Porfuera

Someone posted the following on Facebook regarding the Peco wagons (posted 21 hours ago): "I wrote to Peco last week about their wagons and this was the reply this morning, fingers crossed it happens. Dear Mr Hall Thank you for your email. Our Sales department advises that the TT wagons are at the trialling stage for paint/printing, so we are hoping to release the first wagons next month."

Somewhat mysteriously, the online shop now says that the Class 08s can run on R1 curves. I'm pretty sure it used to say that the minimum radius was R2, which is kind of confirmed by the box I have which says "minimum radius 310mm", which is R2, whereas R1 is 267mm. Maybe a super-small Class 08 set will be produced with R1 curves and 21T minerals or TTAs, ready for Christmas (I don't think so but I'm just putting it out there!)

I mentioned this previously - it would be nice if Hornby produced just 'train packs' (either loco + carriages or loco + wagons) and then produced 'track packs' separately for people that don't already have track, controller, power supply, etc. Even better, the 'track packs' could also be provided with a choice of R1, R2, R3 or R4 curves, rather than just having the R3 curves that come with the existing sets and bundles. After all, what is the use of multiple sets of R3 curves? But even then, you'd still be getting another controller and power supply that you probably don't want, especially if you're running DCC or if you prefer to use a different DC supply to the one supplied by Hornby. However, I believe I've read that the bundles don't receive the Club discount so even if 'train pack' bundles were available it might still be cheaper to buy the items separately until such time as the TT:120 Club discount runs out.

I agree about them being a short term fix, but now both Scotsman sets contain lit Pullmans - the analogue set has been redesignated from TT1001M to TT1001AM, presumably to reflect the fact that it now contains lit carriages. The digital set obviously hasn't arrived yet but that also comes with lit Pullmans. Presumably Hornby found it too much effort to produce both lit and unlit Pullmans (IIRC the unlit ones were never available to buy separately) so they've dropped the unlit ones.

I kind of agree with this - it could be that the current dates for things like the 66s and the HSTs are fairly large overestimates and that some of the models will come in ahead of their current (i.e. already revised) dates, but I'm not sure Hornby work like this - they seem to like to try to please people by putting the earliest dates possible and then end up revising them over and over. I can't help thinking of the Class 08s where at times it seemed that every month the expected date was next month or even at times just a couple of weeks away only for the date to be extended again and again. And it also could be that Hornby are keeping some stuff secret for a surprise announcement for the lead up to Christmas (like the 0-6-0s or new train sets) but I don't feel it - to me it seems like they're only just keeping their heads above water with these delays, which are likely due to the situation in China or the global availability of commodities or even just staffing levels at the factory rather than being due to Hornby's planning. I'm not being down on Hornby, this is just the way that I see things based on what little evidence we have. And it is still less than a year since the launch of TT:120 so even if the Class 66 doesn't appear until Q2 next year then that will only be 18 months or so from the original announcement, which is probably a pretty short timescale in the scheme of these things. I've been keeping my eye on Heljan's Class 02, which was announced in September 2020 so that's coming up for three years since the original announcement and it still isn't here yet. Granted it is in two scales (00 and 0) and announcing it at what was probably the peak of covid probably hasn't helped it either but Hornby's TT:120 timescales are looking very quick compared to that one. Even the Class 08s were perhaps only four months late, which is nothing, really, but when there is only a very small range available as with TT:120 then any delay can lead to a bit of frustration.

