scouse889

Indeed, a brand new pair of these from a seller in Australia is still available on eBay for £260.91 + £15.85 P&P to the UK, or direct from the Hornby website at £362.99 (with free post as the order is over £50!!). Hmmm.....

Sad to see these trains go. The HSTs never used to venture up to Liverpool as a rule (any XC services were handled by 86s and 47s) but we used to go on holiday to North Wales quite regularly when I was younger and seeing an HST set on the Holyhead-London Euston services passing through Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch was always exciting! Happy times.

It's amazing how the omission of such small details really alters the look of a model. It was the same with the second release of the NMT power cars, where the front grille was painted yellow instead of black - it really made the power cars look wrong. A shame because this is the only power car pack that Hornby have ever produced which contains a standard power car alongside one of the ex-DVT power cars (ever hopeful we might get such a pack in VT livery with a matching rake of 7 coaches to make an authentic XC set - standard class in the buffet car, please). I realize that with a steady hand and a small paintbrush it might be considered easy by some to correct such mistakes but I very much feel that these things, which are quite obvious if you compare to a picture of the prototype, should be right out of the box, especially given the prices that manufacturers are charging for their models these days (not necessarily a gripe, more a statement of fact - over £300 for a model is an awful lot of money to a lot of people). Also, I feel that generally accepting such errors becomes a slippery slope to go down - where do you draw the line? Look at the recent IC DVT for example, for £75 you then have to paint the inside of the cab black to stop the light bleed, paint the windscreens black to match the prototype, and file the mould line down from the roof (all flaws identified by others) to make the model "right". This seems like quite a long list of "minor" corrections to me for something that is sold as a 'ready to run' model, and QC really should be picking these things up in the manufacturing process. Unfortunately there is an ever-growing list of models I haven't bought due to issues with decoration and/or finish (including those NMT power cars and IC DVT, both of which I was looking forward to at the time).

Plus both LNER and FGW now showing as in stock with Hornby (as of yesterday). Let's hope I can find a spare £726 down the back of the sofa!

So I've just had an email from Hornby saying that the LNER Farewell Tour power car pack is in stock with them. Apparently, the train pack was also recently featured on "This Morning". Did anyone see it? I wonder what Holly and Phil thought about the accuracy of the shade of blue used, and what about the overspray between the grey and the blue???

The window is very odd - the livery is quite plain so the silver surround on the prototype really does stand out quite a bit. So indeed strange that a blue outline has been painted on the model, makes you wonder how it came about!

This would seem logical and I would certainly welcome it. It would give an alternative, interesting set of rolling stock to run with the forthcoming 91s (as well as the blue grey sleepers and HST DVT). Any Mark I, II or III in IC executive would be nice too.

I see there is a set of these (from Australia) for sale on eBay… £266.02 plus £16.16 postage. Almost tempting to buy to see if they get to the UK quicker than Hornby release them here!

Thanks very much @Daniel A. They look the same shade of blue as the previous releases so I am still hoping the new buffet R40035 matches with the older rake of coaches I have so I can replace the skinhead one R4371A. Not too much longer to wait to find out! It would be nice to add the representation of the TSD to that rake too.

I think if they were going to do this it would have to include a motor upgrade.

A nice Xmas present! Any chance of some pics?

Ooooh, are we wishlisting and speculating again? Well, on the 12th day of January (or thereabouts) I think/wish* (delete as applicable) Simon Kohler will have gave to me: 12 Flying Scotsman’s, 11 brand new Peckett’s, 10 cheap 66s, 9 delayed 2021 models, 8 pin DCC sockets, 7 car APT train pack (without capacitors), 6 reliveried models, 5 new Playtrains things, 4 (-6-2) Pacific locos, 3 car EMU, 2 car DMU, and a dodgy livery application on a (slightly retooled) HST. I think that about covers it…??! Merry Christmas to all!!

Me too. Certainly a very different type of wagon for incorporation into a steel train, makes for a bit of variety…!!

