Hroth

The Hornby International section on the main website has a selection of locos and coaches from the European subsidiaries, HO examples include: Electrotren Jouef Lima Rivarossi Apart from Lima, all the models are at eye-watering prices, even when compared with top-of-the-main-range domestic Hornby models. Lima is interestingly different, and is more like Hornby UK with (very) cheap locos co-existing with pretty high-end models. The offerings on the Hornby website range from 4 wheeled diesel shunters at £13, a BO-BO diesel loco for £20 and coaches with blacked out windows for £9. More expensive shunters and BO-BO locos with more detail come in at £27, with an articulated electric outline loco at £35. Coaches to match cost between £13 and £17. None of the locos are DCC ready. Three examples of their top end offerings are listed, one electric outline loco and two high speed 4 vehicle sets ranging from £126 to £148. These are all DCC ready. I got a Lima Junior (H0 1:87) Diesel Locomotive D.445 - FS (HL2100) out of interest, more than anything else. Its got a very robust mechanism and a heavy diecast block chassis, with operating directional lights and see through windows. I may have to get a few of the £13 coaches to accompany it! I suppose you could compare the D.445 with a Hornby Railroad Class 31, but apart from the fact that the 31 is DCC ready, it loses out regarding lighting and detailing, although as far as prices overall are concerned, we don't do to badly with Hornby/Hornby Railroad.

I do agree with you about buying old stuff to experiment on, but decent relatively recent models tend to be hawked as "rare" on ebay with associated wishful thinking prices. How many get sold is another matter. And if Hornby actually suggest that they're going to make something that you've desired for a long time then pre-orders have to be placed and the fate of the first-born considered... Otherwise, by time you've steeled yourself to buy one, the ebay sharks have got them all and want a full set of appendages from you . Buying ancient wrecks for nefarious purposes isn't going to help a manufacturer keep their nose above water either and then the ancient wrecks will become unavailable...

The problem is that all of us, as consumers, are battered on all sides by rising prices and static incomes (and I'm not just talking about those on pensions). I can appreciate that things like Brexit induced drops in the Pound, rises in oil prices, transport and production costs in general mean that Hornby has to look at what it charges the retailer to stock items and thus the customer has to shoulder the burden too. But it gets to the point when the amount of disposable income is so small that the cost of buying X, Y and Z becomes impossible; X (and perhaps Y) may have to be put off. That X and Y might never be produced again, particularly in a desired livery, only twists the knife. As we look in the shrinking wallet, brushing off the hungry moths, we are reminded that the sages of old declared "You can't get a quart out of a pint pot". No matter how we want to buy things, especially Hornby things, it can't all be done. As far as I'm concerned, Hornby are in luck. I had three items on pre-order, two Hornby that might appear around Christmas-tide and another that was slated for nowish. The other has now moved to the same time-slot as the Hornby models and given the time of year, I can't support three new locos in a month, so reluctantly I've had to cancel the other pre-order. WIth luck, into the New Year I may be able to look at that other loco again, if there are any left.

I see that Hattons revised arrival time for the Dean Goods in all incarnations is now November - December 2016. 7007: Well, they modified it, so it WAS a Modified Hall! As for Pontypool, it seems to be about 15 miles from the border, so I wouldn't criticise anyone for circumspection.

*chokes* Ok, there's two miles of river estuary between me and Wales, but I think "Pontypool" is its own answer! Road, of course, means that its nowhere NEAR the place.... I had a quick google, and Pontypool itself is near Sebastopol. Make of that what you will. Didn't the recalled 2015 Bachmann Modified Hall fail to please even in its later incarnation?

I know a model shop like that, their once vast Hornby stock is vanishingly low and they seem to be relying on other modelling areas (ie NOT model railways) more and more.

Wasn't that the mid-19C Broad Gauge livery?

I refer my esteemed colleague to the thread below http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/115378-oxford-rail-new-items-announcements-in-00-and-n/&do=findComment&comment=2448609 Though this one is very nice too!

In the Friday, 30th edition of MREmag, there's an "open letter" by Simon Kohler ( http://www.mremag.com/index.php/news/1227-lettertomremagreaders ), detailing the new directions MREmag is to take with effect from the beginning of October (ie, from tomorrow). The major changes will be: Frequency of the "traditional" or "classic" mag will initially reduce to twice a week (Tues/Fri) and then from December to Friday only. Phil Parker will be giving up his editorial role at MREmag at the end of December. There will be a new mag MREMagazine, a subscription free bi-monthly new eMagazine. The letter is well worth reading if you have any interest in this useful forum and gives a bit more detail of the background to the changes. edit: ****** typos....

Depending on the variant you want, anything from mid November to early December, according to the Hornby website: R3431 BR Black, early crest 18/11/16 R3432 BR Black, late crest 27/11/16 R3430 LNER Green, 04/12/16

Oops yes.... The head-on one has a BLACK dome!

Well, they have to start somewhere. At least 6 o'clock is a cardinal point, and its a loco with lots of visual appeal. You couldn't start at 12 o'clock, while a J36 will have great interest for Scottish modellers, it might have ended up as Oxford Rails one and only model loco... Personally speaking, I feel that although a Cauliflower is a perfectly good suggestion, they could push the boat out for something like one of the pre Great War Crewe 4-6-0s. Certainly no competition on the horizon from anyone else there!

Just thinking out loud.... Perhaps they're sorting out the firebox, but to try to keep on "schedule", the final decoration example has been produced on pre-production bodies that are to hand rather than waiting for possible revised firebox samples? Ok, I'm a perennial optimist! But it does look very pretty.... Ummm I'm no shedplate guru, but isn't a number/letter combination an LMS/BR fad? According to listings on "The Great Western Archive" ( http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/m_in_gwr_sheds.htm ) 88K was used for Brecon (BCN) from 1961. I stand to be corrected.

