Robin Brasher

The comments about prices remind me of Wrenn. They reintroduced the Hornby Dublo locomotives and few people bought them because they were much more expensive than the old Hornby Dublo locomotives and the Tri-ang Hornby locomotives. Then Wrenn stopped producing their locomotives and rolling stock. Overnight the prices rocketed and those people who could not afford them were suddenly clamouring to buy them.

The production runs are much lower now than they were in the past. The initial production run for the Hornby Dublo 2-6-4T launched in December 1954 was 100,000 and only six came back to the factory with serious defects. Many are still running now. I don't know Hornby's present production runs but I recall that Hornby's production run for the Maunsell pull-push sets was 1,000 which was way below the demand. I think Hornby starts with a low production run and then does another run if demand exceeds supply as with the Coronation Scot coaches on pages 122 and 123 of the catalogue. I think Hornby also made a second batch of the LSWR 4 wheel coaches as these seem to have sold out but are in plentiful supply now.

My priority has always been model railways. When I had my first Hornby Dublo N2 train set in 1955 I had 6p per week supplemented with 10 shillings for Christmas and birthday presents if I behaved myself which was not often so I saved up for two years for a Hornby Dublo Silver King locomotive which had become Mallard by the time I had saved up for the price of around £4. My parents fined me 7s 6d for doing something terrible so that set me back a couple of months. Similarly when I was at college I had a grant of £12 per week. There was not much left after spending it on books, clothes, accommodation and food but with a friend we laid some second hand track over some cupboards, my friend bought a second hand M7 for £2 and a Jinty tank for £1.50, some second hand track and some Bilteezi buildings and we were running trains. If you really want something you will buy it. For me the LNER coaches are more important than anything else so it is worth sacrificing a foreign holiday for. My problem is that they may all have sold out if my model shop is in tier 3. When I was young my favourite model was always available but the problem was finding the money,

It was something like what Simon Kohler said in his programme and was intended as a joke. I don't think that they are alternatives. For me I think the ideal locomotive would be something like the locomotives in the Hornby Dublo range that have the weight to pull a nine coach train like the Coronation Scot and a high level of detail. We do not know how durable these locomotives are but unless they have good motors and gears they will not be as durable or as rugged as the original Hornby Dublo locomotives that are still running after seventy years and owe their owners nothing. I don't regard the T9 on page 66 of the catalogue to be at the hi-fi end of the market in terms of reliability or pulling power regardless of how detailed it is and my kit built Wills T9 has proved to be far more durable and powerful.

Moving on from locomotives I wonder what station the South Eastern Railway buildings on page 203 of the catalogue are based on. In the past manufacturers have either made generic station buildings which would not look out of place anywhere in Britain or models of stations which have been visited by trains from all over Britain like the Settle and Carlisle Railway, the Bluebell Railway or the Severn Valley Railway. There are probably more items in the Bachmann range than the Hornby range that would have visited the South Eastern Railway so I wonder what Hornby's thinking was on this subject.

A model railway is not a toy. It is purchase for keeps and the purchaser wants detail, detail, detail.

My local model shop on a preserved railway did stop selling Hornby items but have now started selling them again. As no-one else produces 00 gauge T9s, M7s, Battle of Britains and models of the rolling stock that runs on the line this seems a sensible idea,

I don't think that Hornby prices have reached the point that people will not be able to afford them. I have always been interested in an LNER Coronation set and Golden Age have been making this set for several years. I have seen one demonstrated in my local model railway club and I asked how much they were. From memory I think a pair of articulated coaches was around £200 and the beaver tail was a bit less. Bearing in mind that I have been looking forward to running a Coronation set behind my A4 Pacific for over 30 years I am willing to pay Hornby's price.

I have found that people outside the rmweb are more interested in running trains than counting rivets. According to the review on page 66 of the January Railway Modeller the OO Works Adams A12 managed to pull seven Pullman cars around the Pecorama loft layout with 1:48 gradients. This compares with my Hornby Coronation which struggled with six Coronation coaches on a level club layout and with my Hornby T9 which cannot pull its own weight as the gears are not engaging with the motor. There are no bits for the purchaser to fit on the A12 and the Railway Modeller says the A12 has a good level of detail. It has etched cab side plates compared with plastic nameplates on the Hornby Merchant Navy. I should think that the A12 with its metal gears will give many more years of reliable service than a Hornby T9 no matter how much detail the latter has to obsess some members of the rmweb.

There must come a point where it is cheaper to make the models in the UK. The 00 Works make their models here and they seem to be more robust than the Hornby items and they don't have to worry about shipping costs, factories being closed due to coronavirus and increasing wages.

If you cannot afford new items from Hornby you can always buy a second hand model. I did not buy a Duchess of Sutherland when it came out because it visited the Swanage Railway that I am modelling a few years later. Last year I bought a model is excellent condition in a home made box for around £90 and it seems just as good as my new models.

I have just bought a 2022 Hornby catalogue from W H Smith at Swanage.

