Porfuera

Positive. For pre-orders it used to be that if you paid £50 or more in total (that is £50 paid after TT:120 Club discount, hobby points, etc had been taken off) then you would get free shipping on everything. For example, I ordered one of each of the TTAs in early February (i.e. all three in the same basket) and I was not charged shipping on any of them because the total for the three came to over £50 - so I have three invoices like this for the three TTAs: And looking at my credit card account I've been charged three lots of £17.84 so postage hasn't been applied retrospectively. I made further pre-orders on 22nd March last year and that is when I noticed that shipping was being applied to any invoice that came to less than £50. Presumably Hornby discovered that pre-orders were getting sent out more or less individually (rather than all together in a single parcel) and that the cost of the extra p&p was eating into their profits, so they started charging postage on any invoice that came to less than £50. That's bad news for buyers if they only want one or maybe two of each new wagon. Unless Hornby fix this then I think a lot of people people will stop pre-ordering from Hornby if they're having to pay £3.95 per wagon and will start going to retailers instead. Or they will wait until what they want is actually in Hornby's warehouse or they will pre-order sufficient wagons or carriages to get free postage - but not everyone can afford that. Imagine if you wanted one of each of the six HAAs - you could end up paying nearly £24 postage for just six wagons. However I guess there will always be a core of buyers that want their wagons as early as possible and they will pre-order from Hornby in order to get them first.

Not if you pre-ordered last February. I guess they were losing too much on postage to continue with that. I think they will start losing a lot of their direct sales to shops if they can't sort out this combined postage on pre-orders of different items.

I'm jealous! They took payment for my three on Monday morning but I have heard nothing since then. I thought that the delay might be due to them taking the time to combine all pre-orders for the same address into a single parcel but from what you say I guess that isn't the case. Hopefully the delay is an indication that there are enormous numbers of these wagons being mailed out.

No, you are correct about the £50. My pre-order was: one of each of the 12T tanks plus one brake van and these totalled more than £50 and at that time the postage was free for everything in that pre-order - so it didn't matter that I received two wagons on one day (in one box) and two wagons a couple of days later (in two separate boxes on the same day). However if I were to repeat the pre-order today then I would have to pay £3.95 postage for each wagon and if the wagons were delivered in the same way then I guess I would be able to claim back two lots of £3.95 - but at that time I didn't have to.

I've never used one either but on that thread I linked to previously they are referred to as shipping agents (or maybe freight forwarding agents?) so a search for that should give more info. I guess you'd need one located in the UK to minimise postage at that end. Someone here will probably have more info. I have the impression (although I don't know why!) that it is only when separate parcels arrive on the same day (and/or are despatched on the same day?) that Hornby provides a refund. I've had separate parcels arrive in the same delivery myself but at that time postage was free so I didn't need to try and make a claim. Again, maybe someone here knows more or has had a different experience.

There are companies that do that. I don't know the details but I think I read about them on the imports/exports thread and maybe here as well. The orders are sent to them (even from different sources) and they hold them until you release them and they send them to you in a single shipment. EDIT: Here's one example - probably of many on this thread:

It also seems a bit odd to me how the individual TTA liveries seem to keep coming into and then going out of stock. And I'm sure that this has happened previously as well. I don't know anything about importing goods and distributing them - and I hope someone will be able to correct the bits I get wrong here - but I would have thought you would start off by finding out how many of each livery you have in your warehouse (and surely this is something you would know even before they arrive, although I guess there could be some losses/damage in transit) and then you work through your pre-orders from that point. What it looks like to me is that they are in such a hurry to get these things out the door that they (maybe) go to one pallet, unwrap that and then deal with whatever orders they can from that one until it runs out and then move on to the next pallet and repeat the process until they run out of pallets. Or maybe the pallets arrive over several days - obviously I'm guessing and I don't even know how many pallets of these things they will receive. It is just that it seems a bit disorganised to keep having these things going in and out of stock and maybe that it also connected to the reason why people receive their pre-orders of different liveries in different packages. I guess that part of the problem is also that each separate item has its own order number and orders that all go to the same address aren't co-ordinated together by the system but appear to be dealt with individually. And I remember hearing that, in the early days of TT:120, Sam of Sam's Trains ordered track and reportedly each piece (or box or pieces?) came in a separate package - and at that time the track was already sitting on the warehouse waiting for Hornby to give the nod to send out the orders. That seems even more chaotic when the stock is already sitting there waiting.

