Rustyjt Posted June 9 Share Posted June 9 (edited) Well it's been just over a month of dipping my toe into TT and it looks like the day my current 009 loft layout is swapped out is getting closer. I was prepared to be disappointed, after all the socials seemed to think its the anti-christ of the model rail universe, but I must admit to being very impressed. Strangely the best thing for me so far is being able to turn the tail lights off on the 50 so they are correct when hauling stock. That's been a bug of mine for years. True there appear to be gremlins (my only one was a slight issue with getting HSTs to consist in dcc but eventually solved) and others appear to have had a worse experience than me, but on balance so far it's delivering. I do think the breadth of compatible era stock needs to grow a little more quickly in order to keep dabblers like me interested but can understand the slow and steady approach. I think my motivation in posting this is to put some positive experience comments out there to balance things up. I truly feel for those that seem to have problems with everything they receive and that the QA needs improving, but those thinking of giving it a go shouldn't be put off as online comments usually tend to be the bad experience ones. Time to plan the loft layout 🤪 Edited June 9 by Rustyjt 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John-L Posted June 9 Share Posted June 9 Nice write up. I think you are right, there aren’t enough of us posting positive stories about the scale. It’s more common to see complaints, which gives an unfair impression of the scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustyjt Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 And yes, the test track is on the breakfast bar courtesy of a very understanding and good lady. She drew the line at the dining room table though, no matter how much I explained the origin of TT! 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Allen Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 Nice. I love the TT range for the amount I can fit into a standard layout. Prior to buying the TT Scotsman set I did look and plan out a OO layout which I would have been happy with but I decided on TT. N was never really an option though I did have a look at it breifly but decided that it was not for me. While I have had a lot of failures and been frustrated by this, overall I am more positive than negative. I do want the scale to succeed and the 'moaning' is to try to highlight issues so they can be resolved by Hornby. Its also may be me just venting off a little... To be fair to Hornby the new locos are better than the original ones that came out and I think they've found the sweet spot now in the designs. I'm looking forward to the class 66 being released later this year and Class 31, 37, 47 potentially next year or so. I hope they can do the same for the wheel issues that are present on some wagons and coaches which I'm sure they will. This weekend I have had 2 class 50's and class 43 HST going round my layout, it looked great. I still have a lot to do on it though. I can wait for the Atholl loco to arrive, finger crossed it will be today. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rallymatt Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 Negatives and problems usually get way more airtime than 1000’s of happy customers. It’s worth remembering that like almost every endeavour in human history, railway modelling is an engineering project. That means something will always go wrong! I had a number of fails with early Pacifics, and an 08 DOA. At first I was concerned the quality was just not what I expected, the detail is way beyond what I expected. Hornby Customer Service though gave me faith, that and the considerable investment by Hornby in TT:120, that these were teething troubles and importantly, fixable. Things have seemed to settle down and it’s clear that Hornby are developing and refining as the scale grows. Something to consider, model railways don’t have the luxury of long development programmes. The pre production runs and extensive testing programmes just don’t exist on the same scale say as in Automotive Industry. If they did, a loco would cost £1000+ and new models would take 3 years to develop, and they would still have the opportunity to go wrong! What is clear though, the 1:120 scale is an absolute winner. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul M Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 I generally agree with Matt. I think there is a QC issue, shown by some significant differences in what people post on this forum. My Staniers running fine on rad 2 vs others experience being a good example, even if offset by 2 A3 failures. Points are a bit fernickity. Everything can be fine, but QC is such that it too frequently isn't. However, the perceived quality in terms of model detail and finish is good. There is a difference between QC and quality. The returns cost should drive Hornby to fix the QC, but I'm not sure if they are too much designers and marketers these days to understand manufacturing. (Happy to help lol) I think there is a difference to what is said on this forum to other sources. Elsewhere, brand loyalty often dominates opinions over all else, and that looks like the case for OO denigraters of TT. No different to always buying BMWs, or never buying a Trek bike, or Apple vs Samsung. