Class 66: Hornby existing, Hatton's new, Bachmann and Hornby 2019 offering

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I think I might be biased in this thread.

 

 

but...

 

Left to right.. Hornby, Hattons, Bachmann
 

Hornby 66..

 

its old Lima, but in its defence.. its accurate.. the length, shape and detail is there. Its also not coarse as a tooling, it might be Lima, but its 1990’s Lima.

 

One axle drive, good paint job, it will sit in the background of your layout nicely & cheaply. If youve got kids, on a budget or just want something to risk messing about.. your not going to go wrong with this.

 

only 1 body shell design, so the variations are ignored.. the biggest ones being different headlights and an extra bodyside door used on many 66’s.

 

new c£75, s/h c£45

 

Bachmann 66..

 

More detailed, but doesnt cater for all variations. Again detail, shape and accuracy are there.

Twin axle drive, weighty, has lots of lighting options, comes with several body side toolings. Comes in oodles of liveries over 20 years.

 

Again if youve got kids, on a budget or want a mess about, a second hand Bachmann 66 can be had for the same price of a new Hornby 66... newer ones are a little more pricey, but if you had the choice..

 

new c£130, s/h c£90

 

Hattons 66

 

Detail.. it has it in spades, indeed its got too much detail. No rtr loco ive known consists of more than 60 pieces just on the bogies.. the air dams another 20.. and you get 2 extra air dams too. It has even odd ball variant details (like cab seams). It excells on the underframe details and has more lighting details than any other. Headlines is the rolling axleboxes. It weighs in at nearly a kg.

 

Detail however is also its curse... they fall off... ideally the axle box will be 3mm long on a metal axle that extends 2mm off the wheel.. unfortunately is 3mm pushed onto a 1mm stub. The front dam steps are push fitted, not glued, and the cab steps.. should be glued to the frame, not the body, and for one headlight configuration the light circuit is wrong.  All of this is documented and curable, if your prepared for a little optional work.. your inline for one of the best oo rtr models ever made.

 

new £119, s/h.. there really isnt a s/h market, very few are being sold...which to me tells you what you need to know. Hattons do sell returns, and those returns generally relate to the faults above, which means you could bag a real bargain for <£100.

 

The current Hattons 66’s are down to the dregs, all Sound, DCC have long gone, only 15 or so DCC ready types are left, and approx 2-3 a week are selling out.

 

 

The future...

 

I think the future is bleak..

the world is flooded with 66’s right now, more than 100 releases in 2 years (mostly in triplicate) by each of the 3 manufacturers have been made. I think saturation has passed, everyone has armfuls.

 

Unless new liveries come on the real railway, only Hattons has scope for more liveries (despite doing 37 versions already). However more of the same from Hattons wont be accepted by the market, fixing the above 4 issues costs money, so does covid, brexit and inflation in the last 4 years since the original attractive £150 was announced, which probably took advantage of economy of scale on producing the volume they did. if a new one emerged at under £200 I will think they will have done well, and considering Hornby and Bachmann will triplicate.. it might be easier for Hattons to simply move on to the next project... That would be job done for Hornby and Bachmann too... so there maybe a rest period for a while.

 

finally..
 

am I biased.. yes I started with Lima, moved back in time to the 1960’s and only returned to modern image in 2018.. I missed Hornby, Bachmanns 66’s and enterd at Hattons.. since then Ive nearly 40 of them, plus a few stocking fillers of Bachmann..

 

my Hornby one you see is awaiting scrapping and will be chopped up into 7 pieces for another project.

 

 

 

 

 

[RAF96]

As they say in the adverts - nose blind.

I can’t a blind bit of difference between them despite the prompts.

I have the Hornby one which runs fine on DC for now until the lighting kit turns up and I fit it along with TTS sound.

Value for money - in my eyes yes.

[rob D2]

For clumsy fingers like me the Bachmann has just enough detail ( first introduced 2005 incidentally ), the main bug bear is the rubbish lighting config which fails to portray the triangular nature of the real thing .

[Hilux5972]

30 minutes ago, rob D2 said:

For clumsy fingers like me the Bachmann has just enough detail ( first introduced 2005 incidentally ), the main bug bear is the rubbish lighting config which fails to portray the triangular nature of the real thing .

Have a look at this site. Just a basic knowledge of soldering will sort the lighting issue for you. https://www.illuminatedmodels.co.uk/search?q=Class+66

[rob D2]

6 minutes ago, Hilux5972 said:

Have a look at this site. Just a basic knowledge of soldering will sort the lighting issue for you. https://www.illuminatedmodels.co.uk/search?q=Class+66

Hi 

I’ve seen those , but fundamentally you a drilling a round hole where a rectangle exists so I think the face may be compromised . 
 

TBH , it’s a pain I can probably live with 

[Hilux5972]

5 hours ago, rob D2 said:

Hi 

I’ve seen those , but fundamentally you a drilling a round hole where a rectangle exists so I think the face may be compromised . 
 

TBH , it’s a pain I can probably live with 

What? Who said anything about drilling? It’s soldering to get the proper lighting board in place. 

[Hilux5972]

5 hours ago, rob D2 said:

Hi 

I’ve seen those , but fundamentally you a drilling a round hole where a rectangle exists so I think the face may be compromised . 
 

TBH , it’s a pain I can probably live with 

Oh unless you have the loco with this arrangement in which case yes a small amount of drilling is involved. 

[rob D2]

5 hours ago, Hilux5972 said:

Oh unless you have the loco with this arrangement in which case yes a small amount of drilling is involved. 

Yep, original EWS, so putting a round LED in a rectangular hole in essence . I’m not convinced it looks that good.