After placing my pre-order for TTAs last February my credit card was renewed (due to SWMBO leaving hers at the till at Tesco!) and so the original credit card details were no longer valid. So I knew that when Hornby were going to take payment for the TTAs it would be declined. The FAQs (screenshot somewhere above) say that you can update individual orders with new payment details but I don't have any link on my pre-orders to allow me to do that. Hornby have since sent me emails asking for a new payment method for my TTAs (also as per the FAQs), which has worked perfectly well - although seeing as that was the first time that this has happened to me I wasn't sure what the process would be or whether it would work, but everything was fine. I'd prefer to be proactive and to change the payment details before having to be asked but their current method of emailing you if your original payment method is declined seems to work well enough. I might investigate using Clearpay(? or whatever their other payment option is called) - I don't have any experience of that but if it is something like PayPal then that might avoid this situation in future when there are long lead times and there is a chance of credit cards getting changed in the interim.

Hi Jason, Thanks for the reply. That is interesting because I don't see "payment details" on any of my pre-orders - I only get a big red "Cancel" in the bottom left of each pre-order. That is both on my Android tablet and on my Windows desktop. All I get is this - it is the same for all of them: Very strange! Cheers, Neil.

Hi Jason, So how do you do it? How did you change the payment instructions (credit card details or whatever) on an existing pre-order? If I go My Account -> Orders the only link I can see on my pre-orders is a red button marked "Cancel" and I'm not about to press that! I can't see any other links on the pre-orders - unlike the 'Despatched' orders that have links to 'View Order' and 'Download Invoice (PDF)'. I can't see any other useful links on that page - did Hornby send you an email with a link as in the FAQs or something else? This is the bit of the FAQs that I'm trying to work out: Cheers, Neil.

Me either - I'm also checking the order status of my three TTA orders (one of each so three separate orders) and mine all say 'Pending'. Chris from the "Peachy TT:120" YouTube channel posted on Facebook to say that payment for his TTAs had been declined by his card provider because his card had been reissued since he placed his TTA order and therefore the original card details were no longer valid. I'm in the same situation so I'll be giving Hornby a call on Monday. They seem to store card details on the website but I don't know whether existing pre-orders are updated if new card details are used or perhaps they simply take payment from the most recent card. However going by the above it would seem that they still try to use the original card details.

ISTR that the 12T tanks and the LNER Toads sold out pretty quickly - but then there wasn't anything else available at the time - and there were lots being sold at ridiculous prices on a certain auction site... But with the TTAs maybe they're bringing over larger numbers of wagons now that they've proved the concept, which would make it more impressive. If there is a Q&A in April then perhaps someone will ask how many they brought over (if they're willing to share that sort of info - it may be company confidential).

But wasn't it the same for the 7-plank PO wagons and the 12T tank wagons - and possibly the vent vans and the brake vans, too? Probably also the initial releases of the carriages (although tbh I don't follow those as closely as the wagons). I think there is so little coming through that the first run of almost anything is bound to sell out - and probably the second and maybe the third runs, too. Not a critism - it is still impressive and it is all good for Hornby. Perhaps it is better this way than having too much flooding in leaving unsold stock in the warehouse/retailers. Although perhaps the retailers would like more. Also it is good because we are now over a year in to UK outline TT:120 and clearly buyers are staying the course rather than losing interest and leaving due to the lack of availability.

And someone on Facebook has spotted that the dates for the two Class 50s 'Sir Edward Elgar' (green livery) and 'Leviathan' (LL blue) have been put back to Summer 2024 (the same date as the sound fitted versions). If that date is kept to then this means that they will now arrive after the April announcement - I guess we will learn more in April but maybe this is a precaution because of the ships diverting away from the Red Sea and the Suez canal. The date for the GBRf Class 50 is still Spring 2025 with no sound version currently listed. EDIT: the dates for the HSTs and the Mk2 and Mk3 blue/grey coaches seem to be unchanged so maybe it is a production issue rather than something to do with shipping.

For anyone interested in these TTA wagons... The Esso livery is now showing as "Out of Stock" on the individual item page for TT6022 but it might be worth checking back later as this seems to change. The other two (BP TT6024 and Total TT6023) are still showing as "Order Now" at the current time.

