ForestPines Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Nobody's mentioned my biggest influence either: the Hornby track plans book which preceded the yellow-cover one above. I can't tell you what the cover looked like, because it came off long ago, but all through my childhood I loved poring over that, and the 1982 and 1985 catalogues (I know the date of the latter, because it was the GWR150 one). The track plans book included a section at the front showing you how to make typical track formations such as a scissors crossover, double junction, and so on, with their track geometry; I had never come across a scissors crossover before, and thought the Hornby ones looked extremely ugly. A slightly earlier influence was Lego cat. no. 7777, which I've seen described as the "Lego Trains Ideas Book", although it didn't actually have a title, or, indeed, any words anywhere inside it. This was another book that I read so much the cover came off - in fact, it fell apart to such an extent that The Parents bought me another copy. I did get enough Lego track to extend my set to match one of the simpler plans in the book, but never had enough of the right bricks to build any of the buildings or stock. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Nobody has mentioned MY first catalogue - 1977 . The shot of the HST on the cover and an even better shot of the train set which i still have boxed and complete even down to the mk3 alternative number sheet. 1977 is my first catalogue as well. My copy is barely better than a rag at this point with the number of times I thumbed through it as a teenager. Mine includes an insert in the middle for "Hornby Railways of Australia". The current catalouges have been poor since production moved to China. Artists impressions instead of photos of the REAL model and set boxes where you cant see the contenets. I know its hard to photograph a model that doesnt exist yet ........even the photos of the prototype could be better. I don't recall seeing any "artists impressions" in recent Hornby catalogues - except of the specialty sets that include illustrated prints. For models that don't exist, they generally use a prototype photograph. In the last few years there have been sepia photographs of Castles, Schools and B17s while we pre-order models with little idea of what they will actually look like. They only use one photograph to substitute for a range of models so for a couple of years in the catalogue, Tintagel Castle in "GWR green" was represented by a BR livered Castle (it might have been Ince Castle.) Alternatively there are "photoshopped" model photos. There was what I think was a 28xx in BR black where a GWR green one had green photoshopped as black. It turned into a nasty turgid greenish black that was neither black nor green. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oggy1953 Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Always wondered about that Yellow Pages advert where was it filmed? The model shop looks genuine to me. The trouble with that advert was that every time I saw it I could not get out of my head that the chap playing the dad was in my day famous for being 'Mr Bennet' the caretaker on 'Take Hart'. Oh dear, all that has made me feel very old. The model shop in question was indeed genuine. It was near opposite Potters Bar Bus Garage. It wasn't many miles from my home and i used to visit in the early 80s. The chap running the shop in the advert was of course an actor. Alas the shop was closed down by the time i got back into the hobby back in the mid 90s. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
darren01 Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 What the hell is in that mans pipe to have a face like that Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Delamar Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 never mind his face, look at his fingers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heinz57 Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 I've got alot of insperation from the Hornby catalouges over the years. The diaramas they have begun to use in the recent years have given me no end of insperation and ideas Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 never mind his face, look at his fingers. Perhaps he was related to Ann Boleyn? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueeighties Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Wonderful thread. I never realised just how much my mind was actually influenced by those catalogues. I remember really desiring the latest duff, '47541, The Queen Mother', with its stratford grey roof. Still have a soft spot for that one when I see it on a stand. Maybes a quick look on Ebay....but then again probably described as 'rare', and we all know what that means. www.ripoff.com! Regards, Lee Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mcfarlane Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Nobody's mentioned my biggest influence either: the Hornby track plans book which preceded the yellow-cover one above. I can't tell you what the cover looked like, because it came off long ago, but all through my childhood I loved poring over that, and the 1982 and 1985 catalogues (I know the date of the latter, because it was the GWR150 one) I had one of the earlier track plan books with a photo of the complex track outside Newcastle station (real, not model - you'd struggle to replicate it with Hornby settrack). The one plan that stands out in my memory (because there was a photo of it as well as a plan) was on two levels with a river at one end. I also remember one catalogue from the early 1980s with the HST and APT models at speed showing off their headlights. I don't think anyone has mentioned the separate booklet that came with the catalogue listing all the prices. So I will I also had a Peco catalogue, which was similar in page count to the Hornby ones, but extremely dull by comparison! It appeared to have fallen through a time rift from the 1960s (and this is was 25 years ago!) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Delamar Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 The cigarette add in the window reflection is a tell-tale of the times. Early 80s I'm guessing from the copy and from what appears to be a LNER 4-4-0 (Shire/Hunt?) set at the bottom. Something doesn't look right with that window reflection. Why isn't the cigarette ad (are they Pall Malls?) mirrored? Is there some pre-photoshop trickery here? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Delamar Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 yeah that s what I was thinking, also the loco's in those shots are not photographs, more like paintings, what have they done to make them look like that? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 yeah that s what I was thinking, also the loco's in those shots are not photographs, more like paintings, what have they done to make them look like that? On futher reflection (sorry) I think I have it. It is probably an unretouched photograph. The 'wall of boxes' is at right angles to the glass, but is angled and the line it makes with the glass is not vertical. (This creates the feeling of illusion or trickery. We expect the display to be parallel with the glass.) The boy and the lady with the umbrella are outside the glass and the cigarette poster is across the street in the line of the camera. The reflections on the glass of the 'boxes' look as they would from inside the 'shop'. (Clearly it's not really a shop.) The 'boxes' could be a printing on a large roll of paper - leading to your 'painted' effect. Real boxes don't stack at an angle like that to the vertical. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TT3 Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 The first Hornby catalogue i was given was from 1976 (in 1978 no less). However that sort of does not matter as none of the railway equiptment we aquired was by any means new at the time. In terms of inspiration, the prize goes to the Triang Hornby Book of trains that was given to me in about 1985 along with a small box of elderly but perfectly servicable triang stock (black princess, early jinty early wagons and brakevan with separate steps). This led to an attempt to recreate a triang layout (with a friend of mine who had alot more triang stock) complet with a catalogue inspired station scene modelled on the pictures in the book. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartingram Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 The cigarette add in the window reflection is a tell-tale of the times. Early 80s I'm guessing from the copy and from what appears to be a LNER 4-4-0 (Shire/Hunt?) set at the bottom. Something doesn't look right with that window reflection. Why isn't the cigarette ad (are they Pall Malls?) mirrored? Is there some pre-photoshop trickery here? Look closer at it! The road is not a reflection, it runs from bottom left to top right. The boy is standing on the pavement, pointing at the (toy)shop window that faces the pavement, NOT the window showing the Hornby boxes. They are in a window at 90 degrees to the road, ie either the shop is on a corner, or the door is set back, and this is the entrance to it. Either way, a reflection of the boxes can be seen in the glass of this window, also the glass shows the raindrops on it, to the left of the 'correct' view of the boxes. The shop opposite, with the ciggy advert on its end, is viewed straight through BOTH windows, as are the couple looking at the display. And the pictures of the trains are boxes, mounted on a display that leans slightly backwards. Clever bit of photography though. Edit: The LNER loco at the bottom is the B12 4-6-0 and I've just noticed the earlier posting which explains most of this, sorry! Stewart Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckjumper Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 That's page 6 of the 1978 catalogue and that 'painting' effect is the style Hornby sets came in back then. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForestPines Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 I had one of the earlier track plan books with a photo of the complex track outside Newcastle station (real, not model - you'd struggle to replicate it with Hornby settrack). The one plan that stands out in my memory (because there was a photo of it as well as a plan) was on two levels with a river at one end. That plan was definitely in the book I was talking about! Each plan included basic construction information, too: that plan showed how to make the river by cutting the main board in two along a curved line. Some of the baseboard shapes were quite complex - almost like a tangram puzzle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mcfarlane Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 That plan was definitely in the book I was talking about! Each plan included basic construction information, too: that plan showed how to make the river by cutting the main board in two along a curved line. Some of the baseboard shapes were quite complex - almost like a tangram puzzle. I wonder if anyone actually built the plans from these books? They obviously could be built exactly as per the plan (each bit of set track was clearly marked). Rumour has it that this isn't the case with some of the track plans in magazines. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Delamar Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 the loco paintings look more like paintings of real locos and not of Hornby models. they look similar to the ones in the The world of trains magazines. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Western Scottish Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 Its the 1978 catalogue. The LT pannier tank introduced that year gives it away. Also the loco referred to as a Shire is actually the B12 reintroduced in green that year after previously being produced in NE wartime black. The Shire didn't appear until the year of the loco in 1981. I loved the dioramas of earlier catalogues. I think the 74/75 catalogue showing layouts from the new track plans book was one of the best .Vol 3 track plans book had some completely unprototypical but fascinating layouts! Do you realise that wee boy is probably in his 40s now.............Scary! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve22 Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 I always liked the Yellow Pages 'Signal Box' advert. Great to see it again. The kid's joy ('They've got one, mum!' or whatever he says exactly) and the dad's quietly stated gratitude. The commentary seems pure sixties or even fifties, but fits the tone of that particular advert. Re catalogues: I recall in my model shop days around the mid to late eighties a guy saying that he had every Hornby catalogue apart from the 1980 edition. I reached under the counter and pulled out our by now quite tatty shop copy and gave it to him. No sale needed, his face told me we had another satisfied customer. Steve. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Natalie Graham Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 Not Hornby, but this http://www.playcraftrailways.com/images/cat64-1.jpg was the catalogue that influenced me. It came with my little clockwork toy train set and I really wanted the smart looking French diesel locos that were in it and the electric trains you didn't have to wind up and then catch to make them change direction. Without that catalogue it would have been another little kid's train set that wore out and got forgotten. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Delamar Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 they seemed to come out and be lying round the house moreso on the run up to birthdays and christmas Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruffnut Thorston Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Hi all. My "hobby" is working out which train will collide with another, as the layouts always had too many trains...(Wrenn catlogues were the same...) A Track Plans piece 1970s..(With Hump Shunting Yard) Then there were the photos on the old Tri-ang set boxes... C1952 Early 1950s Primary Series Later Primary Series sets C1961 Later were some great paintings...including the Tension Lock Couplings... RS.51 Freightmaster first issue C1964 RS.62 Car-a-Belle 1st issue C1964 A bit of 1960s catalogue art... and a real photo...(From Hornby Magazine.) The classic "Red Box" syndrome. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Delamar Posted July 29, 2011 Author Share Posted July 29, 2011 brilliant Pics my dads got a few of those carabelle sets, loves it. and he's got quite a few triang minic motorway catalogues. and those red boxes are great, I still use them now for some of my kit built locos. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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