Robin Brasher

I think Hornby has made a good decision to make a model of 'Elizabeth ll' in purple livery as it has sold well. I assume Hornby has reproduced the colour accurately. Purple is a colour people either love or hate and it does not appear very often in the natural World. You see it in heather and orchids and other plants. I like it as a colour and for a locomotive on its own. My main interest is the Swanage Railway and I would have bought Hornby's model if it had appeared there. Our model railway club has also got a model of part of the Severn Valley Railway but none of our members have bought a model of 'City of Wells' in purple yet.

I am sorry to hear that the moulds for the FROG kits were lost in a storm. I enjoyed repainting the Tri-ang model trains. This picture shows 'Winston Churchill' repainted as 'Calstock'. All the 'Winston Churchill' locomotives had smoke units. In the backgound is a Tri-ang brake van that I have repainted in SR livery. Repainting models Tri-ang models is great fun but it ruins their second hand value. I took the picture at our Corfe Castle layout at our club meeting at Furzebrook Village Hall.

I remember seeing the Frog plastic aeroplane kits in the Tri-ang catalogue but I developed a huge collection of Airfix kits. I think that Tri-ang made some excellent Mk1 coaches in the 1960s. The dimensions and colours were just right. Peco supplied some wheels to convert them to run on Hornby Dublo track and later Flush Glaze made some flush glaze windows. You could also convert them to Bulleid coaches using LAM coach sides. My picture shows a Tri-ang Hornby buffet car.

I found that the Hornby Dublo "Sir Nigel Gresley" and "Golden Fleece" were performing better than the later Wrenn A4s. The "Silver King" was worn out when I bought it but the performance was no worse than my two Wrenn A4s.

The Hornby Dublo Co-Bo runs very well and looks good hauling a set of SD6 wagons.

I have ordered a new Hornby "Golden Fleece" and "City of London" from my local model shop. It will be interesting to see how they compare with my Hornby Dublo and Wrenn versions if the Hornby versions have not sold out. Although the Hornby models will have plastic bodies I think their performances will be similar to the Hornby Dublo models but I don't think the Hornby models will last as long as they are not as well engineered. I also don't like the dummy rear pony trucks on the Hornby models.

Golden Fleece with a set of Hornby Dublo super detail MK1 coaches

Thank you for your posts about the AL1 and the Castles. At the Wimborne Railway Society trials I tested my Hornby Dublo and Wrenn A4s with a set of six heavy and stiff Hornby Dublo Mk1 coaches. Only my Hornby Dublo Sir Nigel Gresley and Golden Fleece could cope with the load and there was not much difference between the 2-rail and 3-rail versions. I had not run the others for a long time and did not service them before the meeting. I hope you find the pictures interesting.

I am not sure that my comments about the damaged R60032 Hornby Conflat Tri-ang Pedigree Prams are off topic. I expect that the Hornby tier system is based on the quality of service that the customer gets from the retailer and Hornby is trying to dissuade customers from shopping at large shops with a mail order business like Hattons. I have got no evidence, apart from posts on the RM web that Hattons is in tier 3 and it could be in tier 1 for all I know but I do know the shop I bought the Conflat from is in tier 2. You only find out how good the service is when something goes wrong. My view is that the shop should not have sold me the model in that condition and should have replaced it when I took it back. I took it back on 30 April. Now I have been told that the person who authorises replacements and refunds is on leave for a week so it will not be dealt with until Monday 16 May at the earliest. For this transaction I would have been better off continuing to deal with Hattons, presumably in tier 3, who had the model in stock over a week earlier and have a track record for me of delivering models in marketable condition. The customers may also be better off dealing directly with Hornby which is what Hornby have set up the tier system to achieve.

