Porfuera

Another TT:120 video from the guy at This Way Works - this time a home-printed Jinty with Hornby TXS sound, lights, firebox flicker and stayalive, running on a chassis that is mostly built on N Gauge Farish Poole diesel bits and bobs. I'm no expert on Jintys (Jinties - ?) so I don't know how accurate the body or chassis wheels/spacing are so maybe the purists shouldn't watch but I love this guy's ingenuity in getting stuff running using mostly bits from a parts box and anyway from a distance it looks like a Jinty when compared to the photos. And it shows what can be done with such small locos. I wish Hornby had gone a bit further with their Class 08 and a least provided sound (the guy at This Way Works has done that and much more) but I guess they were keeping costs down. Maybe this is the wrong thread for this video as there isn't a lot of Hornby in it, although it is running on Hornby's layout at GETS. And there are at least some Hornby 10 foot wagon chassis in the video but with home-printed bodies (again, not very prototypical, I think, especially with 'This Way Works' printed on the side in the style of 'Hornby A Model World') but maybe that's a way forward for those still dissing the Hornby 7-plank wagons because they don't have a 9 foot chassis (and yes there are still people complaining about that). @andrewshimmin the wagons have magnetic couplings so I hope that will provide some help or info for your couplings question above. Cheers, Neil.

Here is a link to another of Garry's posts with a short video of all eight of the new Peco wagons being pulled by a very nice-looking black Class 08: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1581812358920619/permalink/1795282810906905/?mibextid=zDhOQc

In case anyone is interested, here is a small review of the Peco wagons by Garry Hall on Facebook on the Hornby TT:120 Group (which I think is open to everyone) - I hope the link works! Garry is quite a prolific poster on TT:120 groups on Facebook (including building his own locos from 3D printed bodies and I think scratch-built chassis) so I think his opinion is worth listening to. A brief summary would be that the wheelbase is correct at 9', the Peco wagons look and run as well as Hornby's but that Peco's couplings don't seem to work as well as Hornby's (from the photos they don't appear to have a kinematic coupler). The final line is: "In conclusion the Hornby one wins my vote but only due to the couplings, which, I am replacing on a lot of stock." There are some photos comparing a Peco wagon to a Hornby wagon. He also has other posts with videos of the wagons running. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1581812358920619/permalink/1795405210894665/?mibextid=bKks23

What a brilliant little shelf layout, thanks for sharing. An inspirational little project - that final photo is very atmospheric. Cheers, Neil.

Apologies for straying off-topic... I haven't bought from MBU but I made a purchase of some track from MSL earlier this year and they (i.e. the website) deducted German VAT from the purchase price prior to payment and when the parcel arrived in the UK, no UK VAT was charged. Therefore I effectively received my goods VAT-free. I have no connection with MSL other than that one-off purchase. The ex-VAT price of my purchase was less than £135 and I believe that no UK VAT is currently being charged on imports where the ex-VAT price is under £135. I think UK VAT is supposed to be charged on all incoming parcels regardless of value but HMRC don't have enough staff to do this so they've implemented this £135 cutoff. Either that or overseas retailers are supposed to charge the UK VAT and reimburse HMRC but that would obviously be a lot of extra work for them so they leave it to HMRC. There is obviously a danger that goods valued at less than £135 might still get charged VAT in spite of this or that the policy may have changed. Parcels valued over £135 that do attract UK VAT might also attract a handling charge from the courier once the parcel arrives in the UK - the amount depends on the courier. I'm no expert on this and the above is my understanding from reading some threads here on RMweb, plus the experience of my one-off purchase. I'm sure someone with greater knowledge of this will be able to correct any errors! However, as far as HM7000 is concerned, it is probably worth looking at other UK-based retailers of HM7000 (i.e. not Hornby) and doing the sums - you may find that the UK retailer discounts more or less match any savings that you'll get by importing from Europe, especially as the postage was something like €12 and you won't be able to purchase many HM7000 decoders before you go over the £135 cutoff. You may also need to factor in credit card or bank charges for currency conversions, depending on your lender. There are a number of threads on this but here are a couple:

Don't forget that there's more to the TT:120 brand than locos, rolling stock and sets. There is track. We haven't heard much about double straights lately and even less about flexi. There are buildings and scenics. These sell out from time to time and apparently straight platform sections are rarer than hens teeth. They recently added some new buildings to the shop - maybe they've kept one under wraps for Christmas. How about a TT:120 Santa's Grotto? Finally there is the merchandise. I've no idea how well this sells - it seems a bit pricey to me but my money is on a TT:120-branded Christmas mug and T-shirt combo, available in various sizes...

