HonestTom

I'm not entirely sure what the logic is in saying that a modern locomotive at Warley would bring young people in. On that basis, is painting the H in full SECR colours designed to appeal to the many 120-year-olds with fond memories of that livery?

Glad they're doing the early crest BR livery - I have the N2, J50 and J15 in the same livery. Sadly for my bank account, this does mean that I have no reason to hold off buying one.

I like the weathering job on Hummy. I'm not a fan of factory weathering generally, but that one is definitely causing me to rethink. My 009 interests tend to be more light industrial or Victorian, but I think I'm going to have to add that to my "don't need but want" list.

Only just got around to reading this thread - really great stuff. I particularly like the use of colour. Re the industry the warehouse is serving, I came across something in London that might be relevant. While I was walking along Regent's Canal in Islington, I saw a couple of lengths of narrow gauge track by a converted factory, along with some small wagons. Closer inspection during an Open House London weekend revealed that the current building post-dated the track, as one of the supporting pillars actually went between the rails. My research has turned up nothing on the railway itself, but it seems that before the current building (originally a sawmill) went up, there was a ceramics factory on site. My guess is that the narrow gauge railway is to do with that. A railway would probably be the smoothest means of getting the heavy, fragile goods from the factory to the canal for loading. The wagons looked small enough to be pushed by hand. Don't know if this would be of any use to you - as I say, I'm just guessing based on very scanty evidence - but I can at least confirm that there were canal-side narrow gauge railways not a million miles from East London.

I doubt the motivation is really there for Hornby to produce a downgraded version. They've produced one to a very high standard which sold absurdly well, particularly given that manufacturers have argued for years that industrials just wouldn't sell. If people will pay for a super-detailed version (and judging by A Well-Known Auction Site, they'll pay even more than Hornby were selling them for), then it makes no commercial sense to offer a cheapo version of the same.

I've always preferred acrylic for this sort of thing, just because I hate messing around with thinners and it's a lot quicker to dry. For weathering, watercolours are fantastic - I picked up a set at Wilko for £3 which does just fine, and any mistakes can easily be corrected with a wet cloth.

Aargh, too slow. My brother models the Reading area and was absolutely kicking himself that he didn't get in quickly enough for the Huntley & Palmers Peckett.

I wonder if Hornby are relying on the brand to sell these? Whatever else you can say about them, the Hornby name has excellent brand recognition, to the extent that it's probably the only model railway company that the average British non-enthusiast can name. Perhaps the idea is that the non-enthusiast parent with a train-mad pre-schooler will pick the company they recognise.

You'd be hard-pressed to call them pretty, but they do have a certain appeal. I'm a big fan of that ramshackle, make-do-and-mend look. Anyway, here's a website with some great photos. http://www.ribblevalleyrail.co.uk/Irish%20Bog%20Railways.htm My eye was rather caught by the converted Massey-Ferguson tractor, which they considerately built so that a modeller could easily hide a motor bogie under the body.

Hornby's made a few attempts at the kiddie market over the years, but apart from Thomas and (sort of) Railroad, none of them seem to have really stuck. My suggestion for a range like this would be to start with something with more play value - a caricatured Class 66 with a couple of container wagons and a container crane to enable loading and unloading, maybe a container lorry. Expand the range with playsets like a dockside (with container ship), a scrapyard (with open wagons), oil depot (with tanker) and other industries along those lines. Include figures as well. This would enable kids to actually play with the trains, rather than just run them round and round, and it would be educational. By sticking to modern image, they could produce the same items in several liveries for different markets. The aim would be to give the kids something to play with while nurturing an interest in real life railway operations. Maybe later add passenger trains, stations etc. As with Marklin, maybe make it remote controlled to make shunting easier and more realistic. It seems odd that Hornby is going for such a basic set when Brio, Tomica and Marklin have all produced toy trains along similar lines with much larger play potential.

I like the attention to the prototype geography - I'm a fan of layouts that feel like they're a part of a bigger world. And as Nearholmer observes, the area is an interesting one from a railway point of view, with lots of might-have-beens to play with. For instance, what if the Wotton Tramway had extended to Oxford as planned? What if the Metropolitan hadn't been absorbed by the Underground but had stayed as a main line railway? The sky's the limit when it comes to imaginary railway schemes.

I absolutely swear by my glue gun for cardboard - it's really quick. It also has a hundred other uses around the house, so it's a worthwhile investment. Just make sure not to touch the glue before it sets or you'll find yourself swearing at it.

I love the new engine. It looks to me like a beefier version of the Welshpool & Llanfair Railway's original Beyer Peacock locomotives.

I note with interest that Bachmann have recently released a set of slate wagons in their Thomas range. Now, I assumed that they'd just use the Peco models, as with their other narrow gauge rolling stock. However, looking at the actual models (see https://www.tootallythomas.co.uk/ourshop/prod_6046734-Set-of-3-Narrow-Gauge-Slate-WagonS-w-load-HOn30-Scale-Bachmann-Thomas-and-Friends.html),they actually appear to have tooled up a new wagon that looks to be based on the Talyllyn's 2-bar slate wagon. Even the livery is correct. What I find particularly interesting is that it doesn't look much like the wagons in the TV series, which were much more generic. I'm guessing that the success of Skarloey among serious 009 modellers must have prompted them to produce rolling stock aimed at that market.

There's the 3D printed one by Tebee, which I've used - https://www.shapeways.com/product/7HCXJ7X8Q/009-simplex-style-loco. It's a low budget option that fits on a RTR chassis, but it has a few caveats. - Lack of detail, although I easily remedied this with bits of styrene to represent the engine gubbins - Lack of weight - The version I had needed a bit of internal carving to fit on the chassis. I understand the model has been revised since then, so I don't know if this is still a problem.

That is a neat little engine. It looks like the sort of thing you might plausibly find working at some lineside factory, one of those engines you glimpse from the train window and think, "What was that?" Plenty of industrial engines seem to have made their way overseas, so it probably wouldn't be implausible to run it as is. Yeah, that was on the website for about £13. I was thinking I'd pick one up to motorise a Dapol railbus kit, but sadly I was too slow.

Bentalls in Kingston-Upon-Thames. Unfortunately, last time I went they seemed to have stopped stocking Hornby altogether - whether that was temporary or permanent I don't know. I'll keep an eye out.

Talyllyn, Dolgoch and Douglas all appear "in person" in the original Railway Series books - I don't know if that could be a way around the restriction...

I actually did manage to get mine cheap after Christmas - I was in the toy department of a large department store and they were having a January sale. Managed to grab both Dodo and the MSC version for £60 each. I think because it's not the sort of place that serious modellers normally frequent, maybe they were having difficulty shifting the more detailed (and therefore expensive) models.