RM posts often go off topic. I think it might have been better if Hattons had announced their Genesis coaches when thy were about to be shipped from China. I admit that the lead time pales into insignificance compared with the lead time for the Bachmann Bulleid coaches, Kernow's LSWR brake van and Dapol's N gauge Bulleid light Pacifics. The smoothest purchase I made recently was Bachmann's City of Truro. This was announced when it was ready to be despatched so I saw it in a magazine. Then i thought that the City of Truro did not run on the Swanage Railway that I am modelling. Next i thought the locomotive looked nice, I had enough money so I bought it. That is how I would have liked my purchase of a set of Genesis LSWR coaches to go forward.

Peco track made in Devon is cheaper than Hornby track made in China. One disadvantage of making models in China is that there is a long time lag between announcing a model and producing it. During this time Hattons have still not produced the Genesis 4-6 wheel coaches that were announced a couple of years ago.

You cannot run a goods train for eras 4 and 5, 1948 - 1968 from the Hornby 2021 range as there are no open wagons. Goods rolling stock has been the weak point of Rovex and its successors from the 1950s. For instance Tri-ang were still making the R10 Goods Truck in green livery when Hornby Dublo introduced their SD6 range. Hornby have subsequently left an open goal for Mainline, Airfix and Bachmann to fill and they have not bothered to produce an updated range of BR open wagons in their 2021 range.

I would not describe the Hornby R6911 LSWR Brake Van or the SR versions released in 2020 to be amongst the best model wagons available. Hornby painted the models in bauxite whereas the correct livery was dark brown. Even the Railway Modeller criticised this error and the models have turned into Hattons bargains. The only way an LSWR or SR modeller can correct this is to strip down the paintwork, paint them in the correct colour and apply new transfers. Hornby might as well have supplied them unpainted. Hornby subsequently released them in a darker colour but it still did not match either the Kernow model or preserved LSWR goods wagons.

My recollection is that the magazines did criticise Hornby for not putting windows in the corridor partition. Hornby Dublo has been putting windows in their corridor partitions since Hornby Dublo stopped making tinplate windows and Tri-ang also put windows in their corridor partitions. The VEP was also difficult to dismantle. One problem with the tier system is that you do not know what a model is going to be like until it arrives unless magazines give an honest review first. Having said that you can get a refund if the model is not fit for purpose,

I think that the conclusion of Hornby's tier saga is that if the customer wants a model the best way to get it is to pre-order it directly from Hornby and no-one in their right mind would pre-order a model without wanting it. This contrasts with the situation in Hornby Dublo days when an SD6 wagon would appear in the Meccano Magazine at a reasonable price. If you liked it and had enough pocket money you walked down to the nearest toy shop and bought it the following day. Buying Hornby models seemed a lot less stressful for the customer and the retailer in those days and adding to your collection of model railways is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby.

Sorry to go off topic but I think that is where Hornby does its repairs as well.

Thank you for your recent posts. Unless the customer has a photograph of the prototype or has seen a review in a magazine or in 'You Tube' the customer would not be aware if the model was not authentic. I have seen photographs of the prototype Hornby R60032 BR Conflat A. Tri-ang in books but it was not until Ruffnet Thornston jogged my memory that I found it in 'The Story of Rovex Volume 1' I have still not found the other photograph which shows a BR 4MT hauling a Tri-ang container wagon. As the container wagon is for Tri-ang products I would have expected Hornby to have the resources to produce an authentic model and at the time I ordered it in January 1961 I just assumed it would be an accurate model that would be passed as authentic by the Hornby manager. I wonder if any of the model railway magazines will notice the errors in the model.

I look forward to reading about the tier system in the magazines.

I presume that Hornby have introduced the tier system so that a customer who wants a 'must have' model will buy directly from Hornby rather that Hattons ( if they really are in tier 3) or their local model shop. I have not had much experience of buying directly from Hornby but when they repaired 'Royal Mail' the locomotive came back in a box large enough for a whole fleet of Merchant Navy Pacifics and I also obtained some Coronation Scot coaches directly from Hornby when everywhere else ran out. I don't think they were as professionally packaged as models ordered by post from Hattons in tier 3 and Kernow possibly in tier 2. I hope that you will see the relevance of this post but as far as I can see it relates to the Hornby tier system and is more relevant than cashing cheques at banks.

