TheTen2Fiver

Thanks for the various replies. My love of railways dates back to the 1950s when I was a train spotter in Leeds. As a major rail hub Leeds was on both the former LNER & MIDLAND main lines running to the North/South (London/Scotland), North East/South West (Newcastle/Birmingham/Bristol) and East/West ( Hull-Manchester Liverpool). Being half way between the capital and Scotland Leeds & York) were the main stations for changes of locomotives and crew. Therefore one of my main play value requirements in a model railway is a busy station where the station pilot brings in and takes away empty stock and locomotives are changed. I want to make up passenger and goods trains by shunting and I do not want an automated layout where I just set it up and watch. I prefer to drive the locos myself and IMHO a touch screen finger control is nowhere near as satisfying as a sensitive rotary control with inertia braking (eg Gaugemaster) and a loco (ideally with a flywheel to provide a challenge each time.) It is nice to get away from mobile devices for a while! Which rules out the HM7000 for me. Although sound has improved no end, I still think it is not realistic enough yet and can become a bit annoying, so this DCC feature does not appeal at the moment. However DCC can provide the things I want and it has some advantages that I would appreciate. I just have to do a cost/benefit evaluation of a new DCC controller & decoders for my 10 DCC ready locos against a new DC controller (Gaugemaster twin track with simulation is current favourite) and go with DC. Going DCC would mean I would have to retire my 7 old non DCC ready locos. Any thoughts on DCC controllers that would give a tactile rotary type control?

Thanks for the prompt response 96RAF, much appreciated. I have 10 new steam OO gauge locos (9 Hornby & 1 Oxford) collected over the last 18 months plus 7 old locos that have not been run since the 80's (4 Hornby, 1 Airfix and 2 Mainline J72s, one of which is still new and has never been run) I have ditched all the old streel track and am about to buy new 55m of new track. l have yet to decide DC or DCC with DC being the favorite due to the extra cost of DCC. Shame about the HM7000 lack of manual driving control as this would have been the answer. I suppose I should consider Radio Control (RC) which is now a serious alternative and less expensive even than the HM7000 system and has the advantages of no wiring or track cleaning needed or running problems over points. Have you any experience of RC?

I am rejoining the hobby and am interested in the HM7000 system. However I do not like or want to use a touchscreen for speed/braking control. Is it possible to link HM7000 with a controller that has a knob like a gaugemaster?

That looks really great. Wish the TT120 had come out at the beginning of last year as the perfect scale in my opinion. But I had gone past the point of no return last year in buying new 00 locos and much pre owned stock. I am keen to enjoy my NE region 4-6-0s and 0-6-0s and stock. However once a larger range of TT120 locos and stock become available in a couple of years I may well sell the OO and make the switch Mark

The HM7000 is a very interesting development and in my case timely one. As someone returning to the hobby after many many years can the experts advise me on what I would need in order to use the HM7000 system on my new soon to be layout. Background: I have been planning a new twin track DC layout (as current DCC would make the cost too high) and I have been collecting bargain buys over the last year which include 9 brand new locos to add to my 5 old second hand ones from back in the 80's. I am about to buy quite a lot of new track, as the old steel track is only suitable for sidings at best. I also had planned to buy a new Gaugemaster DS twin controller with simulation. My questions therefore are: Can I now switch to using this HM7000 system if I fit all the new locos with Bluetooth decoders can I avoid having to buy a new GM DS controller? Can I then use live frog points and ditch all the planned section relaysWhat items would I need to buy of the HM7000 range to make it work?

Fully agree. The real Scotsman train was not a Pullman anyway so is not prototypical. I can't help thinking that calling this one the Scotsman was named in order to increase initial sales as many perhaps thought they were getting the Flying Scotsman loco included in the set. Maybe it was a genuine mistake, but if so it still shows a lack of railway history and as you say they may have lost a great opportunity with the FS loco and teaks when they become available. I would suggest Hornby make a new set with the the FS loco and the 'lit' & named Pullman coaches and call it 'The Queen of Scots' which then would be prototypical

In the real steam world when these Pullmans were in service it was normal for them to have a brake at each end and on the famous named Pullmans to the North they usually had a brake behind the tender. and the second van was often in the middle of the train as coaches were dropped off en-route from the rear of the train. For example in a 10/11 coach named Pullman like the Yorkshire Pullman, one or two coaches would be uncoupled at Doncaster to go to Hull, and two would be dropped off at Wakefield to go to Halifax often including the rear brake. The coaches were 8 wheeled but the vans were heavy 12 wheelers and even when the new Mk1 stock was introduced they still used the older heavy 12 wheeler vans at either end. However with the current TT120 stock limitations the brake would look better at the rear.