You seem to do an awful lot of assuming. Do you ever base any of these assumptions of yours on even the remotest scintilla of fact? For a start you are ignoring the current estimated delivery dates that are being shown in the online shop: Class 66s: You expect these to be Q1 2024 but the online shop currently says Summer 2024, which is at least Q2 if not Q3. Duchesses and HSTs: You are expecting these before Christmas when the online shop says Spring 2024. As far as I am aware NONE of the initial delivery dates that have ever been shown in the online shop have EVER been met. Quite the opposite - I believe that every delivery date for every proposed TT:120 model has slipped at least once, yet here you are predicting early delivery dates for vast swathes of the catalogue in spite of the evidence that we have so far. Hornby seem to be over-promising and under-delivering with TT:120 and I can't see that changing between now and Christmas or even into next year. This isn't a criticism of Hornby - I'm sure they have every intention of meeting the dates they publish but there are factors beyond their control preventing them from doing so. Even worse than those, you are predicting a date of Q1 2024 for the 0-6-0s when these aren't even in the catalogue at all and no-one has seen so much as a CAD for these, never mind any sort of pre-production 3D print or engineering prototype. And there are many models with release dates later than Q1 so why wouldn't Hornby put the 0-6-0s in the online shop if they were going to be here shortly after Christmas? And just because various model shops are advertising these models for sale doesn't mean that they're going to arrive before Christmas. Model shops will stick to the dates that Hornby gives them - even Kernow is saying Q1/2024 for the Duchess. SK clearly said in January that they were sticking to the phases they'd shown for the locos they'd already shown. He said this just before saying that the 0-6-0s were going for tooling. So if we can believe what he said then the 9Fs (Phase 3) and Castles (Phase 4) will come to market before the 0-6-0s. However no-one has seen even so much as a CAD for any of them so goodness only knows when they will be released. And I know that all this was said in January and that things can change but that was what he said at the time and no-one has heard or seen anything to the contrary since. As for your assumptions about the 2024 range announcements, my recollection is that TT:120 announcements were going to be kept separate from 00 announcements and that the plan was to have quarterly announcements of new models for TT:120. Whether this is still feasible with the production delays that seem to be occurring is another matter. And as for any sort of 'surprise announcements' in the lead up to Christmas, I just can't see it. For a start Hornby seem to want to announce everything as far in advance as possible - keeping stuff secret doesn't seem to be the way they work. Secondly there is so much stuff that has been delayed already (21T minerals, TTAs, HAAs, digital Scotsman and Easterner sets to name a few, possibly also the 66s and HSTs) then I think they'd want to get any 'good news' announcements about new models out as early as possible, especially the 0-6-0s. I'd dearly love to be wrong but based on the evidence that we've seen so far regarding the shop and the release dates and also based on the information given out by SK at the time that he spoke about the 0-6-0s then I just can't see the 0-6-0s being here any time soon and I can't imagine models being released early as you are assuming.

Don't forget there is also all the printing and the livery options - these also require a lot of backwards and forwards between Hornby and the factory to get all the colours, lettering, fine detail, etc, etc correct and the more liveries there are then the longer this takes

I've also received an email from Saga offering TT:120 with a 10% discount to Saga customers: Love trains? Embark on a special journey with Hornby TT:120, a table top model railway system that’s small in size yet packed with detail. Get yours today & enjoy a special 10% discount for Saga customers - use SagaTT23 at checkout*

In this instance the online shop is where you need to look - current estimate for all five liveries is: Expected Summer 2024.

The 0-6-0s were mentioned by SK in the livestream on the 19th January, where SK was asked the question "what other locos will be done for TT next". SK first replied that for the moment they will "stick with the phases we've shown for the locos we've shown", so given that no 0-6-0s are listed in Phases 1 to 4 then the conclusion must be that the 0-6-0s will be released in Phase 5 or later, and this is where they're shown on Page 9 of the current catalogue after the Phase 3 locos (9Fs) and the Phase 4 locos (Castles) as "Plus, BR Britannia, LMS/BR Black 5, J94, GWR/BR Class 5700 Pannier and much more!" In the livestream SK then goes on to say that "there are other locos we have designed; we've been asked for 0-6-0s and there's one in tooling and another being prepared for tooling." So if the 0-6-0s were to be released next year as you suggest then that would contradict what SK had said moments before about sticking with the phases they'd shown for the locos they'd shown because Princess Coronations (Duchesses), 9Fs and Castles are all listed before J94s and 5700s - unless you're saying that we're going to see Princess Coronations, 9Fs and Castles in the next six to nine months, which seems unlikely given that there's been nothing about 9Fs and Castles and only a very little about Princess Coronations (the shop currently says Spring 2024 for these). I think all this goes back to what was said before - SK was saying things to keep up the momentum and to make TT:120 sound exciting without ever giving dates or timescales for any of this stuff. Then people pick up on the bits they're interested in and expect it will be here in a few short months when in reality it will probably take a year or more. And as for the 66s, I've just checked the shop and the current dates say Summer 2024, so that's Q2/Q3 next year. I feel sure that the original release dates for the 66s were for some time late this year, although maybe I'm mis-remembering because so many dates have slipped that I'm having trouble remembering what the original dates were for these. But I find it difficult to believe that the 0-6-0s will be released at the same time as the 66s because a lot of information has been floating around for the 66s for some time but we've had nothing on the 0-6-0s besides that one comment by SK back in January.

