Hornby TT Easter announcement 2024

[1andrew1]

On 03/04/2024 at 23:02, Dunsignalling said:

 

TBF, Hornby are marketing TT:120 at beginners and the budget-conscious, so the segment most under threat from it will logically be the Railroad range. 

 

They are smart enough to have factored that in, along with a degree of attrition that they will consider tolerable in the short-to-medium term.

 

So long as TT:120 thrives over the longer term, I would expect a point to be reached where Railroad disappears altogether. That will allow Hornby to move OO upmarket with the "full fat" (plastic) range at (by then) around £350-£400 a go for DCC-ready 4-6-0s/2-8-0s and above, with sound/smoke/lit versions and metal-bodied "neo-Dublo" in a spread between there and £600 or so. 

 

John

 

  

Question for me is how PlayTrain's 00 gauge offering fits into this? It encourages owners to upgrade to a proper OO model railway as their existing trains can run on it. 

[Dunsignalling]

Just now, 1andrew1 said:

Question for me is how PlayTrain's 00 gauge offering fits into this? It encourages owners to upgrade to a proper OO model railway as their existing trains can run on it. 

Is PlayTrain still a thing? 

[Vanguard 5374]

5 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

Is PlayTrain still a thing? 

Yes, Hornby have announced a new set this year.

[Dunsignalling]

9 minutes ago, 1andrew1 said:

Question for me is how PlayTrain's 00 gauge offering fits into this? It encourages owners to upgrade to a proper OO model railway as their existing trains can run on it. 

 

2 minutes ago, Vanguard 5374 said:

Yes, Hornby have announced a new set this year.

 

8 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

Is PlayTrain still a thing? 

 

Thanks.

 

Seems eminently sensible to me. TT:120 is probably too fiddly/delicate until maybe 8 years old. 

 

 

[GenericRMWebUsername]

We've done this debate over and over. People claim that TT:120 products are designed for simpletons who have no standards. Evidence is pointed to that TT:120 is not aimed at simpletons, instead it's for individuals with less space or those wanting to run longer formations. Then the original group of people offer a rebuttal in the form of the virtues of N Scale. TT:120 supporters then point out some of the compromises of N Scale. Then the N Scale supporters come out attacking the TT:120 supporters. The conversation then goes to Hornby's inevitable bankruptcy and ruin. At some point, Accurascale's superiority comes up. 

 

Everyone needs to accept that TT:120 is here to stay. Instead of the quality of the products being abysmal, there are indications that the products are improving with each release as Hornby adjusts to the scale. Moreover, the tempo of releases is picking up with 2 newly-tooled locomotives in the pipeline for release in the next 3 months. That's following the release of a flagship newly-tooled locomotive 2 months ago. By the end of the calendar year, Hornby will have launched 5 newly-tooled locomotives. 

 

Let's just enjoy these announcements! 

[Dunsignalling]

26 minutes ago, 1andrew1 said:

Question for me is how PlayTrain's 00 gauge offering fits into this? It encourages owners to upgrade to a proper OO model railway as their existing trains can run on it. 

I think that takes us back to the perennial question of how Hornby consider their various "bits" relate to one another.

 

The real answer, perhaps is that most of what we see today came about from separate decisions about separate aims at different times and maybe we shouldn't expect them to fully interface.

[Johan DC]

21 minutes ago, GenericRMWebUsername said:

We've done this debate over and over. People claim that TT:120 products are designed for simpletons who have no standards. Evidence is pointed to that TT:120 is not aimed at simpletons, instead it's for individuals with less space or those wanting to run longer formations. Then the original group of people offer a rebuttal in the form of the virtues of N Scale. TT:120 supporters then point out some of the compromises of N Scale. Then the N Scale supporters come out attacking the TT:120 supporters. The conversation then goes to Hornby's inevitable bankruptcy and ruin. At some point, Accurascale's superiority comes up. 

 

Everyone needs to accept that TT:120 is here to stay. Instead of the quality of the products being abysmal, there are indications that the products are improving with each release as Hornby adjusts to the scale. Moreover, the tempo of releases is picking up with 2 newly-tooled locomotives in the pipeline for release in the next 3 months. That's following the release of a flagship newly-tooled locomotive 2 months ago. By the end of the calendar year, Hornby will have launched 5 newly-tooled locomotives. 

