stonojnr

whatever gauging issues were there in 2007, were solved by 2011/12 as the Class43 Power car NMT version was definitely running to Norwich and through Ipswich on the mainline, dont think it ever ventured out on the branch lines, and the NMT is more likely still to be spotted with Class37s top n tailing it on its visits to Anglian routes even now, but there was a HST tour that went to some of the North Norfolk routes some years back. But Id always assumed it was a driver route knowledge thing, there not being many drivers with Anglian route knowledge and Class43 driving, than a limitation on the Class43s themselves, but I know NR do change their minds on gauging, even when nothing much appears to have changed on a route. keeping a Hornby context though, the Mk3s on the GEML were Mk3as or Mk3bs, not the Mk3s of the HST without buffer beams

I think the programme started off making it sound like it was a complete retooling project, but by the end it seemed alot less than the sum of those parts, even though where you sit on how big or important the coupling,sound,lights and variations on where a handle might sit maybe bigger or lesser depending on your preference for those things. But you have to balance that off against the whole reason they started doing this refresh in the first place was this claimed potential rival coming in and stealing their thunder in producing a better HST on the market, as its one of those Hornby models that, and I dont think it was just Simons hyperbole flourish for the cameras, that he was willing to defend fire with fire on,and weve seen Hornby under his tenure do that before. so then you have to ask yourself well do those changes shore up Hornbys HST enough to check mate any potential rival from coming to market with a better HST, and the answer would have to be no, not really, yes theyve improved bits of it, but its not the ultimate model that it perhaps could be or should be. and thats to me where the issue about Mk3 coaches come in, because theres no use having a set of new upgraded HSTs, which Ive no doubt will cost even more than the rather large cost of the current sets, if you have no comparable quality rolling stock to fit between the power cars, you dont buy an HST just to run around in light engine duties, its no good fixing the coupling at one end but having even more obvious gaps left between the coaches as a result. so its not unreasonable to imagine alongside this HST theres been a similar piece of freshening up, as has been done with the Mk4s to match up with the new improved Class 91s, on the Mk3s for HSTs that wasnt covered in the programme,and then youve got your improved HST, and a set of improved Mk3s to go with it, and that might be a better proposition that Hornby can then use to defend against a rival looking at making headway in that direction towards an HST of their own.

those kinds of visits, just to grab a few photos, are totally staged for TV IMO, I mean ignoring some of them dont appear to be capturing the photos with accurate measurements or setups to compare against in analysis later, not even sight of a grey card to set white balance for proper colour reproduction, do we really believe Hornby dont already have an extensive back catalogue library of photos of an HST they can already review from their office, let alone the masses of photos a click away in an internet search engine, plus the masses of books and design documents, if anything theres probably too much info on the HST to distill it down sensibly. and yes it was almost certainly combined with the APT visit, but then someone said the webcam they checked previsit had a May 2021 date on it, would they really not have locked the paint for the APT down by that point already...and then you are back to...and its totally staged for TV again.

maybe it started out as the former, but ended up as the latter, we dont really get shown how these designs progress, or the timescales they are working to, time to market is the key bit if they were trying to head off competition, so if a totally new power car was taking too long to develop, or the threat of the rival decreased in the intervening period due to world events, its completely conceivable that a full remodel then switches to just a few upgrades in certain areas, that refreshes the HST, and is enough to keep Hornby ahead for now. I note again though they send the junior designer out on a 500mile round field trip, to take a few pictures of a power car,probably for very little actual benefit.

the way it is was positioned by the programme,, so we have to take a step back and remember this is in the "made for tv" style of setup meetings and things, it was billed as a complete makeover of the HST that Hornby last updated 14 years ago, so thats the 2006/07 ones (which I didnt think were that bad for detail compared to RTR versions) and in Simon Ks words he wanted a "Rolls Royce HST" to "fight fire with fire" of this unnamed rivals attempt to do a better than Hornby version of the HST, oh and the redesign had to be perfect, so we can expect Mk3 interior coach lighting with a bunch of gigantic capacitors on show maybe

well I am looking forward to the day when any class 90 used by GA finally makes an appearance, an NXEA one might be nice, maybe an AGA too, then again some of the Freightliner ones that swapped over from GA still sport their unbranded GA livery, I bet Bachmann will probably do those before they get to any passenger livery used after Virgin Trains

albeit the choice of livery from both manufacturers can best be summed up as what colour of Freightliner do you want ? which given they did also spend roughly 30 years hauling passenger services as well as a class, seems a glaring oversight

as a trained technician in my youth, the one thing I expected him to really break holding that kind of flat headed screwdriver in the way he did as he tried to pry the fixing apart was likely to be his hand if the screwdriver suddenly slipped, its definitely not the technique to use or copy.