True - but either way they were scheduled for earlier than mid-2024 (the point I was trying to make) along with other stuff too IIRC - such as the Class 50 and the Duchess I think.

Were people saying that? I thought that there was always stuff with predicted dates of Q1 and Q2 (which I take to be more or less Winter 2023/24 and Spring 2024 respectively), it is just that dates seem to move around a bit every so often. Still, nice to see the TTAs have come forward to this year - I'm pretty sure they were previously Q1.

I'm hoping for the LL Class 50 and the blue/grey Mk2s - almost everything is steam locos already! (ducks down and takes cover... 😄)

Yes - they can't win either way - they're damned if they do and they're damned if they don't. But perhaps they feel they need to give some dates to try to keep momentum going so maybe they decided to take a middle road for that TT Talk - just announce a few dates for a limited number of things that they feel they have under control. And maybe all the months of production they have under their belt so far is giving them a better idea of how long it takes to produce various items. And if they announce dates for everything in one TT Talk then they won't have anything to talk about in the next one (whenever that may be) - apart from delays to dates they had previously announced so maybe it is best to keep it quite limited and save more for next time when they'll have a better idea for those dates.

Given that there was so little actual news in the latest TT Talk video, I've been wondering what any forthcoming 'surprise' might be... I can't see it being a previously unannounced loco or wagon - Hornby don't seem to have have the production capacity for what they've announced so far, never mind throwing something completely new into the mix and disrupting production schedules even further. So I'm guessing that something like a steam 0-6-0 is out of the question. Sorry if I'm disappointing steam fans! I suppose a re-livery of the Class 08 (in green!) is a possibility but then how many of those would they be able to produce? 500? 1000? They would instantly become 'collectable' and everyone and his dog would want one, whether they're into diesels or not, so Hornby would perhaps please 500 to 1,000 people that managed to get one but would potentially run the risk upsetting thousands more that wouldn't. I can imagine it would be a bit like football or concert tickets going on sale online where they're sold out within minutes with many people missing out, made worse by the ones that get bought by scalpers who then put them up for sale on auction sites at inflated prices. Can you imagine the negative social media feedback if all that were to happen? However, Hornby are a commercial company and maybe they wouldn't care as long as the thing sold out. And the same would apply for a new wagon or even a wagon re-livery - there would be an instant buying frenzy with lots of people missing out and being upset. So my money would be on one of the already-announced locos turning up in time for Christmas, so maybe one of Class 66, Class 50, HST or Duchess. That way, all they have to do is fulfil the existing pre-orders to make those people happy, leaving those that hadn't pre-ordered to buy up what's left. That would a nice way to reward people that had committed money to their TT:120 project, too (assuming they can produce sufficient of each livery) rather than it being a first-come-first-served buying frenzy. The TT Talk gave no updates or timescales for any of the Class 66, Class 50, HST or Duchess even though we've seen quite a bit of info on all these in the Train Terminal blogs. I think everyone was hoping for some further updates on all of these and it may be that Hornby simply don't want to commit but maybe (I hope!) they are holding back because they want to announce one of them earlier than the dates currently shown in the shop but they don't want to make it obvious by giving updates on the other three. And of those four, neither the Class 66s nor the Class 50s seem to be offered with sound-fitted versions (unlike the HSTs and the Duchesses), which always seemed a bit odd to me. However, this means that all of the pre-orders for the 66s or the 50s can potentially be fulfilled in a single shipment without a wait of weeks or months for the sound-fitted versions to arrive so there wouldn't be the case of the analogue versions before Christmas and the digital ones arriving months after Christmas, which could happen if it were the HSTs or the Duchesses. All pointless speculation, I'll admit, but once again we've had a TT Talk with very little concrete information but with some hints which people will interpret in different ways, which seems to be the way of these things.

Yes I was thinking it would be longer and live, maybe - although maybe I was hoping for too much at 6pm on a Friday night... Some dates for 'new' stuff (or rather arrival dates for stuff we already knew about): September - Mallard (sound fitted version) October - Falcon (sound fitted version) October - some new LMS and BR 57' coaches (maybe we've had these already? I don't pay much attention to coaches) December - TTAs (yay!) But surprises were mentioned - maybe something for Christmas after all.