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rallymatt Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 QC could nip a lot of things in the bud certainly. It’s a nightmare with Chinese manufacturing though because you really need a ‘Hornby person’ doing the quality audit, you can’t really rely on 100% independence of a local QA company, they are instructed to always favour a Chinese manufacturer. Big companies like Apple, VW etc all have sizeable local representation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul M Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 I think it is more of a cost mentality and being fixated on the multiplier. Working on a multiplier of 2 (probably low for Chinese supply but often viewed as typical) that makes an DC loco retailing at £168 around £84 ex China. Paying an extra £6, say, for QC would put that up by £12 if the multiplier is fixed, which retailers might not want, but it only costs £6 of that to fix the QC issue. It is the wanting to make £6 more margin on QC that is the typical issue, or not accepting the same absolute margin but wanting the same relative margin. The management question is whether the savings of lower QC, overweigh the costs of returns and repairs, and lost revenues due to reputation and lost sales. Fixing something in Margate is very expensive compared to doing it right first time in China. A 78 vs 84 pound margin might actually be more profitable, even if lower percentage mark up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie 66 Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 I've been in the hobby for 3 months purely thanks to TT. Yes I've encountered some challenges, but mostly fixable and partly caused by me in the first place (inaccurate track laying etc). I love TT and have no regrets about choosing this gauge. I don't know where the negativity on social media is as I haven't bothered looking, but I for one will champion TT120 whenever I chat to anyone about it. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irishmail Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 21 minutes ago, Charlie 66 said: I've been in the hobby for 3 months purely thanks to TT. Yes I've encountered some challenges, but mostly fixable and partly caused by me in the first place (inaccurate track laying etc). I love TT and have no regrets about choosing this gauge. I don't know where the negativity on social media is as I haven't bothered looking, but I for one will champion TT120 whenever I chat to anyone about it. That's one of the advantages of this hobby is that we can learn from our mistakes. I have been railway modelling since very young and and still learning new things as I go along. TT is a great scale/gauge ratio. RE negativity, you don't need to look, its just appears but I try and ignore it (most times) 🙂 . One thing that does annoy me is the 'so called rivet counters' especially in 00 scale complain about about things not being quite right with the loco/coach etc., but happily run in on H0 gauge track! By the way I run 00 stuff on 16.5mm track and am happy with it. 🙂 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rallymatt Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 I think what has made the scale so special is the friendly community that has developed for those modelling in TT. It’s something that’s been noticed across the industry. That is a tremendous credit to everyone involved here 😁👍 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave the Busker Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 1 hour ago, Rallymatt said: I think what has made the scale so special is the friendly community that has developed for those modelling in TT. It’s something that’s been noticed across the industry. That is a tremendous credit to everyone involved here 😁👍 If there's a silver lining to some of the hostility and negativity towards TT:120 then this is probably it, it's made everyone who's taken up the scale band together against the naysayers 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurwellMike Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 I have an extensive 00 layout with stock ranging from Triang locos from the 60's (including my first train when I was about 8 ) through to the latest Hornby offerings. I had developed it as far as I could running on DC. With such a range of locos and automatic block signalling the challenge to convert to DCC was a step too far for me. The introduction of TT combined with HM7000 came at just the right time to give me a new challenge and I set about a new Bluetooth based TT layout with the baseboard set just lower than the 00 layout with storage sidings set partially under the original layout baseboards. I have enjoyed every moment of this challenge and have taken the opportunity to incorporate lessons learnt from the original 00 system. Everyone who has seen it have been amazed at the detail and running qualities of the TT models and especially with the HM 7000 "wizardry". Best decision I have made to set up a new system (although the credit card gets stretched at times 😉 ). I have posted a few issues I have encountered on the forum which may be perceived as negatives but in reality they are all part of the learning curve of a new system. With help from all the friendly/knowledgeable people on the forum and the excellent Hornby Customer Support team every "problem" has been quickly resolved and I learn things as part of the process. Looking forward to developing my TT layout as the range expands but still enjoying running the original layout. 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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