 

Let's just enjoy these announcements! 

 

90% of the last 300 pages in the TT120 announcement thread can be replaced with this post! 

 

Edited April 5 by Johan DC
Typo

[Dunsignalling]

3 hours ago, GenericRMWebUsername said:

We've done this debate over and over. People claim that TT:120 products are designed for simpletons who have no standards. Evidence is pointed to that TT:120 is not aimed at simpletons, instead it's for individuals with less space or those wanting to run longer formations. Then the original group of people offer a rebuttal in the form of the virtues of N Scale. TT:120 supporters then point out some of the compromises of N Scale. Then the N Scale supporters come out attacking the TT:120 supporters. The conversation then goes to Hornby's inevitable bankruptcy and ruin. At some point, Accurascale's superiority comes up. 

 

Everyone needs to accept that TT:120 is here to stay. Instead of the quality of the products being abysmal, there are indications that the products are improving with each release as Hornby adjusts to the scale. Moreover, the tempo of releases is picking up with 2 newly-tooled locomotives in the pipeline for release in the next 3 months. That's following the release of a flagship newly-tooled locomotive 2 months ago. By the end of the calendar year, Hornby will have launched 5 newly-tooled locomotives. 

 

Let's just enjoy these announcements! 

All of those things except "simpletons" but Hornby's own take on TT:120 is that their  main targets are beginners, the space-starved and the budget conscious.

 

An inevitable implication of the last one is less separately-applied detail, which in any case would be less apparent due to the smaller size of the models.

 

It's unlikely that any commercial r-t-r range will ever cover every facet of modelling that anyone wants. That's why "smaller suppliers" exist and some modellers don't do r-t-r at all.  Most of us just go with whichever scale leaves the fewest and most manageable gaps in our requirements.  

 

For most people, almost everything they want that TT:120 offers could be achieved in N or OO, with far greater product choice. A lack of space and the desire to run long formations would clearly be better addressed by N, but other aspects give TT:120 the edge  for some. For the adopters TT:120 just leaves fewer gaps in the way they wish to participate in the hobby. Having (for now) to rely more heavily on Rule One than they might want is worth tolerating. Simply horses for courses, a happy medium, or whatever.

 

I'm not sure about "enjoying" announcements for their own sake, though.....

 

John

Edited April 5 by Dunsignalling

[eldomtom2]

On 03/04/2024 at 23:02, Dunsignalling said:

TBF, Hornby are marketing TT:120 at beginners and the budget-conscious, so the segment most under threat from it will logically be the Railroad range.

But if you're budget-conscious, surely it makes more sense to go for a scale like OO or N where there's a much greater amount of second-hand stuff available?

[Dunalastair]

On 03/04/2024 at 18:56, Steamport Southport said:

 

Try and make a N Gauge layout using only what was available RTR in 1975. Also try the same in 00. 

 

 

Standards are another matter, but thinking back to what I bought as a teenager in the (?late) seventies after selling my mix-and-match Tri-ang 00, the Farish pseudo 'Jazz' Enfield Town sets (GER/LNER 0-6-0T plus four wheelers) at least aimed at the intensive service operated by most modellers. And for those of us in Scotland, the Minitrix green Type 2 / maroon Mk1 combination ran very nicely in a West Highland setting, even if the '27' showed its German antecedents. 

[Dunsignalling]

10 minutes ago, eldomtom2 said:

But if you're budget-conscious, surely it makes more sense to go for a scale like OO or N where there's a much greater amount of second-hand stuff available?

 

It would for me and I often buy used for conversion projects and repair work, but modern consumer society is only now rediscovering the attractions of that.

 

[Phil Parker]

25 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

That's why "smaller suppliers" exist and some modellers don't do r-t-r at all.

 

Chatting to the 3mm Society at York, TT120 has seen a marked interest in people taking out membership with them.

[spamcan61]

The chief protagonist mentions budget in this launch interview, roughly 9 minutes in, at least this can be taken as Hornby's rationale behind the range at that point.

