann is a logical licence holder as it is strong in the US and UK whilst Hornby is just strong in the UK with a good European footprint.

[1andrew1]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

One look at the Argos price tells you what was wrong with Playtrains - sets at the wrong price point for the market they were aimed at and the much cheaper competitiomn they were up against.    Clever idea poorly executed and overpriced.

 

I wonder how much of that stuff there is in the mountain of stock over-ordered for last year's Christmas market?

Interesting. Pricing certainly seems something the new Hornby Hobbies Management Team is paying attention to ad this came across in post-announcement interviews with the Airfix Team. I'm guessing that the range could not be produced cheaply enough to compete with the lower priced offerings so it's back to the drawing board which is a shame. 

[Bryn_Bach_Railway]

3 hours ago, elmtree-line said:

 

All I know is Hornby advised them that the item is not orderable, the R code does not relate to any model.

I suspect they might have made the decision to make it a club exclusive item. And announce it when it arrives as it never really had an “official” announcement anyways. Seems very odd to cancel it after already having samples and it being due in April (4 months)

[Coppercap]

3 hours ago, 5Dublo2 said:

There is a thread on the Hornby forum that indicates the 2nd class carriage  was based on an 1830 sketch by Henry Booth (but maybe they got the colour/livery from the Royal mail stamp set)

see the very first post in this link   https://uk.Hornby.com/community/forum/henry-booth-and-the-new-Hornby-lmr-carriage-338251
 

Thanks, I'd not come across those Henry Booth sketches. As certain features appear more than once in different images (such as the strange curved-bottomed doors) they seem to have genuinely existed, and it does indeed appear that Hornby have used these as the basis for their model. They do look somewhat more convincing than the images depicted on the stamps.

So did Hornby mention these last year? I never saw that back then.

Edit: Ah yes, they did - just found train pack R30090...

Edited January 11 by Coppercap

[Dunsignalling]

3 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

But are Hornby selling catalogues?

 

They are made by Key Publishing....

 

 

Jason

 

In which case Hornby could just drop it and  concentrate on what they supposedly do for a living!

 

Does it actually matter if we know what will be in it before it comes out?

 

It does have an R number, though.

Edited January 11 by Dunsignalling

[D9020 Nimbus]

3 hours ago, elmtree-line said:

 

One wonders how much real long term thought was put behind canning the Thomas and Friends range.  Whether down to greedy execs not wanting to pay for the licences, or something else is up for debate, but it's clearly a viable product range or Bachmann would not have been so quick to snap up the licenses and get production rolling.

Bachmann already had the licence — just not for the U.K. The models already existed. To market them here, they would need to be put through the certification process to prove that they are safe for the intended market.

[Pmorgancym]

39 minutes ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

Bachmann already had the licence — just not for the U.K. The models already existed. To market them here, they would need to be put through the certification process to prove that they are safe for the intended market.

I don't think the decision was all Hornby's I imagine Mattel wanted a single international license, maybe sense for Bachmann to get it especially with the UK demand for the 009 locos and the G scale stuff also

[moawkwrd]

49 minutes ago, Pmorgancym said:

I don't think the decision was all Hornby's I imagine Mattel wanted a single international license, maybe sense for Bachmann to get it especially with the UK demand for the 009 locos and the G scale stuff also

How does the Tomix stuff figure into that?

Edited January 11 by moawkwrd

[vikingsmb]

tbh not impressed with this at all far from it, Hornby need to get their act together

[Fair Oak Junction]

Just now, vikingsmb said:

tbh not impressed with this at all far from it, Hornby need to get their act together

 

So, them concentrating on catching up with the many still outstanding items isn't getting their act together? Interesting theory.

[Graham_Muz]

2 minutes ago, vikingsmb said:

tbh not impressed with this at all far from it, Hornby need to get their act together

I'm sure Hornby will be taking such constructive feedback into account. 

[vikingsmb]

3 minutes ago, Fair Oak Junction said:

 

So, them concentrating on catching up with the many still outstanding items isn't getting their act together? Interesting theory.

it is a interesting theory, my rationale is that they tend to concentrate on steam or modern image, but what about pre tops blue etc? dont we get a look in? Tbh I actually miss lima 

[Fair Oak Junction]

9 minutes ago, vikingsmb said:

it is a interesting theory, my rationale is that they tend to concentrate on steam or modern image, but what about pre tops blue etc? dont we get a look in? Tbh I actually miss lima 

 

Well to be fair, your original post made no mention of that.

[Steamport Southport]

2 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

In which case Hornby could just drop it and  concentrate on what they supposedly do for a living!

 

Does it actually matter if we know what will be in it before it comes out?

 

It does have an R number, though.