The same for the TT Talk videos. I'm not complaining here - it was SK's job to make TT:120 sound shiny and exciting to keep the momentum up and therfore he was always going to make promises of new items but he was hardly likely to say that they wouldn't be available for many months (or even years) while the existing items were rolled out and the new items were designed from the ground up. From what we've been told he was as enthusiastic about TT:120 as any of us and consequently he (and Hornby) would have wanted to see all of these items on the market as soon as possible rather than the slow drip of releases we're seeing currently but there are probably many things are outside Hornby's control at the moment.

Sorry to pour cold water on your froth Andrew - this is just a guess but I would have thought an 0-6-0T is unlikely to be appearing anytime soon given we're still awaiting wagons such as the 21T minerals, which I think were originally due in January together with the 08s but they're still not here. Then there are the TTAs (originally due in Spring?) and HAAs. These were all in the pipeline since Day 1 but are still not here even though wagons should be much easier to get out than locos. Even the digital Scotman and Easterner sets haven't appeared yet, which you would have thought would be easy to produce but presumably these are held up by a lack of chips rather than anything else. Or maybe a lack of people on the assembly line - I think I heard somewhere that Hornby underestimated the demand for TT:120. Then there are the 66s (not much new info about those in the latest Train Terminal) and the 50s, which are only at the stage of putting together the first test mouldings. Both have also been in the pipeline since TT:120 was launched but seem to be taking ages. Lately I'm beginning to think my initial TT:120 Club membership will run out before we see a 66... I think all the above points to a lack of production capacity in China. So if an 0-6-0T was only just in tooling then I think there's a long way to go (with a lot of too-ing and fro-ing between Margate and the factory) before we see anything appearing, especially judging by the progress of the 66s and the 50s. Sorry to be a bit glass-half-empty... hopefully I'm wrong! Cheers, Neil.

Apologies for the cross-post from the TT:120 Class 08 thread, but I've duplicated it here just in case anyone isn't following that thread... Here is an excellent video of someone fitting a Class 08 with an 8-pin TXS sound decoder and speaker - plus a stayalive, a flywheel(!), lights (including a cab light) and two crew members! I'm no expert so I'm not sure that the running lights are prototypically correct but even so I think it is brilliantly done. Perhaps not for the faint-hearted as there is some work required with a Dremel. Plus there are an awful lot of wires to cram in under the body. I think it is a pity that Hornby couldn't have offered sound as standard, especially as Bachmann Farish have managed to fit an 18-pin sound decoder in their N Gauge 08s. However the current generation of Hornby TXS 18-pin decoders probably wouldn't fit so hopefully Hornby will redesign when smaller TXS decoders become available, or they could just use the 8-pin as in the video. With this sort of micro-engineering I guess there is hope for fitting sound into smaller TT:120 locos such as 0-4-0s, especially as the same guy has also managed to fit a stayalive and lights to a sound-fitted BachFar 08, which shows that almost anything is possible if you have the knowhow - and the courage!