Looking at the pictures of the actual wagons now they have been delivered, the hoods appear to be completely detachable so I guess they could be swapped round and used with the original red stripe wagons if you want both? Expensive way of doing it if you don’t though!!

Happened to be looking for other things - second hand 47 for £50, not a bad price if you only want it for the chassis and are not bothered what bodyshell it has... https://clarkrailworks.com/collections/oo-gauge/products/Hornby-oo-r3758-ews-class-47-prince-henry-no-47800

Agreed. I too have quite a large fleet of 47s comprising Lima bodies sitting on a Hornby Railroad chassis. It is easy enough to take the glazing out of both bodies and swap them around (as others have commented, the Hornby version is slightly modified from the Lima original, and has a cut-out section to fit round the modified motor bogie casing on the underframe). I remember when a Sheffield-based supplier was selling off brand new, sound-removed R3393 Railfreight Distribution locos for £35-40 each and I bought a load and upgraded my Lima locos. I then sold most of the Lima chassis for around £30 and the bodyshells for about £15, so it really didn't cost me anything. Those were the days!! I also replaced the traction-tyre fitted wheels on these locos with non-tyre fitted wheels to genuinely give all 12 wheel pick up, and although you do get a reduction in haulage capacity they can still handle reasonably long trains. Admittedly I don't have any gradients at all on my layout (and I can see even a slight gradient being a problem), but I have mine handling a Hornby Mk2E/F cross country rake and a Hornby sleeper rake (4 Mk3 sleepers + 3 Mk2e's), for instance, with no issues. I also have a 12 wagon Bachmann VDA train with the ballast weights removed that these locos can pull without wheel slip, so there is definitely enough scope. Performance far better than the Lima original too - smoother and quieter.

I have just been looking at images of the Oxford Mark 3 models online, it seems that the Oxford tooling for the buffet already has the square HST roof hatches as all the buffet vehicles so far produced by Oxford have been to represent vehicles originally built as HSTs but then subsequently converted to loco-hauled stock (the conversion did not involve changing the roof hatches). So the 'interesting' vehicle is the TF/TS vehicle at the back of the picture with the square hatches, as I can't find any evidence of this having been previously used by Oxford - so it would suggest this is some tweak to the tooling (or pre-existing tooling not so far used). It is not clear to me what it represents though - is it possible it represent an HST TF/TS vehicle that has been converted to a loco-hauled TF/TS vehicle (assuming some were converted at some point?) as it still retains its buffers, which would be wrong for an HST vehicle...

Interesting, it makes sense that there was a period of overlap with LNER/EMR, and yes the vinyl doesn't look 18 months old. I guess I was coming from the angle that all the pictures and videos I have ever seen of the EMR ex-LNER HSTs have been in 2+6 formation and all have had EMR branding on all the coaches, lettered between A-G (I forget which one was missing). But how long they ran like this and whether this represents all, most, some or not very much of their EMR operation I can't say. I'm sure it would be very easy to adapt the current offerings to represent an EMR HST if one is that way inclined, but I am not in that camp of people. I would much rather spend my free time playing trains rather than detailing trains - not that I am saying there is anything wrong with wanting to do the latter, at the end of the day we all do whatever it is we do for pleasure; people should enjoy different aspects of the hobby, and it wouldn't do for us all to be the same. I think your original comment is also relevant here in that at least some people who wish to model an EMR set will have already aquired either the VTEC or LNER power cars and added an EMR Railtec transfer to them, plus whatever coaches they want. So given all this, would the release of an EMR power car pair necessarily create a surge in demand for the existing LNER coaches, which is really the nub of the thing? It would probably shift some I'm sure, but my point is that I would be in the camp of people who were disappointed with that as a strategy, and would feel somewhat fobbed off (particularly if the power car pack turned out to be 43102/43274, which I think EMR took a bit more pride in how their train looked, and is all branded in all the photos/videos I have seen). I would most likely end up buying neither EMR power car pack nor more LNER coaches, but the more people who come to that conclusion the worse it is for the industry as a whole. So it depends on whether others feel the same. I might well be in the minority here, so it might turn out to be a very small camp - maybe even just a one-man tent?

