HonestTom

The obvious loco candidates to me, assuming Hornby want to stick to their older, less detailed models, would be the Caley Pug, the Holden tank, the 2721 pannier, the Dean and Caley singles, the 4-4-0 County and the Triang B12. They all have the right Victorian look to my mind, even if the prototypes aren't necessarily Victorian. I also think the old streamlined Duchess would make for a very impressive steampunk loco if you dolled it up with a suitable livery. One idea I thought might be fun would be to produce a new bodyshell for the 0-4-0 that would have absolutely minimal detail, but a lot of holes that you could plug detail parts into. Elaborate funnels and domes, oddly-shaped tanks, different cab roofs, condensers, even crazier accessories like gun turrets, spikes, armour etc. That way, you could produce one new body, one new sprue of parts and give people the wherewithal to create a vast range of possible locomotives.

Given what people have been saying about customisation, maybe the way to go with the steampunk concept would have been to get Airfix on the case and produce a few sprues of steampunk parts that would be compatible with Railroad locomotives and stock. Maybe some suitable figures to go with them (I'd suggest 1/72 scale to broaden the appeal to war gamers).

I think probably the majority of sales are going to people who want this train purely for the novelty (as opposed to Novelty) value. With that in mind, I think the right early locomotive could sell very well. Lion, as you say, would be a good choice, particularly if you could do it in Thunderbolt livery.

There are steampunk wargames, but I can't see these buildings having much appeal. 1/76 is not a common wargaming scale. Wargamers are already well-supplied with more suitable (and cheaper) buildings - these are literally just ordinary buildings with extra bits stuck on.

The aesthetic here looks to me more Mad Max than steampunk. In a sense, it feels like the opposite of the Victorian aesthetic. The Victorians took functional machinery and designed and decorated it to look beautiful. Think about the pumping engines at Kew Bridge, whose cylinders have for no apparent functional reason been designed to resemble Roman columns. Or the sewers of London, with their magnificent vaults that would only be seen by a handful of toshermen. Or, more relevantly to this hobby, the elaborate liveries of pre-Grouping locomotives. Whereas what we see here is machinery that's been made to look less elegant, more thrown together. The thing is, I don't want to attack Laurie Calvert - I think his layouts are a lot of fun - but I don't think his work is a good example of the steampunk aesthetic. I'd say a better example would be something like Steamboy or The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (terrible movie, great design work). Or, better still, go back to the source and look at real Victorian and Edwardian machinery. As I said above, it seems bizarre to me that they're ploughing all this money into steampunk trains when they've had Victorian stuff in their range for over 50 years.

Definitely rivets, but they have to be really chunky.

I wondered if that might be the case. Shame, I thought quite a few of the old Triang wagons could be made steampunky with minimal modification. The pickle car, for instance. And I'm sure plenty of the Battle Space wagons have potential.

I'm not surprised that someone announced this, but I am a little surprised that it was Hornby - I thought it would be picked up by one of the smaller, crowdfunded outfits. It's not my thing, but that's what I said about the P2 and now I own one.

Really impressed by this. I thought there was an outside chance of Rocket showing up in the range, but at best it would be the Triang one with a new finish. It's just a shame it's a limited edition, I'd love the coaches as a separate item.

It's a pretty smart concept, and I think it would be a good addition to the main range. A lot of modellers don't want or don't have space for a whole oval. It's kind of ironic, this range isn't aimed at "serious" modellers and yet it has a starter track pack that's highly suitable for a "serious" micro layout. There is such a thing as dieselpunk, although that tends to be more streamlined and Art Deco. Think Metropolis or the recent BBC adaptation of His Dark Materials.

I'm sorely tempted by the Rocket pack, but I don't know what I'd do with it. The Express Dairies liveried Ruston has my interest, as it's local to me. I've been tempted by the Terrier in LBSC livery, but I've always said "well I don't need one, but if they did Tooting, Merton or Wandle, that would be cool" (again, the local interest). I never thought they'd actually get around to any of them, which explains why my wallet just screamed. I have to say, I didn't see this coming. It's like someone accidentally copy-pasted an entire thread of frothing into an official document. I was expecting something like a Saint, another industrial, something small and pre-Grouping, safer choices like that. Good luck to them, I'll be really interested to see how this goes.

They've had the name for a while and I don't think they've ever really known what to do with it. I'm going to put my tinfoil hat on and say it's something to do with holding on to the trademark?

I understand they're resin bodies based on the Pug rather than modifications of the Pug tooling - there's at least one Caley pug in this year's main range.