Here is an excellent video of someone fitting a Class 08 with an 8-pin TXS sound decoder and speaker - plus a stayalive, a flywheel(!), lights (including a cab light) and two crew members! I'm no expert so I'm not sure that the running lights are prototypically correct but even so I think it is brilliantly done. Perhaps not for the faint-hearted as there is some work required with a Dremel. Plus there are an awful lot of wires to cram in under the body. I think it is a pity that Hornby couldn't have offered sound as standard, especially as Bachmann Farish have managed to fit an 18-pin sound decoder in their N Gauge 08s. However the current generation of Hornby TXS 18-pin decoders probably wouldn't fit so hopefully Hornby will redesign when smaller TXS decoders become available, or they could just use the 8-pin as in the video. With this sort of micro-engineering I guess there is hope for fitting sound into smaller TT:120 locos such as 0-4-0s, especially as the same guy has also managed to fit a stayalive and lights to a sound-fitted BachFar 08, which shows that almost anything is possible if you have the knowhow - and the courage!

The inclusion of the track and the other bits that I already have is also what's putting me off buying the Trigo bundle. Given that the bundles are unboxed it would be nice if they offered 'train' bundles (i.e. just a loco + coaches or loco + wagons) and then have a track bundle for those that don't already have the track, controller, re-railer, etc. The track bundles could be varied and contain either R2, R3 or R4 curves, too, so that buyers could buy different track bundles rather than always having R3 curves. And has anyone else noticed that the Scotsman sets now come with lit Pullmans rather than unlit ones? I can only guess that Hornby decided it was not worth the effort of producing both lit and unlit Pullmans. It looks like the analogue Scotsman set has been redesignated TT1001AM (it was previously TT1001M) presumably because it now comes with lit carriages.

I suspect that this isn't anything to do with Hornby. I just tried it and it worked fine for me - on my tablet I searched Google Store for HM DCC and HM DCC was at the top of the list. However, maybe that is because I have searched for it before and I have HM DCC already installed on my tablet so I checked on my phone (where it isn't installed) and HM DCC was top there, too. I guess it might simply be due to download 'popularity' - HM DCC is showing as only 500+ downloads whereas HM DC is showing as 5K+ so maybe the more popular 'match' comes up first but maybe HM DCC is now catching up sufficiently to come top. It might also depend on your device and your version of Android. I assume you can pay Google to push your app higher up the list but I can't see why Hornby would bother given that there is no competition for either app. And somehow 500+ downloads for HM DCC seems quite low to me although obviously it doesn't include IoS downloads. I realise the app is only a few days old on Android, but I would have expected quite a large takeup on the initial launch given that people have been waiting for a while.

You said earlier that you're using Android 5 Jelly Bean - Wikipedia says that's from 2014 so it is pretty old - maybe that's why you can't do these things. Have you tried upgrading to a newer version? Although Wikipedia says Jelly Bean is Android 4, so that would be even older... it says Android 5 is Lollipop. I have no idea why Android developers use names - it just adds confusion... surely version numbers are good enough...

I didn't disable any permissions and my app only had Location and Nearby Devices enabled - but it was mentioned that different devices and different implementations of Android may not behave in the same way.

I've just used the Android app to upgrade the Next18 sound chip in my TT:120 Blink Bonny from the default profile to the A1/A3 profile and I'm happy with the process. I'm not sure whether this has been mentioned already but the only downside was that at the start of the process the app told me that I needed a reset passcode before I could proceed. A quick call to the Technical Support number and I was told to stop and restart the app, which worked fine. I later noticed that the Hornby website had automatically emailed me a reset passcode (I guess the app told website that I needed one and and the website auto-generated it and emailed out to me) but I didn't use it because a stop/restart of the app worked fine. And I can confirm that the only permissions I needed were Location and Nearby Devices, plus Files/Media if you want to add a picture (and possibly Camera but I didn't need that).

Agreed - in the online brochure that I have they are listed on page 15 below the images of the HSTs - Classes 31, 37, 47 and 60 from various eras for Phases 3 and 4 (no dates given, though).

