scouse889

At a guess, around seven?

Agreed - it's the self-centering cam mechanism on all the other Hornby locos (which is now also going to be fitted to the HST power cars, by the looks) that cause the issues for me! They tend to need to be used with a rigid bar coupling, otherwise you get all sorts of issues. And using a rigid bar arrangement between two NEM pockets isn't always trivial given that they aren't always at the same height. At least the Hornby PCs are in the main to be used with the Mark 3 coaches, and I find the revised the Hunt Magnetic couplings (with the side supports to stop the magnet faces separating when going round a corner) for the Mark 3SD coaches work very well. Let's hope these work for the new slam door Mark 3s and power cars but, if not, I'm sure Hunt will be on the case with a bespoke pack.

Not just me then! Doing a metals one seems a fairly obvious choice to me given all the potential rolling stock out there. Accurascale PTAs for a start…. Still, I am glad we have two trainload ones this year. Here’s hoping the three greys are done right, or at least match with some previous releases (60015 for example).

Yes, the two new sets are to go together to make a nine car train and so are completely separate from the previously announced Scotland set. I haven't been interested in the Scottish one mainly because I wouldn't be able to extend it to nine cars, so it seemed a bit of an odd choice of model (other than it's a bit different to a standard Azuma) when Hornby didn't have the tooling for the extra cars. However, now they have the tooling they might release a bespoke, correctly numbered coach pack for it. Plus, they released a separate coach pack for the Hitachi test train so it really isn't beyond the realms of possibility that they would do the same again.

To my knowledge they have done both dedicated Royal 67s only once - but 67005 was the ex-Lima model and 67006 was the de novo SD model. Don't know if they were decorated differently though.

The main thing that puts me off the Belmond train pack is the fact you can't get any more matching coaches to go with it. I never really understand the 'train pack' approach where no additional vehicles are available separately to extend the train. I'd potentially be interested in the Belmond one if some extra coaches were made available separately, but as it currently stands coupled with the (let's face it) very high prices of models these days, these are way down my list. I didn't get why they produced a separate loco either - where exactly was the demand for this loco supposed to come from? OK, fair enough, run it light engine or on some duty other than the Belmond, but how many modellers are going to be sitting at home thinking "Do you know what my layout really needs, one of those Belmond 67s hauling a couple of silver bullets - I'll put it right at the top of my wishlist for next year." Same could be said for the Royal 67 - no coaches available at the time to make a complete train, I think the Queen's Saloon and Duke's Saloon (R4400/R4401) were released around the same time as 67006 but, again, it's not even remotely close to allowing a decent (truncated) representation of the train to be assembled. I bought some of the EWS 67s from Hattons when they were chucking them out (and very pleased I was too) but left the Royal 67 for these reasons...

Olivia’s, perchance?

At least in principle that means we might well see a bespoke coach pack for the Scottish set in the future....

I am glad to see Hornby have produced tooling for additional coaches to enable nine car 80x trains to be modelled. Is there any difference in the intermediate vehicles for the 800s versus the 801s/802s? I ask only because I wonder if we might see the missing coaches produced in the future to enable the five car 'Celebrating Scotland' set made into the full length nine car train? Hornby did something a bit similar with the Hitachi test train pack, producing the intermediate coaches at a later date...

Run 4 now with the new tooling rake - originally rake of 9 which coincided with the release of the LNER power cars (2019), then a second rake of 7 (2020), then a third rake of 7 (2021), and now another complete rake of 9 (2022) - a whopping 32 coaches in total! That doesn't even include the original rake of 5 coaches which accompanied the release of the VTEC power cars. I suppose at least any of these coaches can be used with either the VTEC (R3393TTS and NRM special R3502 set) or LNER (R3802) power cars (although the recent ones are a slightly different colour to the power cars), but even so I am with you - I am equally baffled why there has been a rake of these coaches produced ever year for the past four years....! Here's to rake 5 in 2023!

I never could get a ticket to see Drax and The Biomass Wagons when they performed at Wembley.