All three liveries of the TTA tankers are currently showing as "In Stock" and if you go to the individual item pages they are showing as "Order Now". It is a bit odd... when displaying the "TT Wagons & Coaches" listing, the Esso variant doesn't show up. In order to get it to appear on you need to deselect the "Only show in stock items?" slider. Then when it comes up it says "Last Few" for that livery so maybe that's why it doesn't always appear with the other two liveries. Maybe this will explain it better... When "Wagons & Coaches" are displayed as "Item Number Z - A", the Esso variant isn't displayed: Then deselecting the "Show only in stock items?" slider the page displays the Esso variant, tagged as "Last Few":

August's TT Talk said they would be here in December so maybe they're coming through the Panama canal

There is a new Train Terminal on Hornby's website - it seems to be mostly advertising/selling for existing models but there is a picture of the new Class 08 (I guess it is a photoshop of the 00 model) headed "Train Terminal Exclusive!" although not that exclusive given that a number of retailers announced it first(! 😁 ) , plus there is a bit of news about upcoming releases: It ends with: Quick Model Updates The final samples of the Class 43 HST units have been approved and are in full production. The Class 50 locomotives, Mk2 and Mk3 coaches are also in full production. Look out for next month's Train Terminal where we'll showcase an exciting development sample you've all been waiting for. Don't miss out! And stay tuned for the Hornby TT:120 Range Launch in April 2024… https://uk.Hornby.com/community/hornbytt120-club/members-area/blog-and-news/tt-or-not-tt#TT3028M EDIIT: no mention of the TTAs or the 21T minerals. Hopefully the TTAs are already on their way on a boat somewhere...

I think it is still the same five Class 66 liveries that were there from the beginning but the sound-fitted ones have been added? Also added are two sound-fitted Class 50s - the LL Blue and the green ones but not the GBRf variant (probably because the last magazine had the GBRf livery as "date TBC"). But as you say still no D3986 Era 5 Class 08. A pity because it would be good to confirm whether or not it really has been upgraded to Next18 as it says on the Kernow website. I guess Hornby are just teasing us now! Hopefully it'll be on there soon.

Same here. My order was placed last Wednesday (10th) just after midnight. On Friday afternoon I received the email saying that it had been picked and it arrived this morning (Monday) just after 10am. Pretty good service under normal conditions but considering they must be swamped at the present time then I think that is exceptionally good and they must be working very hard to get all those orders out of the door. Along with so many others on here, I'd like to add my thanks to everyone at Hattons for all their hard work in the past and for the pleasure enjoyment that they've brought to many people in this hobby and in others and to wish them all the very best for the future.

Go on... you know you want to... otherwise why would you keep looking...? 🤣 🤣 🤣

Surely it must be The Hand of God...!

I have a couple of 0 Gauge Class 08s and I have to squint hard to see the door and hinge detail on those - I'd have no chance of seeing it on a TT:120 loco, especially at normal viewing distances. If anyone is interested, here is a link to Garry Hall on Facebook and a video of four class 08s he has painted and applied transfers (two green, two black) - they look very nice. It is worth looking at his timeline - he does lots of conversions of all manner of locos (mostly steam) using Corgi TT:120 bodies and 3D prints, as well as doing repaints of rolling stock, plus some 3D printed wagons. A lot of very impressive work. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1581812358920619/permalink/1797741737327679/

Also the equipment boxes on the sides can be different between variants - this would probably be the most noticable issue at normal viewing distances. But even then how many people would know they were wrong? However don't forget the ladders - unless you can find a prototype without them. Here are some pictures of the actual models and you can see the differences in the boxes and the doors. I can't see any differences in the hinges but I think the old hinges should look like rivetted straps that go most of the way across the doors and I can't see that on either model (but I'm using a tablet - possibly this would be easier to see on a larger screen). However these models are probably only engineering samples and not actual prototypes as they only have ladders on one side: https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/news/Hornby-tt-model-prototypes-examined/ There is quite a long thread of Class 08 photos here but you will need to trawl through it to find any relevant photos for your repaint although unfortunately a lot of the photos seem to have gone missing in the crash. However it is a good resource if you fancy doing some weathering:

Agreed - Bachmann won't be using Hornby's bluetooth chips. Maybe there has been a redesign and retool of Hornby's Class 08 but it seems a bit unlikely so early in the game when there is still so much other stuff to get out. However Hornby's next gen chips are supposed to be smaller so they might fit more easily into the Class 08 bodyshell. But even then the DCC socket area and wiring would still need to be redesigned and retooled to change from 6-pin to Next18. And why use 18-pin? Why not use their 8-pin sound decoder? Unless they're trying to standardise on Next18 for TT:120 (also there are a lot of wires on the 8-pin that have to be fitted in somewhere). That's why it seems to me more likely to be an error but I could easily be wrong. We will have to keep an eye on other stockists' listings or Hornby's website or else wait for the April announcements.