Agreed, but from the H:AMW programmes I believe the sound production is in-house (albeit the sounds guy could be an independent consultant/contractor i.e. a 'temp' - I don't know one way or the other) but I was just making the point that the software almost certainly isn't in-house and so production and release of the sounds won't impact the Android app development and testing, which is what was being implied earlier. In any case, people using the Apple app will still want new sound downloads to be developed, so Hornby wouldn't hold up the release of new sounds simply because the Android app isn't released yet.

I don't think the people doing the sounds (presumably the sounds guy seen on "Hornby: A Model World") are the same people that are doing the Android software so it isn't a choice of doing one thing or the other. I doubt that the software is being produced in-house by Hornby so producing and releasing the sounds won't impact the production and testing of the Android app. I think the chips have been widely available since they were launched - they aren't Hornby-only items like TT:120.

I've just spotted the following on YouTube - apologies if it has already been posted here or elsewhere. It is a couple of weeks old. There is nothing very new in it but it does contain images of the upcoming 7-plank wagons which it says should be available "in a couple of months" and GWR signals which will be available after that.

Dunno what that is - the frames are perfectly straight and the wheels aren't pressing on them. There is lateral float on the axles and about a mm or so of free movement either way before the faces of the wheels touch the insides of the frames. It could be caused by the blue foam LocoLines loco servicing cradle which might be a bit tight because it is meant for N Gauge. It is a really nice little loco and I'm really happy with it in spite of these two minor problems. I could probably sort them myself if I was a bit braver but I'll leave it to someone who knows a bit more about how they're assembled rather than going in blind and trying to rip it apart myself. I did put a Next18 chip in my Blink Bonny a while back so I can do some work on them but they're so small that my eyesight isn't really up to it these days, even with glasses and one of those magnifying headsets.

My Class 08 is having problems coupling up at the cab end - the coupler seems to be pointing very slightly to the right and it requires manual intervention (big hand in the sky) most of the time to get it to couple up to anything, which is a bit frustrating. The keeper plate holds both couplings in place while at the same time allowing the couplings to move from side-to-side so I thought I'd remove the keeper plate and see if that was binding on the coupler assembly and was preventing the coupling at the cab end from returning to a central position. The loco is also a bit reluctant to run over Hornby dead frogs and stalls occasionally at low speed so I thought I'd check the pickups while the keeper plate was off. The first problem with removing the keeper plate was that the complete front coupler assembly fell off due to the weight of the coupler hook. Fortunately the spring stayed attached to the loco and so it didn't get lost - those springs are so small I probably wouldn't have found it again. The second problem that revealed itself was that an axle bearing on the front axle hadn't been assembled correctly and it is floating free along the axle - this might be the reason that the loco doesn't always run well through the Hornby points: Unfortunately I can't lift the axle up away from the chassis and slide the bearing into its correct position because all the outside frame gubbins seems to be holding the axle in place. I don't want to break anything so I'll probably send it back and get Hornby to fix it. While they're at it they can take a look at the rear coupling because I can't see what is preventing the coupling from centering correctly - unless it is the yellow pipe underneath the rear bufferbeam, which looks like it might be touching the NEM pocket and that could be stopping the coupling from moving freely. I've tried pulling the pipe off the chassis but it seems to be very firmly fixed and if I use more force I'm afraid I'll snap it. It probably wouldn't be the end of the world but I'd rather not break anything if I can avoid it. Getting the front coupling back in place was 'interesting' and must've taken me nearly an hour because it is so fiddly. The big problem was trying to hold the coupler assembly in place with one hand while at the same time getting the tiny spring to locate into the two even tinier pegs on the loco body and on the coupler loop with the other hand without either squashing the spring in the tweezers or having it ping off into the ether. In the end I resorted to using a dab of superglue to glue one end of the spring onto the coupler assembly and that allowed me to compress the spring and locate the other end onto the peg on the chassis without the fear of the spring disappearing. Goodness knows how they assemble these things in the factory - presumably they have a tool or a jig to hold the bits in place while they compress the spring and fit it between the coupler and the loco body.