Good information about Lidl but crikey all those lines are doing my head in, especially those arcs near the top! I hope it is a bit more toned down in real life! Maybe they're just being highlighted by the flash. Is the other side any calmer or just the same?

We've been here before, haven't we? The latest modern image stuff might possibly attract many modellers but would it attract as many buyers as Hornby has managed to attract so far? An unanswerable question in many ways but Hornby knows what sells best for them and they are going to make the products that will give them the best return on their investment as they see it. And from the start they said their intention was to attract new entrants to the hobby and those people won't be modellers of any particular era. And it isn't all about running longer trains. I imagine there are very few people out there running 12-coach sets behind an A1 or an A4 - people simply don't have the space even in TT:120 so the latest modern image stuff wouldn't make any difference from that point of view. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of the sets sold so far haven't even been extended by even a single coach and that many purchasers are just running their 3-coach sets around the loop of track supplied or have simply bought the extension packs to make the layout suggested by Hornby so they can run another 3-coach train around the other loop. Don't get me wrong - I'm not a fan of the steam passenger sets, the big locos and wagons they've produced so far, never mind the inconsistency of eras in the range (although that hasn't stopped me from buying a couple of sets plus some wagons to check them out) but whatever your or my personal preferences might be, Hornby will produce whatever they think will give them the best profit based on the sales figures they have for 00 and what they see going on in the market. And there are still plenty or steam locos, wagons, carriages, etc being produced by all manufacturers out there in a variety of scales and gauges. And from the marketing/sales mailshots I receive I'd say that these eras are still at least as popular as the latest up-to-date, ultra-modern traction and rolling stock, if not more so.

I think this TT Talk must have been one of Hornby's best-kept secrets! I was unable to find any information on it anywhere online apart from mention of it in a couple of places (here and the Hornby TT:120 Forum). I couldn't find any recent Signal Box videos - I don't know for sure but I'm guessing these are only available to the 00 Collectors' Club members...? However, by good fortune a couple of minutes ago I happened to check their YouTube channel - if you go to that and you select the "community" tab then the following message was posted 18 hours ago: "We will be bringing you a new TT Talk Episode, a little later than scheduled this Friday (6pm BST) only on YouTube. We will have updates on all the upcoming release dates and showing off some the current TT Models for you. Join us this Friday!" The TT Talk banner underneath the message is a link but obviously it doesn't do anything at the moment and I guess there is the possibility it might change before Friday but here it is - if I click on it it takes me to the page where the message is but I don't know if that will work for everyone: https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx_Ml4HocA695_kFMwpJnuFOmhCx3762Ll EDIT: if you click on the above link the TT Talk banner on that page is no longer a link so it may not work on Friday - it is probably best to go to Hornby's YouTube channel on Friday and select the "community" tab (or maybe the "live" tab?) rather than relying on the above link.

Oops! Clearly I have the memory retention of a goldfish... 🙄 I shall dig it out and re-read it and enjoy it for a second time!

Answering my own question...! I found a picture here that shows a railing (I couldn't save the photo so I don't know if I'm allowed to post it so I've linked to it instead). I guess it may depend on the era but it shouldn't be too hard to make one.

I've just received an email from LCut Creative about a new LNER signal box kit, which is described as being "based on the High Dyke signal box". Looks quite nice from the photo and no doubt will be much finer than the Hornby resin offering. Currently priced at £11.99. I'm just wondering whether there should be a railing around the ledges just below the windows or was that too much health and safety? Shouldn't be too hard to knock up something with and bit of square section and/or plastic/brass rod, though. Time to research some photos...! No connection with LCut (other than having bought their TT:120 lineside office kit!). http://lcut.co.uk/index.php?product=B TT0-02&title=B TT0-02

They appear to be sold out in the online shop and there are people on Facebook complaining that they didn't get their pre-orders - someone said they'd placed their pre-order as early as May - so presumably there aren't any available for dealers. People seem to be being told that the next shipment will be in a month but one person posted a screen grab that said it will be at the beginning of October for the analogue sets - but then both statements could be true in that it ships in a month and arrives here in October... Given that Hornby must know how many pre-orders they have this could be due to lack of production capacity at the factory. But then again production runs are probably booked many month in advance and maybe Hornby didn't predict the demand very well. And if they were to extend the production run of the sets to produce enough sets to fulfil the pre-orders then they could possibly cause a delay to whatever was going to be produced after the sets and have a subsequent knock-on effect down the schedule. But I guess we'll never know.