Re Strengtheners (RogerB) Back in the days of steam most trains had a rake of coaches designed for that particular service and would be made up of 1st, 2nd & 3rd coaches to suit. However on busy Saturdays and bank holidays or for example services to the coast or ones that stopped at stations where a race meeting or sports event was taking place it would be anticipated that there would be an extra demand for travel that day. Therefore extra coaches needed to be added and these were called strengtheners. Quite often these would be 3rd class and would not match the standard rake eg a maroon rake might have a couple of blood and custard added as strengtheners (or vice versa) usually just added behind the tender. On routes where the service was to more than one location, which required a coach or two to be dropped off en-route and taken by a different loco to a second location, again events occasionally meant an extra coach could be needed in which case a strengthener would be used. So a Pullman service could also sometimes have strengtheners added which could be spotted as the ones without the Pullman service names on the coaches and they even had to be non-Pullman coaches on occasions. Hope this helps.

Point of View I think the Scotsman train set is wrongly named and should not be confused with either The famous "Flying Scotsman" loco or the equally famous "Flying Scotsman" train. The set does not contain the FS loco and the FS train was not a Pullman! Perhaps a more accurate name for the set would have been "The Harrogate Pullman" a service which started in 1923 and at the time was the longest non stop journey on the LNER (198 & 3/4 miles) as it did no route via Leeds. The service was extended to Newcastle and later to Edinburgh and Glasgow when the name was changed to the "Queen of Scots" in 1928 when it did route via Leeds. The reason why so many photos of this Pullman services show a brake car behind the loco tender is that it stopped at Leeds Central station to change locos on it's journey north (& South) and because Leeds Central is a terminus station where the train arrived in one direction and departed in the opposite direction. Therefore most of the time there would have been a brake at both ends. The Hornby set could equally have been called the "West Riding Pullman" which started in 1925 and became the "Yorkshire Pullman" in 1935, however as both these services terminated at Leeds a brake van was not necessary at each end. As Leeds Central and Kings Cross are both terminus stations it would have been convenient to have a brake at both ends so the train would be ready to return without shunting. A further complication with the West Riding & Yorkshire Pullman trains was that that they usually had a couple of "strengthener" coaches that would be dropped off at Doncaster (for Hull) and Wakefield (for Halifax) and Leeds Central (for Bradford and Harrogate). So the "strengthener" coaches could be at either end of the train depending on the service. On the days when a couple of "strengtheners" went on to Harrogate this gave the spa town a Pullman service both ways each day. An arrival in the morning from Kings Cross and a departure to London in the afternoon which meant a day trip would be possible albeit a long day. As a train spotter in the late fifties, after school in the summer, I use to regularly watch the UP Queen of Scots" pass through Headingley station at about 4.20pm on its way to Leeds Central for a change of locos on it's way to Kings Cross. They were almost always headed by a Pacific or an occasional V2.

As a keen train spotter from the late 50s I have had a life long interest in railways. With the arrival of TT120 I have now have a big dilemma. Having played with an old O gauge layout in the attic as a kid I always wanted to build a model OO layout for " the kids" which I did 35 years ago. For almost 30 years the original enhanced Hornby 'King Set' has gathered dust in variously located garages. I had long promised myself that when I retired I would build a super new layout by adding to the old stuff. Eventually over the last year I started to add to the collection with bargain purchases of new locos (8) and bargain previously owned stock (various) and was about to order a lot of new and replacement track (my original track is old steel stuff in poor condition)... when the TT120 announcement was made. Had I know about this a year ago I would not have invested in new OO purchases as although the space allows a decent layout in OO there is little space for scenery as most of the space will be taken by the track and it doesn't really allow for realistic running of the larger Pacifics locos. TT120 would allow a splendid layout .... so I am tempted to go for the TT120. But the decision is not easy. On the one hand the TT120 scale seems almost perfect for the best layout for me, yet it will be quite some time before there will be a fully satisfying range of locos and goods rolling stock although the choice of coaches is very good. I had been looking forward to running my new and as yet unused B1, B17, B12, K1, D16, D49, and the 0-6-0 J50 & B2 Peckett plus the old King, Jinty and Class 20 & 37. So I suppose the choice is to stick with my OO collection and compromise on the layout or have a great layout and compromise of the locos and stock in the foreseeable future. Any advice?