I like the idea, not so hot on the execution. It feels like it was designed by someone who's seen someone else's idea of steampunk and taken it from there. Just a bunch of bits stuck on to already-existing not necessarily Victorian rolling stock. At the risk of frothing, if I were assigned to devise a steampunk range, this is what I'd do. - Use already-existing tooling as the basis of the range. For instance, the Dean and Caley Singles. These are already steampunky. Maybe give them a more brass-and-steel livery or an elaborate Victorian livery. If possible, perhaps reintroduce the Triang Davey Crockett. For coaches, the 4-wheelers are okay, but I'd consider the old Rocket coaches, the clerestory coaches or, again, the Triang Davey Crockett coaches. For wagons, anything that could pass for pre-Grouping - I'd suggest the Hull and Barnsley van and the old 5-plank for starters, and I've always thought that 4-wheeled car transporter wagon that Hornby did in lurid orange had the look of a carriage wagon. - The wackier steampunk stuff is a fun idea, but my suggestion would be to go for wagon loads in resin fitted on top of already-existing tooling, as with the short-lived circus train from the Thomas range. For example, a flat wagon with a flying machine load or something similar. - For the buildings, just stuff that's more fun, more in line with Victorian and Victorian-pastiche fiction. A ruined temple, a mad scientist's lab, a Gothic castle, that kind of thing. Not just sticking cogs and pipes on to otherwise completely mundane buildings. You could do themed stations - a Transylvanian halt with a Gothic waiting room, an Ancient Egyptian signal box, a cattle dock for dinosaurs, silly things like that. As an example of someone who I think does steampunk railways right, I'd recommend Chris Walas. He borrows heavily from the work of Wells, Verne, Lovecraft, Twain and other Victorian and early 20th century writers, as well as messing around with his own ideas to create a coherent (and fun) mythos of his own.

They started out as power units for railmotors. I've often thought if someone did a serious model of one RTR, it would have a good chance of selling due to quirkiness and Triang nostalgia.

Very well-earned, it's full of atmosphere. To think the starting point was a basic train set...

"Sir, there's a problem with the new... er... engine?" "Oh no, it's not the brakes, is it?" "N-no... should I be worried about the brakes?" "No, nothing wrong with the brakes, put it from your mind. What's the problem?" "Well, I can't see ahead." "Yes you can, that's what the headlamps are for. Never bother me again."

It sounds to me like they're planning to take advantage of the mainstream attention the hobby's been getting recently, perhaps looking at more beginner-oriented items and sets? I'm guessing thinking outside of the box is a reference to simplified, more environmentally-friendly packaging, which to be honest is no bad thing.

Then how did they get those big stones there?

I used to get Model Rail, Hornby, BRM and Railway Modeller every month, but I found myself wondering what exactly I was getting for my £20 monthly outlay. With some magazines, I'd read the entire issue and find myself entirely unable to remember anything I'd just read. There might be an unusual layout, an interesting prototype article or a useful how-to. But to be honest, often the how-tos are "here's an expensive product, here's how you use the expensive product" or about DCC, which I don't use (I admit that this is a personal preference rather than a general critique). I went from "I can't wait 'til the next issue!" to "Ah, I see the next issue is out."

I've often thought, quite seriously, that I'd like to model the Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Railway as it was at the Festival of Britain in Gn15. Just a "but you know, this thing really existed" exercise.

Repainting the footboards makes a big difference. As they come, I think they look a bit too new for coaches in everyday use.

4D Models do various bits of furniture, albeit mostly in architectural scales.

They produced some in that scale and then switched up to OO later on. I think their E2 was the last "HO" scale model.

I keep playing with the idea of a freelance pre-Grouping railway, and just lately I had an idea that I think could work (with a bit of timeline fudging). Near me, there were two railways that met at Wimbledon - the Tooting, Merton and Wimbledon Railway and the Wimbledon and Croydon Railway. The latter was bought out by the LBSC and the former was jointly operated by the LSWR and the LBSC. I found myself wondering what if those two companies merged to form their own independent line - the South London Railway? This initially had its termini at Streatham and Croydon. Then a new branch was built to Kingston-Upon-Thames, which extended further to Twickenham. The Shepperton branch was also a SLR venture. While the SLR ran its own trains, it saw a lot of traffic from other railway companies, most obviously the LBSC, SECR and LSWR, but other companies were seen on the railway in accordance with whether I can think of an excuse. In exchange for this, the SLR was able to negotiate running rights to Richmond and, most importantly, into the South London docks. Locomotives were a dark red. Carriages were a brighter carmine. Goods stock was grey. It has been noted that the markings on locomotives and carriages bore a striking resemblance to those of the LSWR, almost as if someone, I don't know, took LSWR transfers and rearranged them.