It is good to see the KFA being featured in the range again (several variations this year), and I am very much liking the separate container packs that Hornby have started to do. I think this is the third year that they have done these now. I thought that the first year (2020) had a bit of an odd selection of containers, and with the exception of the ONE containers I am yet to see one in the flesh (certainly not been on any of the many container trains that run through Oxford that I have seen), but last year they were much more recognizable with the inclusion of P&O, Evergreen, Nedlloyd and MSC. Good to see that has continued this year and a ubiquitous Maersk liveried container is also included here. I'll be having a few packs of them! My word, what has happened to my life, I'm dissecting my thoughts on small plastic box models of much larger and very boring metal boxes...... nurse, can I get some more of my tablets?

Yes, I did see all that and wasn’t intending to start a discussion of it again here. I’ve now edited my original post which hopefully makes my point clearer: I should be looking forward to all the new models, especially given all the improvements, but Hornby’s lack of QC evidenced by the LNER farewell has put a dampener on it for me, which is a great shame.

I would be very interested to see some pictures of your LNER HST and to hear your thoughts about it.

It certainly is in the livery renders, and if it was new tooling you would think it would be advertised as such... so I think it probably is just the old Lima model which has had its price updated to modern standards.

The LNER farewell set is now showing as out of stock with Hornby, but not yet arrived in stock with anyone else it seems. Wonder if there is any chance they will reissue replacement bodyshells with at least the number on 43006 corrected? I have emailed Hornby and await the response... With the 2022 range announced this morning and Hornby confirming the upgrades for the HST, which all sound great, and there being a new model of the Mark 3 coach to go with the upgraded power cars, which is again really great, and there being matching rakes to go with all the newly-announced HST train packs (plus an LNER rake which I guess could be for anyone wishing to upgrade), which is again all good, and the fact that I love a good HST or two, why is it that I find myself unable to get very excited.... am I alone in being left with a sinking feeling over the LNER farewell set which just makes me worry that the new HSTs will arrive with some clanger of a livery error on them, or some badly applied aspect of the livery, or something else that I'd never think of as a potential error in a million years (like putting the wrong number on something) but which happens anyway....???

It always baffles me why the Class 66 stays in the main range rather than moving to Railroad Plus - it would seem much more appropriate for it.

That would be a really nice idea, provided that it can be readily retrofitted into the older-style chassis (don't know how much/if any revision will have occurred to the internal chassis block itself).

Really good to see a range of retooled slam-door Mark 3 coaches for the HST. One rake of each to match with the new HST power car packs.... plus the obligatory rake in LNER ex-VTEC livery. It did make me smile - as well as collecting the yearly Hornby wagon and Hornby roadshow wagon, I'm thinking of starting a collection of the yearly Mark 3 rake in LNER livery....! But please, Hornby, make sure that the QC is good on them.

How long are they exactly?

The Hornby website proudly states that: "the company justifiably retains the position it has held for more than 50 years as Britain’s leading model railway manufacturer". I would very much like someone from Hornby to justify this statement by reference to the LNER HST. I can't quite see from the pictures on Instagram (and I can't currently find any other pictures online of the actual models themselves) but the roofs of the power cars looks entirely black to me (or at least very dark grey) whereas the roofs of the coaches look a much lighter grey. The roofs of the prototype don't show such an abrupt change in shade between power cars and coaches, so I anticipate this is going to turn out to be another shortcoming of the model of the train as a whole. I don't like being so negative and I hope I am wrong, but what I know so far doesn't exactly fill me with confidence...

And lest we forget of course that now the power cars and coaches match each other to perfection - it is clear that the same amount of care and attention seen in making a complete hash-up of the coaches has also been lavished on making a complete dogs breakfast of the power cars...

That is a woefully poor livery application - the 40th Anniversary set was much better applied than that so it can't be argued that it is anything to do with the difficulties in applying the blue/grey livery to the model. Putting the wrong number on is a shocking error which plumbs new depths. Makes you wonder who oversees the production of these things and signs off the artwork - such errors suggest it is someone who knows absolutely nothing about the prototype they are modelling.

Indeed - on both counts! I would also add "and is a darker shade of blue" to that. From reading posts from others in various threads, I think the general consensus is that the blue used on the Hornby model is far too light and has a purple tint to it - and I would certainly agree with this. I used to commute on a FGW HST every day and the prototypes were a deep glossy blue, which the colour and finish of the Hornby models has never really captured for me.

Yes, I did wonder what the associated import costs would be. Oh well, nothing for it other than back to work!