BJT91

Yesterday channel have great TV programmes on trains like train truckers, The Architecture The Railways Built, Hornby A Model World, Steam Train Britian, secerets of the London Underground and they show some of the BBC Great British Railway Journeys with Micheal Portilo on there. Also check out Walking Britain's Lost Railways, Extreme Railways with Chris Tarrent on Channel 5. Channel 5's catch up might also have The Great Model Railway Challenge series. If available DVD a great watch is a 1960's tv series called railway roundabout. These might also be on Youtube.

That's interesting to know. I knew something was happening as Train-Tech were providing items to Gaugemaster to sell under their brand for the last few years. To be honest Gaugemaster tend to be a great company to deal with and they do have a large selection of items for all hobbies.

@atom3624 Cheers for re assuring me. I do have a steady hand and pretty good eye sight, but will most likely get some fine tweezers to assist with painting and fitting.

I need advice on finding a replacement smoke box dart on the latest version of the Hornby black 5 as I was given one second hand one as a present but noticed that the dart was missing but Hornby don't sell the detail parts seperately. I have looked on Peters spares and did find Comet Models LS71 LMS flanged plain smoke box dart handles. Just wondering if anyone knows if these are correct for the black 5 or advise what the correct ones are for this locomotive?

Chrissaf is correct, as long as the loco's are 00 scale or H0 scale and designed for two rail and not AC powered you should be fine. Most loco's from other well known manufacturers run pretty well on hornby track, as long as its laid out correctly and check what radius curves the loco's can take, as some of the larger locomotives will only like second or third radius curves and sometimes express points. The smaller 0-4-0 loco's don't mind the tighter radius curves or the standard Hornby points.

Older carriages did also get used as breakdown or track maintenance storage vans in the British Rail era. Depending on the condition they could be repainted in the colours used by BR which was usually a matt green a bit like the army green.

I have managed to pre order one of the models that got cancelled with Hattons from another model shop which is actually quite local to where I live in travelling terms. I will be pre ordering items from them from now on as they actually show the items as sold out when their pre order allocations are full filled on their website. Issue is all suppliers of Hornby products should add their allocation amounts for each model so customer have a idea on how many are actually available to order.

I have had three of my Pre orders cancelled at Hatton's as well today (19/05/2021). They apparently aren't the only other retailers having issues as others have had orders cancelled from other retailers. I wouldn't mind but Hornby should give all the retailers the production run and allocation amounts before people decide to pre order. Issue is now other retailers are either showing out of stock on pre order or they haven't got a direct answer on their website to the models I am after being available to pre order or not. Maybe its Hornby's plan to phase out dealers and only allow buy direct from Hornby at full retail.

Hornby did have to move from one of their supplying factories which was in the late 2000's or 2010's as one of the parent toy and model companies who owned one of Hornby's rivals in the model train world (the one beginning with B) and it did effect the build quality of some models. The quality of the models has approved slightly since the move to the new factory but there are still some quality issues, like you said the colours on some models aren't 100% and I always find the gold paint they use on name plates and number plates on the steam loco's always seems to be too glittery.

Currently all of my rolling stock is stored in large boxes in their original boxes and some are out of the boxes in draws in the garage. I am hoping to sort out the layout room and where locomotives are to be stored safely and neatly.

I think there are people still waiting for the new Hornby Class 800/1 Azuma train pack that was announce around 2 years ago. I know a lot of other manufacturers do alert or give monthly updates of models and production dates to magazines and other model railway news outlets. Hornby need to keep everyone more informed on delays and pre warn people about production shortages as this has been upsetting quiet a few customers when their chosen supplier can't obtain the models and then realise they are available for full RRP on Hornby's website.

I can't help much with the old layout designs Hornby did but I do know that some of the recent layouts they use for display purposes in their museum and at shows are created by a company called Corporate layouts. Its worth having a look at their layout images as they are pretty good.

There is currently only one track mat available from Hornby but their have been other past designs of track mat that were provided with older trainsets. The current track mat Hornby supply will have the relevant track mat extension packs available to buy. One good idea would be to also buy the Hornby Track Plans book as this has interesting idea's to extend the fully constructed track mat further or if you feel adventurous you could create one of the other layout plans in the book. The track plans book is pretty helpful as it gives you the Hornby track section codes and shows you where items like track risers to create a sloping section of track need to be placed, it also gives hints and tips on laying the track.

I have purchased a few Hornby items via Amazon through Jadlam Toys and Models although I know Gaugemaster also have a Amazon store. Unfortunately I don't do Prime but the items I have purchase of Amazon have come well packaged and undamaged.

Issue is this is upsetting customers who want to buy from their chosen retailers who they have a great relationship with. If this keeps happening Hornby could loose some more of their retailers like they did with Rails of Sheffield. Please Hornby could you give your retailers more notification on pre order amounts before people decide to buy off their chosen retailers as I have heard other models have recently had order amounts scaled back, one of the models in question was the Hush Hush un rebuilt and rebuilt models and a Southern Railway luggage van. I have heard of non of these supply and demand issues with other model railway manufacturers as people have managed to obtain their pre ordered models with no issues even if they are late to arrive due to covid issues.