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This announcement surprised me. Beyond the general thoughts (hooray for competition anywhere and everywhere, hooray for more pre-1923 liveries in RTR), I think I understand one of the primary target markets for this range: people like me who have a favorite modeling interest--or two or more--but who have made irresponsible impulse purchases of all sorts of lovely pre-1923 locos. Even though I have settled on 1913-14 as a favorite English modelling period, I can't justify most (almost any) of these locos in the part of the country I choose to model, but I can be persuaded to run them with a string of goods wagons or a handful of coaches on days when whimsy conquers loyalty to prototype. And I won't have time to build kits of everything I'd like to run someday. Along come Hattons and Hornby to cash in. All is well.

Well, it could be even grimmer and darker. Have a look at the annual video Maerklin released at the end of 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7sgM3Hkr5Y

The wireless DC controller looks interesting. I imagined something slightly different, but this app might help blaze a trail to it. Imagine a small layout built by a group of modellers scattered around the country (or the world), who could participate in operating sessions remotely, with onboard and stationary cameras to show what's on the layout and what progress is made along the way. With the item just released, you could at least station someone as a signaller to work points and semaphores, while another follows the train he operates. This must be good for the hobby somehow. Anyway, this looks like a nice assortment from Hornby this year. They made me pre-order something that has nothing to do with my modelling interests and put others on a wish list. Hornby 1:0 Self-Restraint.

This is thrilling stuff. I now have a year to make some space to run these delights.

Hello, all. Here is a question about some locos late in their prime. By "late," I refer to the immediately pre-WWI years. I'd like to know whether the older Dean classes still in service, such as the Barnums, would have worn boiler and cab lining during this period, or like most of the tank locos gone unlined into their declining years. Among the projects awaiting me are a Barnum and a couple Bulldogs from kits that need nearly total re-working, and repainting will be required. There are two or three photos of Barnums in this period among the books I have to hand, but they don't show clearly any lining. (They were action shots, not poses.) Thanks for any advice.

Oh, yes. Note the catalogue number, R7237, which is part of the R7230-7239 series of numbers for the Hogsmeade structures.

There's lots of useful stuff in this range for beginners and intermediate enthusiasts. Hornby did well. The "Flying Scotsman in the U.S.A." item looks like fun. I wonder whether an H0 scale version might have sold in the U.S.A. Probably not worth the cost of the tooling for a one-off set. (I would have bought one, though.)

Hello, all. I'm reviving this topic to pose another question--also prompted by the general unavailability of some paints in the U.S.A. Has anyone a recommendation for an equivalent in Vallejo or Humbrol acrylic to approximate the maroon lake or crimson lake coach livery of the immediate pre-WWI period? Thanks.

There must be some cultural aspect to this. I suspect that railway history in the UK has a lot to do with it, though. I'm only a dilettante in UK outline modelling, but I am often struck by how long-lived some of the British locomotive types were. Into the 1940's and 1950's, there were steam classes of fifty years' vintage still in regular operation. Larger U.S. railroads by 1950 were looking for ways out of steam traction altogether, and steam locomotive rosters usually were dominated by types built after the mid-1920's or 1930's. Smaller power from circa 1900-1910 had almost no place on the rosters. And dieselization came fairly quickly in the U.S.A. Perhaps that has translated into a railfan and modelling culture in the U.S.A. biased toward the "latest and greatest." There is evidence to support this notion in the finescale marketplace. Something missing from the U.S. modelling scene is the wonderful profusion of locomotive kits for older prototypes that one finds for British classes. The market for them simply does not exist (except for me, and no one cares what one modeller or ten wants). And ready-to-run steam locomotives rarely appear for any locomotive design before the USRA designs of 1917-1920. It's about as difficult in the U.S.A. to model 1900 on U.S. outline as on British outline. We who model the period before the First World War live in a world of compromises hacked out of brass and plastic offerings released forty of fifty years ago and one or two ready-to-run models.

This makes eminently good sense. I don't understand the modeling appeal of sprung buffers. They trigger a moment of appreciation for the engineering and assembly skill involved, but after the "gee-whiz" epiphany, they don't add value. Sprung axles, sprung pickups, however--those could extend the operating value of the locos.

Whoever wrote earlier abut Hornby's problems stemming from its big-company background probably has it right. "Design clever" doesn't mean too much when the enterprise as a whole is struggling. A few efficiencies in manufacture probably don't make the difference. Among the European manufacturers, the same struggle to serve a changing market while serving all segments of it plagues historic brands, just as it plagues Hornby. Maerklin is an obvious parallel. The firm has a long history and during some periods dominated its home market for model trains. But like Hornby, it suffers quality problems and has trouble suiting the rivet-counter crowd because of compromises it makes to serve many segments of a diverse and demanding market and stock a large number of items. I hope that Hornby finds a way forward, but there is no magical, single initiative that will restore it to profit. Hornby management has to make educated guesses about what to produce and at what price points, just like every other maker.

That reminds me to ask a question that has been rattling in the back of my head: when and how did the simplification of livery during the war take place? (Okay, that's two questions.) Was the decision taken upon declaration of war or sometime later, when the prospect for a short conflict had vanished?

At that lovely price, it's time to buy a couple more and get on with a renumbering exercise. A fleet of Dean Goods!

The gun appeals to me. I have been disappointed by the paucity of First World War offerings. There have only been a couple train packs from Hornby and Bachmann. The European modelmakers have entirely ignored the topic--with the sole exceptions being Artitec's decision last year to release in H0 a British tank model and a few German figures and, to stretch the point, some German ambulance wagons released ten years ago or more. Likewise the American manufacturers, who should have used the centenary period to revisit some USRA locomotive models. And this despite the evident interest of modelmakers in all three regions to deliver significant quantities of Second World War material. So I'll buy the Oxford railgun and be grateful for something (and try to figure out whether any of the 12T tank wagons would suit a pre-grouping atmosphere).

Why not some more basic wagons: a GWR open to diag O5 or O11, an iron mink (as someone noted above), a Midland box van, or an LSWR open? Lower mould costs for these and probably lots of purchasers would buy multiples. I'd really like to see a Churchward small prairie. Coaches--well, I don't hold out much hope for that.