 

https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/news//interview-simon-kohler-on-launch-of-Hornby-tt

[Dunsignalling]

1 minute ago, Phil Parker said:

 

Chatting to the 3mm Society at York, TT120 has seen a marked interest in people taking out membership with them.

 

Sounds like they might need to consider a change of name then. 😉

 

[Pmorgancym]

2 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

The chief protagonist mentions budget in this launch interview, roughly 9 minutes in, at least this can be taken as Hornby's rationale behind the range at that point.

 

https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/news//interview-simon-kohler-on-launch-of-Hornby-tt

Is TT120 noticeably cheaper?  Looking at the sets, a like for like comparison is the HST set (Yes 00 is railroad but to the uninitiated, they are both 'Hornby 125 sets').  The 00 can be picked up for just over £100, the TT over double.

[Johan DC]

6 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

Sounds like they might need to consider a change of name then. 😉

 

12mm Society, and blame the inflation.

[Johan DC]

3 minutes ago, Pmorgancym said:

Is TT120 noticeably cheaper?  Looking at the sets, a like for like comparison is the HST set (Yes 00 is railroad but to the uninitiated, they are both 'Hornby 125 sets').  The 00 can be picked up for just over £100, the TT over double.

If you check the packs, there is quite a difference:

 

 

[Pmorgancym]

2 minutes ago, Johan DC said:

If you check the packs, there is quite a difference:

 

 

Look at the train set prices

[Dunsignalling]

4 minutes ago, Pmorgancym said:

Is TT120 noticeably cheaper?  Looking at the sets, a like for like comparison is the HST set (Yes 00 is railroad but to the uninitiated, they are both 'Hornby 125 sets').  The 00 can be picked up for just over £100, the TT over double.

It's not just about that, though, is it.

 

I reckon the space thing is the main factor, but never under-estimate novelty value. Seldom mentioned but, IMHO, being "first with the latest" has been quite a major influence on take-up so far.

 

I note that the earlier trumpeting of an "exact scale-to-gauge ratio" has rather diminished now everyone has seen the coarseness of the wheel profile, though. What models look like has always been at least as important as how they measure.  

 

John

[Johan DC]

8 minutes ago, Pmorgancym said:

Look at the train set prices

 

I don't think that's a fair comparison, the OO-sets are Railroad. 

[Dunsignalling]

1 minute ago, Johan DC said:

 

I don't think that's a fair comparison, the OO-sets are Railroad. 

 

But how does the specification/detail of the TT:120 HST's sit vis-a-vis the Railroad and "full-fat" OO versions?

 

 

[Johan DC]

5 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

But how does the specification/detail of the TT:120 HST's sit vis-a-vis the Railroad and "full-fat" OO versions?

 

 

Good question, I only know that the railroads are quite old (Lima stock?) and the dummy has no lights, not even pick-ups. I think the powered car only has simple white lights.

I haven't seen a TT one in the flesh, so no idea detail wise.

 

[Legend]

27 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

But how does the specification/detail of the TT:120 HST's sit vis-a-vis the Railroad and "full-fat" OO versions?

 

 

Have a look at Dean Parks YouTube channel - he reviews the new TT120 HST . Quite impressive . 

[Pmorgancym]

31 minutes ago, Johan DC said:

 

I don't think that's a fair comparison, the OO-sets are Railroad. 

but the sets aren't marketed as Railroad and if you swallow the BS about TT 'new markets, new people to the hobby etc.'.  your presenting them with effectively a starter kit in a big box, track controller etc. put them side by side one just over £100 the other just over £200 which looks better value?  Bear in mind you can add a HM7000 to the 00 model and lights if your handy and still come in at less than the TT set.

(Nothing against it , if they do a wr HST  trainset in TT maybe in intercity it would likely be on my Xmas list)

[Johan DC]

2 hours ago, Pmorgancym said:

but the sets aren't marketed as Railroad

Product Info (from the Hornby website)

(....)

This Hornby Train Set is based on a Railroad specification. Railroad models are carefully designed to be less easily damaged yet maintaining attractive detailing and accurate liveries.

More details about our Railroad range can be found here: Railroad (Hornby.com)