Totally agree. I bought the XC power cars R3808 and a set of seven SD coaches (XC03) when they were first released, and if Hornby had subsequently released another set of XC power cars, I would have had that pair along with another full rake (XC01) of seven of the SD coaches (perfectly happily at the £30-35 mark of the coaches when they came out, as @scottrains29says). Sadly I think the window for this happening has passed now, and the coaches are confined to the bargain bins. Oddly though, it did happen with the Scotrail sets - originally (2019) one pair of power cars R3698 announced alongside enough coaches for two prototypical trains to be assembled, and then the following year (2020) another power car pair R3903 arrived.

As far as I am aware, the only discernible external difference between a VTEC HST and an LNER HST is the branding on the sides of the power cars. However, when the trains transferred to EMR, in addition to the power cars being rebranded again, the coaches had "EMR INTERCITY" added to their bodysides in quite large black lettering, and the sets were shortened and so the coach letters were changed, indicated with round EMR-style bodyside stickers rather than square VTEC/LNER ones. So, there are a few obvious external differences on the EMR coaches as compared to the VTEC/LNER ones; thus Hornby's current releases don't very accurately represent these coaches operating for EMR. I would very much like an EMR set next year, but I hope it doesn't arrive in the form of just a set of power cars to soak up the existing VTEC/LNER coaches.

Isn't this mainly to do with the fact that Hornby released 18 different XC coaches and one set of power cars - so with a prototypical XC rake having seven coaches, what exactly are the other 11 coaches out the 18 supposed to be for, and so who would buy them? Only those who want to get a second pair of power cars, get them renumbered and then run two rakes side-by-side?? Even so, why then not 14 for two complete rakes..... 18 isn't even a multiple of 7.... The same thing is happening with the LNER (ex-VTEC) mark 3 coaches - Hornby have now done three runs of these (a complete prototypical set of nine to accompany the release of the LNER power cars, and two follow up incomplete sets of 7) and you can already pick up the 2021 coaches for under £30 (£27.99 is the cheapest I have seen, and this isn't a special offer or Black Friday deal). Granted, you can use the LNER coaches with the earlier VTEC power cars, but again I've never really been sure what the motive is behind releasing more and more of these coaches when even the original versions are not yet fully sold out. But as @scottrains29 says, it isn't Hornby's problem as all the unsold stock is mainly sitting with the distribution network and not Hornby itself, so Hornby have their profit and it is now up to the retailers to sell on stock which doesn't really have an obvious purpose.

I hope not, the Oxford coaches represent loco hauled coaches (Mark 3a/3b?) and not HST Mark 3s. As I understand it, there are lots of differences, e.g., perhaps one of the most obvious for a model viewed from above the roof hatches are different - three small rectangular ones on loco hauled stock and a single square one on the HST stock. Also, a big one, because these are loco hauled coaches, there is no TGS coach in the Oxford range as this vehicle type is specific to the HST. Again, if we are talking "the ultimate bells and whistles Rolls Royce" of an HST, which is the way Hornby present it, using the current Oxford coaches would be no better than the current Hornby/ex-Lima set-up. It would take us back to 1997 again, when Hornby re-tooled their HST Mark 3 to the current offering, but omitted the TGS. But then again, nothing surprises me these days, so you may well be right!

I think this is the key thing here - despite the fact I love the HST (and perhaps it’s just me here), I just can’t get excited about the thought of Hornby moving the door handles a fraction to the left, and adding three more rivets to one of the roof panels, and so on, if these new absolutely fantastically spot on power cars are still going to be released with the current mixture of Hornby and ex-Lima vehicles which have very obvious visual differences from each other (let alone worrying about whether either is true to the prototype) - and these very obvious differences are relevant if we are talking about a game changing “bells and whistles” product. Plus, the closest Hornby seem to get to the “bells” part with their current HST releases is when they make a clanger of an error with the livery application - which is then entirely another issue!

I think that’s asking a bit much!!!

I would really love to see the “good quality period photos” that Bachmann are referring to.