I think theres an element of "made for television" about alot of what we see on this show, to create more of a storyline with how they seem to design things or do things there, I cant imagine the majority of imagery theyve been taking as theyve shown on tv has been that useful when back at base trying to translate it to a CAD program, they were struggling to hold the measuring stick even remotely level the other week whilst taking supposedly critical measurements, and you dont see reference images blown up to magnify the detail sat around their workstations, with them cross checking the detail, which Id have expected was a key review stage. though its also probably just as useful for Hornby to get their younger designers up close and personal with the objects they are modelling,and gaining that experience & insight as part of developing their skillset, but that doesnt translate well onto screen, so they come up with this ruse that they really need to go see a train or a plane to take some new measurements or photos,video of it, and it then lets them fill in some background on the vehicle, why Hornby want to model it as a product etc, explain some detail or history about it, and before you know it youve made 5mins of content. it does feel like the filler content is increasing week on week though at the moment.

i noted he said that too, which got my mind racing about what else they might start splashing it on, but I thought the whole point of the paint mixing exercise on the APT, was it was supposed to be a slightly lighter shade of what they already had, kind of an early 80s executive if you will, not the later 80s executive swallow livery which was darker. But then I was wondering how does the guy who mixes it by hand & sight productionise that paint mix anyway even if he finds the right colour ? the magic of television I guess. and they keep talking in the show about how they focus on making all the tiny details right and wouldnt let a model into the shops with an obvious flaw...and yet here we are staring at a rather obvious visible capacitor on not just the pre-samples, but actual retail versions.

It would make sense to us, but Hornby have rarely made any sense in the last 20 years in the Diesel/Electric scene to me at least, others may disagree. but they have existing RTR Class90 tooling, mk3 coaches & DVTs, they could not only correct the Anglia "One" Refresher livery mistakes of the past, they could then literally release a whole bunch of TOC livery examples with those toolings, no one else is doing those liveries, and they are happy to keep release freightliner Class 90s even in direct competition with Bachmann, but they dont, and I genuinely never expect they will, certainly now they are certainly further down the line in the ex passenger train use than even the 91s or HSTs are. so what gives us hope even with new toolings, and they made new toolings for the mk 3 DVTs which they arent exactly rushing to produce many varied versions of, they are going to go on a tour of even most of the Class 91 liveries there have been ? the 4 weve got geniunely Id expect to be as far as it goes honestly.

but we didnt know back then it was going to take 20months so as to save for it like that, and I sunk what disposable income I had on the Class 91 instead, which I know Ill be wanting Mk4s and DVT to go with now theyve been confirmed, dont get me wrong Id really like the APT, annoyingly of course I want the more expensive 7 car set because thats the livery style I prefer. and its difficult to make that decision to commit that kind of money upfront, alongside all you other purchasing, when you still dont really know what you are buying into yet, it would be easier if there was a trusted review out that said if you are a fan of the APT, this is the model youve been waiting 40 years to get hold of, or instead said well its good and your only option right now, but maybe they could have done better in these areas. I dont know, I cant believe Hornby would have gone to all the effort of retooling this, just to do a single run, unless it totally bombs in sales, but quite alot of online sellers have stopped taking pre-orders now, so Id have thought presales were pretty good. But I gave up trying to second guess Hornbys logic on what models they produce years ago.

Id settle for one...just a One, NXEA or Greater Anglia version, they only served on the GEML for 17 years, and yet theres more chance of a bunch of one off liveries that only seem to last until the next batch of paint turning up at a freightliner depot, than anything else, actually theres more chance of an unbranded Greater Anglia livery turning up now a few have been pressed into freight service, as it looks unusual.

try modelling a modern era Anglia setup if you want to know what "nothing at all" really feels like that. I wouldnt mind so much but its just a question of a different livery on alot of stuff they already make.