It all boils down to brand awareness and wanting to keep buyers of one particular brand within the fold, even if logic suggests that one moves from one brand to another to get higher "quality". A situation thats worsened when the different brands are all part of the same group. So unless Lima offers a progression from their very basic train set models, through the middle ground to high end prototype fidelity then customers will switch to Rivarossi and their balance sheet will suffer. Hornby has a similar problem with the Railroad range that covers "GWR" 101 tank locos in dodgy liveries, through decent models of the GWR Hall, to Crosti-boilered 9Fs. Then there's price overlaps between similar types of loco in the Railroad and main ranges... All the Hornby railway brands need to sort out their stratification policies so the consumer doesn't get confused. How they do that is another can of worms entirely!

But not in the 17th century! However, its not beyond the realms of possibility that celebrating it 400 years-odd later might become one.....

I did ask Oxford Rail some time ago about the availability schedule quoted by Hattons, but they didn't want to confirm or deny. Given the concerns raised a few months ago by residents of this parish about the firebox shape, we might be lucky to get one by Xmas, which would then interfere with certain revised Hornby delivery dates...

The local Pound Shops have been flogging "Halloween" stuff since the end of August, its like stores doing "Back To School" before the end of the Summer term. As for the Acrid Smoke Festival, its being displaced by Halloween, probably on the grounds that celebrating the capture, torture and execution of Catholic would-be assassins is irrelevant in the 21st century and will eventually become a Hate Crime. Personally, I deplore the banning of hand-held fireworks, rip-raps and aeroplanes. Health and Safety? Pah!

I've two of the Hornby Dublo (EDL18) models, one 3-rail and the other 2-rail, the 3-rail from new and the 2-rail several years later after I'd been converted... Despite being wellt over fifty years old, both run well, the 2-rail version still makes occasional appearances on my layout! I've never seen the Lima version, but if its anything like their interpretation of the Hughes Crab, then it must be a doozey!

I never thought to ask "why" the picking list was so slow for my recent order. Yes, I ordered over the weekend so it ended up in the "Monday Morning" heap of things to do. And didn't get done. I suppose the best thing to do is order Tuesday or Wednesday on the premis that the hump will have been dealt with and it'll get picked and packed before Friday. Of course, some bright spark in Management will then discover "No-one Orders On A Weekend" and we'll never get a decent service again. Its not as if its convenient to get to the "shop" either - it might end up that the move to Montague Road was a bit of a mistake.

Seeing that Oxford Rail (on the basis of two models) are nibbling around the edges of pre-grouping locomotives in a clockwise manner, perhaps we might expect more of the same. As we've had locos from the Southern Family and the Great Western family, perhaps the North Western will get a look in. Given that Oxford haven't yet repeated a wheel arrangement, perhaps this time we might get a Jumbo 2-4-0 (sorry, "Improved Precedent"!) or a George the Fifth 4-4-0. If we don't get a Jumbo, then when the clock moves to the East, there might be a T26/E4 in prospect. But back to the LNWR, a woefully unrepresented railway, even compared to Scottish prototypes! The LNWR had a multiplicity of Really Useful Engines from the reigns of Webb, Whale, Bowen Cook and Beames. Its about time someone took up that loose ball and ran with it! And no livery problems either - they were all painted black! Looking through the list of LNWR locos on Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotives_of_the_London_and_North_Western_Railway ) I spotted Whale's "Square Saddle Tank", a rebuild of a Coal(tender) loco, a chunky robust looking loco, with a lot more character than a Derby "Jinty". We need more SSTs!

On the other hand, seeing as Oxford have gone quiet about progress towards delivery for the Belpair Dean Goods after the comments about the shape of the firebox, angle of handrail stanchions and so on, it could be that these matters are being rectified prior to production. Then again....

Which is a major consideration - even "boxshifters" can't do a Bachmann autocoach for much less than £60, a price which gets perilously close to some actual modern production locos! Admittedly if you want an up to date 14xx to go with the Bachmann, that'll cost you just shy of £100 for the Hattons commission, so new detailed stock for a WR branch line will cost about £160. Shopping around for recent Hornby examples will get the equivalent for £60 or less and unless you want DCC or subject your trains to the merciless glare of the camera lens or the equally penetrating and implacable minds eye, then justification for the more expensive options becomes moot. And, as has been mentioned above, with a Hawksworth autocoach, you're stuck with post-war, while the Airfix/Hornby Collet will take you from the mid-30s to the end of steam. Personally, I could convince myself on a new loco, but the mind revolts at the price of some modern RTR coaching stock!

Or that the "heatwave" had buckled the tracks and derailed their train of thought......

A little confusing, no doubt. However, given the rate at which Bachmann progress models through the production cycle, its possible that changes are only made to the Hattons barchart when the manufacturer says "Here's an Engineering Sample!" or whatever, so the estimated price only gets changed at that point if the manufacturer previously hoiked it upwards. If you've decided to pre-order, the ruling price will be VERY clearly stated! What would ne nice would be the inclusion of the "estimated" stocking date as displayed on the model page. For example, Oxford Rails Dean Goods (OR76DG001), proposed arrival window is quoted as July-September 2016. We're pretty much half-way through September and Oxford are being pretty coy as to when the model will break cover and Hattons only indicate it as "Decorated Samples". I should imagine that by now its going to be late November at least, but it would be helpful if the date is included on the chart, rather than having to go to the model page to check up! But it would be fun to observe the slippage. Remember when the Wickham trolley was due in 2014 at half the current price?

A very nice version of the D16/3 - it almost had me reaching for my mouse to order one, but there's a Peckett and a B12 already on the books, so I'm afraid I'll have to restrain myself!