Luciton St James

The vandalism of the old Lima models is shocking. To take out a 4 axle drive central can motor drive & replace it with that is pathetic. You do really have to wonder what goes on in their heads down at Margate. 8.4m euros to trash fantastic models is quite an achievement.

Been a busy month for new arrivals . 8 of the Hornby Drax biomass wagons arrived , then 2 packs of the Accurascale mk5 Caledonian sleeper coaches & then the Accurascale mk5a TPE set.

Lima class 67 in TFW Black-red Lima class 60 in DC Rail & Lima class 156 in ScotRail Spot livery. Old Hornby mk4 coaches converted to suit the 67

Lima HST power cars bought at Xmas for £26. Being repainted into Arriva XC colours.

Nothing to stop Hornby setting up a partnership with Leopald Halling to market & sell their range of HO gauge model tram / LRT vehicles that they make. The Blackpool Flexity2 , Manchester Metrolink M5000 & Croydon Tramlink vehicles are in the Halling range. Beautiful models.

@Rana Temporia Leopald Hallings tram / LRT models in HO are superb & can get round far tighter curves than R1. They make models of the Blackpool Flexity2 , Stadler Croydon Tramlink & Manchester’s Metrolink M5000 vehicles. Ive yet to see why Hornby could not go into partnership with Halling & get these models sold in the UK & kick start the great untapped rescource of modern image modelling. The LRT vehicles allow a whole new facet to be opened up , only needs Hornby to develop its recent acquisition of Oxford die cast ok to create a working car system & you have a complete new area of product line to develop / market. OHLE isn’t the major problem , Electrotren make tramway masts & wires , let alone the standard Sommerfeldt / Viesmann systems. The trickiest bit is the track / double railed with concrete / paving slabs / pointwork.

@ellocoloco Electrotren have to compete with the best & so they have to be a cut above. Given that Hornby own 4 HO brands it amazes me that they still struggle to get OO to the levels of HO. But then they don’t really have to compete. Brand loyalty / collecting are a big part of Hornby. To be honest I’ve had Electrotrens freight wagons long before Hornby took them over & the standards haven’t changed which says everything about how good HO models are from 25-30 years ago. Catenary is a integral part of the set up & again its mystifying why Hornby won’t issue the Electrotren masts / wires in the UK range , same with the tramway masts. I find myself back to the old ways of railway modelling from the 1980’s / 90’s of converting stuff & building the kits. The 3d print stuff from CMAC / Shapeways is getting better all the time. Buying new rtr is fast becoming a non starter as the models of what’s required are not being made. Ok Hornby might never make a new emu , but they could help the cause by being proactive by making spare parts such as motor bogies , bogie sideframes , chassis parts & pantographs more readily available & actually market the spares properly.

Last items to arrive have been the last 2 Dapol ICA China clay tanks to finish the set off & a few more Dapol JNA falcon wagons. Got a pair if mk4 coaches arriving with one being the last coach needed to finish the GNER ‘mallard’ set with a additional first class coach fair bit if work to do at it to , the other will be modified to create the TOE for a TFW set.

Bratchell models class 319/3 in northern livery , stood next to a ScotRail class 320.

A Bratchell models kit of a class 319/3. Put her into northern livery.Lovely kit to build & a sad reminder of how hopeless rtr is when a unit like this which has been in service since 1988 on the Thameslink services / used on 25kv ac / third rail , multitude of liveries , transferred north to use on the newly electrified Blackpool / Liverpool / Manchester / Crewe corridor & being converted to class 769 flex bi / tri mode units can’t get made.

Been banging our heads against a wall with units for 40 years & it’s always been lip service or the usual stock responses of no demand , to expensive , not enough liveries , to small a operational sphere of which none of it stacks up when you consider the ac electric locomotives they make , the pendolino , IC225 etc. The main thing is that they are not seen as glamorous. Hornby only see the big hittters / they can’t see the backbone of the operation. Can see the class 800 , but fail to see the class 387’s / 700’s that run alongside them. Hornby have never been able to join the dots. You see that with its mk2f coaches, can make the 3 basic types but the 2 coaches that are really needed the RFO & DBSO , they won’t look at / just ignore , just always half a job. In 1955 25kvac became the standard. Since 1955 only model has been made of the backbone of the operation , pretty dire stuff, emus operate out of every London terminal bar one. Yet in model railways they just don’t warrant any interest. It’s quite pathetic & so every year is another yawn fest of catalogue launches & not buying any new models & building the kits of the emus. A recent trip to Edinburgh from Blackpool highlighted what a waste of space Hornby / Bachmann are at the moment. On the stock we travelled on , not a single item is made. A trip to Harburn Hobbies & all they had in the glass cabinets was a Avanti pendo , ScotRail IC7 power cars & a few class 66’s. Not one dmu / emu. So again we came out empty handed. This hobby is fast becoming a dead end when it comes to the present era. Biggest fleet orders the railways have ever seen & all you can get is a GWR IEP & a 801 Azuma. Nostalgia is the name of the game. Making models that appeal to old men with deep pockets is where it’s at. The train sets are as dull as dishwater, nothing of any real relevance to youngsters or new entrants. The IEP should be to the 2020’s what the HST was to youngsters in the 1970’s , but who in their right mind is going to shell out £425 on a IEP at Xmas compared to how much a PlayStation or Xbox / Nintendo switch & so therefore the newbies are lost. I recently bought 4 ScotRail mk3sd coaches. First new Hornby models I’ve bought in 20 years. The HST power cars for them are old Lima ones with the vinyl transfers ( cost £84 all told ) compare with £269 for the Hornby ones. So the question has to be asked , if they can churn out the old Lima 66 in a multitude of liveries why can’t the Lima HST power cars be issued in LNER / Virgin EC / XC / ScotRail / Midland Pullman etc, I’m sure if Bachmann / Accurascale made the HST power cars they’d be issued to provide a cut price alternative like a flash. i wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a new gen dmu or emu to be made. For those of us that require these units , we’ve left rtr long behind , they’re stuck in the fairy world of keep issuing the same old same / more remakes of remakes , another Flying Scotsman in different packaging. The guys at Accurascale / Cavalex , the retailers like Hattons / Rails have more ideas / running rings around Hornby & even Bachmann are having to up their game from being a second rate USA railroad outfit to produce models that get where Marklin & Roco where 7-10 years ago. Can Hornby up their game & produce a showstopper of a present era dmu or emu? Probably not.

Since 1955 25kvac has been the standard. So in 65 years of the standard, the backbone of the operation has seen just one model made the Bachmann class 350. That’s right just one model. Pretty derisory stuff given that all the major mainlines out of London are electrified, the major conurbations are electrified , the recent electrification projects undertaken. Biggest train fleet orders in history all for electric traction ie emus. For the past 40 years we’ve been banging our heads against a wall with Hornby , Lima etc to get them to wake up. Same pitiful / lame / hapless excuses wheeled out. They sprouted the same drivel about freight stock in the late 1980’s - 1990’s ‘to expensive’ / ‘no demand’. So here we are in 2021 & it’s like being back in the 1980’s 90’s , just about sacked off buying rtr models & back in the routine of buying the kits / converting stuff. Every catalogue announcement is a yawn fest / same old drivel / remakes of remakes , it’s totally threadbare. Hornby based in Margate , has anybody from the warehouse / offices set foot into Margate station & seen what runs? Err the Electrostars , biggest fleet of dual voltage units built & no model , I mean it fair boggles the mind yet they can fall over themselves tooling up for museum pieces from 1829 , one off locos etc.