E100

I entirely agree. The decoder market is relatively stagnant compared to other tech sectors and the fundamentals are not that complex compared to many other consumer electronics. Hornby have a great product with plenty of potential. I don’t think anyone could accuse them of not bringing an innovate product to market either. However, I fear the only way that potential will be realised will be by them looking beyond the four walls of Margate to the wider market. To date that hasn’t been their strong suit but times are changing. I also worry somewhat about the long term viability of the Hornby App. Hornby is not too big to fail and indeed the financial situation isn’t as strong as it could be. Were the worst to happen (and I sincerely hope it doesn’t) this would make me hesitate before making the switch completely. What I hope it does do is encourage the likes of ESU and Zimo to sit and take notice whilst an open standard that can allow for interoperability and different apps to be used is developed such that the long term investment in hardware by the likes of us can be more robustly justified.

I'd certainly hope that as this is likely to be a long term and frequently produced product for Accurascale that in time ample (motor) spares will be available long into the future.

Had an email from Rails today to say they were actually now in stock with them! From another thread though they are also now shipping mk5's so it may take a bit of time for them to get round to them!

Yes from a retailers update I'm sure it was Mar/Apr for the dongle.

Strange idea in some ways but I would be half tempted to go after the IEP market. These things are everywhere and with plenty of liveries in under 10 years with no sign of any slow down either. Like with a class 37/47 in time there'll be plenty of room for more than one manufacturer. Granted I appreciate it's the ever unpopular duplication... A 185 makes sense in so many ways. They've run over a huge geographical area and you could easily justify a couple of these running together to the point where selling them as 6 car packs wouldn't be that much of a rogue idea at all. They also compliment your mk5 TPE sets that could help drive sales of another batch of these even though they have been withdrawn. The units for me personally though have already been done or are soon to be done so I'm out on this one. A new 153 would be welcome though.

I find this so interesting and yet completely unsurprising as well. I'd wager this is some way ahead of the more mainstream manufacturers. All things taken into account these feel fairly priced though I would have to say they'd need to be perfect for me to bite in terms of location / era which is a challenge in the highlands of Scotland until relatively recently.

Nice to see you making the most of recent releases to bolster your wagon fleet.

The 2020 APT issue even came up on the 2024 Q&A about an upgrade pack but was brushed off as simple R&D development and that nothing would be done - not at all surprised. As I’ve said before (a few times) it really has been bad on Hornby’s part for releasing it as they did. It has left a very poor taste, especially with the attitude shown by Hornby to it by one of the head designers saying that it shouldn’t have happened as well (in a passing comment on a YouTube video) I agree that the SKU’s offered force an increase in sales of coaches, motorised NDM’s to form most realistic rakes. I honestly think this was not by a cynical sales department but by the same kind of thinking that led to massive capacitors that don’t work being ok.

I don't believe so and certainly not directly on here. I'm going off the fact these things always take much longer than anticipated even with the best will in the world. Also that these aren't on the first batch and statistically nor the second (assuming similar sized batches). With a small team and several SKU's to work through, each with probably more than 500 in each it will take a while for each to be shipped out i.e. a week or two in all likelihood once chasing payment is taken into account. Easter is just the end of March / start of April so only about 10 weeks or so away. I like to be conservative in my product estimations and I'm rarely conservative enough in reality!

Particularly saddened to hear of this because it was always such a great event. A heartfelt well done and thank you to all of those who have put in countless (unpaid) hours including exhibitors and trade. You have given me wonderful childhood memories of visiting when I was 10 with my late grandad and helped inspire me to re-join the hobby. You've given so many an insight into the hobby, helped form and maintain friendships and inspire no doubt a great many layouts. You will be missed but enjoy a well earned rest safe in the knowledge that you have done much for the hobby in this country and even I dare say internationally.

All in all these are shaping up quit nicely. The lamps being positionable and the synchronisation of sound to wheel revolution is great to see in terms of innovation.

Due to the length of time between these being announced and arriving (which to be fair they felt their hand was forced by a competitor in this regard as they prefer a much tighter turnaround so no comment on that), I'd expect the vast majority of people who have ordered will be with an expired card by now so this is just part of the process for this batch. I presume that the others will be coming over the next few months and as I only have the Ethel on order I don't expect to hear anything until around Easter at the earliest.

In your defence it does look like an 8 until you zoom in, especially if you are wanting one to materialise!

I think that’s a B1 you may be confused with?

That list looks really positive. Looking forward to a lot of these.

Well we now have something to pull them in the form of https://uk.Hornby.com/products/s-and-dr-0-4-0-locomotion-no-1-era-11-r30346 Obviously no comment on the full accuracy but nice to hear that Hornby are working to accommodate the Accurascale couplings (though sure only a NEM socket is required!) 13:30 on their YouTube Q&A. EDIT In hindsight this is probably a very incorrect statement as I suspect some of the recent small industrial locos various manufacturers have been producing and are proposed and some smaller NER types will have almost certainly shunted these about as talked about upthread even if the iconic loco in my eyes is Locomotion for pulling these.

FYI https://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/n/323/Hornby-previously-announced-items-update?fbclid=IwAR3H3lSP_3U4WTN6rfSN6M-26842XkU6AJ65fi6hdjryvsJZQiL7yQPY9G8

So previously 2007 was announced as a Steam and Sound model but that has disappeared from the website though a retailer has confirmed it's still able to be ordered through them so seemingly hasn't been cancelled. 2002 is new for 2024.

There's 2 railroad items plus the P2 with steam and sound. Considering the scale of the range announced (i.e. quite limited) I think that's still pretty fair. I agree that they are good value for money comparatively.

I suspect that the out of the demand of the 3 this was probably the weakest in pre-sales. Interesting that EM with it's extra deflectors is now a Steam and Sound exclusive.

If someone has the time and a 2023 Catalogue it would be good to see what's been chopped e.g. Macaw and potentially the P2 Steam and Sound model

Wait... ...no Flying Scotsman! They really are listening to modellers requests. Still there's plenty of time left in the year... 🤣

Personally it feels like this may actually be more realistic and achievable so I welcome this change of tack as opposed to a huge list of stuff we may not see for several years. Some other welcome changes that I hope continue: Big name preserved locos like Black Prince and Mayflower produced as a priority Era 1 locos and stock being split from train packs Modern block train stock being sold in larger packs (TTA) Strong emphasis on more affordable Railroad models. No one else fulfils this area of the market that exists to grow the hobby. No blanket increases i.e. if these existing toolings were reintroduced in 2023 I wouldn't expect the prices to have been lower in the majority of cases. In many ways I do think they are answering modellers requests.

Very sad news. I vividly remember visiting the one of the old shops as a boy some 25 years ago or so. My heartfelt thoughts are with all the employees and owners. Since coming back to hobby in 2020 I honestly haven't bought a lot from them compared to others and I imagine my reasoning is probably similar to others (no Bachmann or Hornby new releases), so in some ways I'm not as shocked as some but nevertheless the service for the things I have purchased has been 1st class. I do try to support several shops by spreading my orders around and with the recent revival of Hornby orders I would probably have put in a 2024 range order. The timing does feel a little odd with the green shoots of several popular originals products getting ready for a presumably more profitable re-release and the recent acquisition of the American retailer. I suspect this has been a fairly recent decision and pre-orders and the like have been taken in the best of faith. I am sure many overseas customers will mourn the loss of the innovative trunk service. Credit to them for having an orderly closure. This very much is closing on their own terms and is a real sign of respect to customers in terms of how this appears to be being managed.

I will be in the minority but £200 and below and I would bite.