I am sorry if I am going off topic again but, based on my experience with the R60032 BR Conflat A. Tri-ang I would not be confident of receiving anything in one piece directly from Hornby. It appears that the box was damaged in the post between Hornby and my local model shop. If this is the case it would not have reached me in perfect condition if I had ordered it directly from Hornby. All the other models I have received from Hattons, Rails or Kernow have arrived with the boxes undamaged so it looks like the model shops check the boxes for damage first and then pack them securely so that they arrive with the consumer in good condition. This is one reason why I would order from a tier 2 model shop rather than directly from Hornby which I assume is in tier 1.

I don't regard myself as a serious modeller but when I am paying £23.49 for a Hornby Conflat and Tri-ang Container I think I am being reasonable in expecting an accurate model in terms of detail and livery. In real terms £23.49 is more than the cost of a Hornby Dublo Restaurant Car in 1958 and about the price of three of the Hornby Dublo SD6 wagons. In this instance it looks like Hornby have taken an old Airfix container and simply painted it in an incorrect Pedigree Prams livery. If you look at the photograph of the prototype on page 264 of 'The Story of Rovex Volume 1 1950 - 1965 by Pat Hammond' you will see that the prototype had plywood sides whereas the model has planked sides. The black and white photograph also suggests a darker shade than Hornby's model. I may be wrong and perhaps Hornby are working from a colour photograph of a real container with planked sides. I am not confident about Hornby's research based on their past performance with the LSWR brake van that was originally produced in the incorrect shade of brown and the LSWR engineering department wagon that they painted brown when it should have been red oxide.

Sorry if my post about the tier system appeared to be off topic. The point I was trying to make is that Hattons appears to be in Tier 3 (although the source of my information is from posts in RM Web so this may be incorrect) and my local model shop is in Tier 2 as verified by the manager. Despite this Hattons received the R60032 BR Conflat A. Tri-ang about a week before my local model shop whereas I expected it to be the other way round It is possible that all model shops receive their allocation at the same time but if there is a shortage shops in tier 1 are more likely to get their allocation than shops in tiers 2 -3. . I think that at present we are in a buyer's market for Hornby wagons as their wagons have not been the firm's strong point since Tri-ang started producing wagons in the 1950s so the customer does not need to pre-order them. The customer can simply wait until the items appear and then order them from whoever provides the best service.

I suggest that all the posts about cashing cheques etc should be deleted as it makes it difficult to look back at relevant posts. In the past I have had to mark posts that provide useful and relevant information about a topic.

It is one of the wonders of the RM that you can have a topic about the Hornby tier system and end up with a debate about cashing cheques at banks. I wonder if admin keeps an eye on topics. I have just had a bad experience of Hornby's tier system. Approximately January 2021 ordered an R60032 BR Conflat A, Tri-ang Pedigree wagon, assuming it was an accurate model, from my local model shop. I did this to support the shop rather than ordering by mail order from Hattons. At the time the shop was run by a very helpful manager. 21 April. R60032 widely available at Hattons, Cheltenham Models and other shops. 29 April R60032 available at local model shop. 30 April returned Conflat to local model shop as box had been damaged in transit probably between Hornby and model shop. Change in management of shop. Assistant unable to make refund or exchange without authority from supervisor who only comes in once every five days. Meanwhile reviews on RM suggest that prototype was a darker shade of blue and had plywood sides rather than planked sides. In retrospect I would have been better off if I had not pre-ordered the wagon but waited until the model had come out with good reviews and then ordered from Hattons, Kernow or another retailer who had previously given good service.

I found them very helpful when I lived in Worthing. I moved away about 25 years ago.