For anyone that hasn't seen it yet (like me!) I've just noticed this on Facebook - the latest Train Terminal on the Class 50, Mk2F and Mk3 carriages. Interesting that the Mk2s will come with an additional set of two buckeye-styled magnetic couplings for closer coupling. I can't see the same mentioned for the Mk3s but it says they will be available to buy separately to retro-fit. https://uk.Hornby.com/community/hornbytt120-club/members-area/blog-and-news/br-fleet

That's probably just down to the level of dealer discounting - some UK dealers are advertising Mallard for £147.60 as opposed to Hornby's £163.99, which I've just realised means that the advantage of importing is only about £5-£10 and probably not worth the risk!

However if you can't collect from the shop then you need to add in the €12.99 p&p - Hornby don't charge p&p over £50. But even better (possibly), if Modellbahnunion removes the 19% (?) German VAT from their price you would get an ex-VAT price of around £125, which is below the current £135 cutoff for VAT on imports to the UK and therefore (in theory) you won't be charged UK VAT when the parcel arrives. So even with the additional €12.99 p&p it looks like you could get a loco for around £135-£140, which is approximately equivalent to the current 15% discount so maybe something to bear in mind when the current Club membership expires. You might also need to factor in any currency conversion charges from your bank or credit card provider. Buying from Germany worked for me at the beginning of this year when I ordered some TT:120 track from Modellbahnshop-Lippe - they deducted the German VAT and the ex-VAT price was less than £135 and I wasn't charged UK VAT or handling or anything extra (although I was charged £3.48 by my credit card provider). The £135 cutoff seems to be to do with where the VAT is charged - if the ex-VAT price is below £135 then it it supposed to be charged by the seller and paid to HMRC but a lot of foreign shops understandably haven't registered with HMRC and so don't bother and leave it to HMRC to collect the VAT, which they currently aren't doing. Over £135 I think it the UK VAT is charged by the courier company when the parcel arrives and so they may add a handling charge on top of the VAT. I haven't bought from Modellbahnunion so I don't know for sure whether they deduct the German VAT - apparently not all shops do this. And in theory you are supposed to pay VAT on all imports to the UK so I guess there is a chance that even if you pay less than £135 then you might be unlucky and get charged UK VAT (and possibly the handling charge on top) when it arrives - this might depend on the courier. And sometime people get charged VAT at both ends so they end up paying VAT twice, but these seem to be mostly people outside the UK who are importing into other countries. In case my info is not up-to-date then there are a number of threads for imports to the UK - here is one below. Spoiler alert - the discussions can get quite heated!

I hope I got everything right! I'm sure I'll be corrected if I haven't. There are lots of different ways to enjoy model railways but it is always interesting to find out about new things, I think.

I believe so, yes. But as I mentioned you need to be careful with older DC controllers. Originally Hornby said you could use a DC controller whacked up to full chat and run it on that but they later rowed back from that because some older controllers can have very spiky output. Much froth ensued following that announcement. Some say that you can also use power supplies like laptop chargers but Hornby advise that you need to make sure that they have overload protection (I think) because they would naturally prefer you to buy their own more expensive 4amp supply. As with all things you pays your money and you takes your choice with things like that.

Yes - the control is via Bluetooth and the signals don't go through the rails. Hornby's isn't the only Bluetooth system that works in this way. The Bluetooth decoders will also work via 'normal' DCC - I had to control my Blink Bonny this way until the Android app was released. You can mix both Bluetooth and 'normal' DCC locos together on the same layout but you need normal DCC for the non-Bluetooth ones. Hornby is releasing a dongle that I believe will allow 'normal' DCC locos to be controlled via Hornby's Bluetooth app but it requires a specific protocol and a physical socket that not all DCC systems have. Notably their own eLink system doesn't have the socket (although I know next to nothing about eLink besides that fact!). So I've paid £212.49 for a complete DCC system including train and track, thanks to having a mobile device that will run Hornby's free app. I think that's pretty good value. They also make very pleasing noises.