It is difficult to chose whom to pre-order Hornby from. For example last year the London and South Western coaches were must have models for me yet I wanted a 10% discount and I wanted the items to arrive properly packed so that ruled out ordering from Hornby. I thought the best bet would be Hattons as they had given good service in the past so I pre-ordered from them. Then I heard Hattons were having pre-orders from Hornby delayed so I cancelled the order and pre-ordered from Kernow who had also given good service. Kernow delivered two coaches in February and the rest were to follow. After five months I rang Kernow again and they said that they would be ready in December and when they said that the remaining coaches would follow they expected them in a few weeks. I told them that the coaches had been available directly from Hornby since June and they said they would chase them up. Kernow had some unlit coaches in stock so I bought them and cancelled the order. Two weeks ago the coaches were available from Hattons so I bought a brake coach of their shelves. I think that this time I will order from my LMS ( local mode shop) as they give good service but are sometimes let down by Hornby. It may not be necessary to pre-order the new LSWR coaches, City of London and Golden Fleece as I think supply will exceed demand but I think I will need to pre-order the LNER Coronation coaches and I hope I will not end up with an observation car and a brake third and kitchen third missing from the set.

A replica of the Rocket visited the Bluebell Railway about 30 years ago so if you are modelling a preserved railway you can model a present day imaginary visit.

Is it worth paying £429.99 for a Hornby Royal Scot set when you can buy an original Hornby Dublo 3-rail Royal Scot set in good condition for around £100?

I am modelling the Swanage Railway. 257 Squadron has not appeared on the preserved line in malachite green and is unlikely to have visited the branch in that livery in British Railways days. If Hornby had made 257 Squadron in British Railways green the company could have been on to a winner with me and probably many others.

I saw a Hornby Tornado for sale recently. One of the crankpins was missing so it is a fault worth looking out for.

Thank you for the information, I assume you are running it on the Corfe Castle layout at Ormesby Hall, I am also modelling Corfe Castle and perhaps I should paint one of my 700s in LSWR livery.

If people think that their interest has been neglected I would like them to cast their minds back to Hornby Dublo 3 rail. For Southern modellers the only goods train they could run was a rake of southern region meat vans hauled by a rebuilt West Country with no Southern Region brake van. I have always found that Hornby with its roots in Tri-ang and not in Hornby Dublo has supported Southern Region modellers and I hope to see a new Southern Region engine or coach in the 2022 range but I would also be pleased to see new items from other regions.

Rebecca has just told me that my LSWR version will be ready at the end of the month so I will put some pictures of it on my layout as soon as I receive it. The Southern version looks very good and I am pleased that it has a swivelling pony truck rather than fixed, flangeless wheels. I would be interested to know what make of grease members recommend for the gears.

There is a review of the 00 Works Adams Jubilee in Southern livery on page 66 of the January 2022 Railway Modeller and the Hornby Magazine has also issued a video of it. I ordered the LSWR version last year but I have not received a notification that it is available yet, I am more interested in running trains rather than counting rivets and I am willing to pay more money for a traditionally built, durable model that is made in England.

One of the wonders of rmweb is that you can have a topic about Hornby trains on television and you end up with a discussion about the pay and conditions of HGV drovers. Looking at the television programmes it looks like the premises at Westwood are in a pleasant location by a sandy beach at Margate. I visited Hornby's headquarters a few years ago and I went to Ramsgate by train and then to Westwood by bus. The factory was near an out of town shopping area about two miles south of the beach at Margate. I enjoyed my visit and my memories included a rebuilt Bulleid Pacific with a train on the 00 gauge layout, a Scalextric race track and a display of Airfix kits in dioramas. The staff in their red jumpers seemed very friendly. At the time I was staying with my mother in Eastbourne and it was a bit of a treck to Westwood but to visit it from Swanage, where I live, would involve an overnight stop at Westwood, possibly at the Travel Inn. I wonder how many subscribers to rmweb have visited Hornby at Westwood and what they have thought of their exhibition.

Tri-ang did produce a couple of Caledonian bogie coaches from 1962. Perhaps Hornby could re-introduce upgraded models of these on their 60th anniversary. They could also produce these as generic coaches for pre-grouping railways as there is a shortage of bogie panelled coaches for this era.

My first suggestion is a Southern Region R1 0-6-0T in a red Hornby Dublo 2-rail candy striped box. This should be an unlimited run at a reasonable price and available from my favourite model shop at the outset. It was the motive power for Simon K's brother's first train set.

The standard throttle got hot with low current motors as well. Does anyone remember Circuit 24. This was produced by Jouef based on the Le Mans 24 hour race and was very popular in France. Meccano marketed it in the United Kingdom from 1962 to 1964 but I don't think it ever caught on. I remember going round the department stores in Croydon in December 1962, They had all sold out of Scalextric but they had some Circuit 24 sets. I should have waited until after Christmas because Scalextric replaced their rubber track with metal clips with some better quality track.