 

Just because you don't want one? 

 

Other people do though. Worth remembering they sold out last year and had to make another run of them!

 

 

 

Jason

[stewartingram]

Interesting comments from SK in RM this month, where he reckons annual catalogues are outdated.

Edited January 11 by stewartingram

[Fair Oak Junction]

Ultimately only sales numbers will give a true answer. If this year's Hornby catalogue sells out, then outdated or not it's still worth them doing.

Whereas if it is left on the shelves or being flogged off, then they need probably need to rethink the concept for next year.

[Dunsignalling]

6 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Just because you don't want one? 

 

Other people do though. Worth remembering they sold out last year and had to make another run of them!

 

 

 

Jason

 

Yes, but the tail is wagging the dog in the case of the catalogue. 

 

The distortions inflicted on Hornby’s current business model caused by a1960s catalogue policy probably costs them many times over what they ever make from selling the books.

 

They are supposed to be in the business of making and selling model trains, but keeping everything under wraps until the issue of the catalogue makes optimising production and sales virtually impossible.

 

I've nothing against those who collect catalogues, but there’s no case to be made any more for everything to be held back to  make it "First with the news".

 

Hornby really can't afford to continue ordering blind on batch sizes from the factories. 

 

John

[Legend]

17 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

Interesting comments from SK in RM this month, where he reckons annual catalogues are outdated.

Which is amazing because it’s not what he said before !  Boring side view catalogues that have been the same for about the last 15 years are maybe outdated . Who was responsible for them ? 

[Butler Henderson]

And is there actually anything worth the ££  in the catalogue that adds to what is available on line. 

[Fair Oak Junction]

Pretty sure it's basically only for collectors at this point, of which there are probably more than you would think. I see it in other hobbies as well.

Edited January 12 by Fair Oak Junction

[Robin Brasher]

31 minutes ago, Fair Oak Junction said:

Ultimately only sales numbers will give a true answer. If this year's Hornby catalogue sells out, then outdated or not it's still worth them doing.

Whereas if it is left on the shelves or being flogged off, then they need probably need to rethink the concept for next year.

At Swanage the Hornby catalogues have been left on the shelf for years at W H Smith and the Swanage Railway shop stopped selling them years ago.  For me the catalogues are an institution and I have still got Tri-ang and Hornby Dublo catalogues dating back the 1950s. I always had problems with the Tri-ang catalogues because the price list came out after the catalogues. I think you can still get the price lists from Hornby.  The catalogues tell me what has been deleted as well as what is new but I often find new items not covered by social media. I have been getting the Hornby Catalogue and Magazine Bundle direct from Key Publishing as my local W H Smith does not do that offer.  I usually find that I am disappointed with the Hornby Magazine rather than the Catalogue and everyone at the model railway club wants to see the catalogue when I take it there.

[NZRedBaron]

Personally speaking, I think they lost their way a bit when they started cheaping out on the images- I'm not saying they should do a seance to summon Terence Cuneo back from the dead or anything, but I feel like the catalogues would be much more interesting if they went back to the old ways, and included images of the models doing what the real things were made for; like imagine how awe inspiring something like a classic 'lineside' painting of Lord Hurcomb rushing past on the 'Hook Continental' would look; or maybe King Stephen at the buffers at Paddington, catching its' breath after just arriving with the Cornish Riviera Express, or Class 08 shunters rumbling to and fro in a busy yard; or something as humble as a pick-up goods hauled by a 'Black Five' on a lonely windswept moor.

[APOLLO]

 

What a superb model locomotive. 

 

Below is a painting by S.G. Hughes, a locomotive of the 'Novelty' type on the St.Helens and Runcorn Gap railway crosses the Liverpool and Manchester Railway over Sutton's two-span Intersection Bridge. This was the first bridge in the world where one railway crossed another railway. The locomotive is hauling coal wagons to the docks at Widnes and beneath it, heading towards Manchester, is a 'Rocket' type locomotive.

 

A nice layout or diorama idea. What a wonderful bridge that is. Hmmmm, shall I ?

 

 

The St Helens & Runcorn Gap railway, little known as it was mainly a grotty (very) industrial line throughout the years. The Liverpool & Manchester sold some early locomotives to the St Helens & Runcorn Gap railway though Tiger doesn't appear in the list below, "Novelty" does. I wonder what happend to Tiger ?

 

 

More info.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Liverpool_and_Manchester_Railway_locomotives

 

https://www.suttonbeauty.org.uk/suttonhistory/transport/

 

https://8dassociation.org/the-st-helens-and-runcorn-gap-railway/

 

A very interesting book, has lists of all locos used, some were ex L&M etc.

 

 

Brit15