Moccasin

Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey (also known as modellers’ rule 1 - I could see Dr Who with a model railway)

Interesting that the blue 08 is there on display when it’s out of stock and retired from the range

In the past “last chance” has sometimes meant “last chance before the next stock comes in” or “last chance to help us reduce our stock this month”

Still no sign of the Spring Club magazine though.

Interestingly, for a while, the new catalogue cover showed in the image thumbnail on the Hornby website even though the original version was displayed after clicking on the link. Currently, the thumbnail is back to showing the original cover. I wonder whether it was changed back due to the agreement with Key Publishing and showing the new cover was deemed to contravene the agreement. It also shows that Hornby can update the website easily when they can be bothered! PS 7 days left for the next edition of the TT120 Club magazine to appear during the promised month of April! maybe they'll both be released together

Great idea Marc In fact maybe a series could start with the three diorama competition winners? I agree that a nice community has developed. Some long-term modellers may find our enthusiasm insufferable but that’s maybe their problem for being on the grumpier side …

Maybe in the meantime we can consolidate any layouts we develop in this thread. Either photos of layouts or track plans from AnyRail etc.

The price of the 66 - which is still the lowest cost locomotive in the TT120 range despite several chances to increase to the same as the 50- really suggests that they’re not going for the maximum they can get away with. Pre-orders are pretty good already with about 180 across the three j50s on the Hornby store alone, according to the metadata. I imagine they’ll improve further when the 6-pin HM7000 decoder becomes imminent.

@SMR248 The TT130 66 has always been somewhat of a price anomaly in the range, possibly due to it being shared across Arnold & Hornby ranges so they have a higher number of sales to spread development and tooling costs. When launched it was priced below £100 & I recall that Simon Kohler was asked about it early on. I doubt Hornby are overpricing either the 08 or J50 beyond their accepted margins so they will have good reason for the prices being what they are.

Waaaaay too much info 😀 I see you’ve been told off already on RMweb. 😀 they do seem very prickly over there. *clutches pearls*

Too late to change. Thanks for clarifying. Edit -: apparently I can now edit for longer so the original post is amended to highlight the error.

Construction contractors are a very different beast and irrelevant to a small currently loss-making model company. Model railways aren’t Hornby’s whole business but by volume and value probably the biggest. Pocher have higher value products but are much smaller in sales volume. Other than a few expensive sets, Scalextric sell much cheaper products.

Maybe so, but the TT120 club has had no discount for 6 months for many of us, but a good number in this forum are still buying and pre-ordering direct. Hornby will of course know this in intimate detail as they will see the level of drop off in orders from individual accounts. I note as well that they have started web exclusives for the first TT120 range, starting with the TXS HST train set.

I know it’s not a direct comparison but the TT120 HSTs with a dummy power car are only £60 more than a single diesel locomotive like the Class 50. Even at the class 66/08 extreme of £140, the difference is £80.

Given the perceived (by some) lack of incentives to buy direct, it’s interesting that these sales continue to grow. This is why they can reduce/remove discounts etc - they are doing fine without them. I wonder if the high value container delayed from March to April was the one bringing BG & GWR TT120 Mk3s? Maybe the OO Black Fives too? Some companies must also love the fact that Easter moves from year to year. They can use this repeatedly to explain better or worse than expected sales in Q4 and Q1!