Generic Hornby Username

Yeah, always take the Hornby website's data with a grain of salt. They've been almost uniformly incorrect. Mk 3s should be arriving either in the weeks or a months directly after the release of the GWR and BR HSTs. Hornby knows people want to make complete trains.There was a scare when the Swallow Class 43s arrived. People worried that the corresponding Mk 3s might take months to arrive. But within a week or so the correct Mk 3 coaches were shipping out. No need to stress!

Very mixed messages coming out of a Margate. Some people were recently told at the Rails of Sheffield and MRS events "not to expect much." But the announcement material suggests that there will be surprises. I'm inclined to go in with lower expectations. We're in the very early stages of Phase 2, so adding Phase 3 for preorders doesn't make sense based on the information we've been given about announcing things closer to delivery. If they announced Phase 3, the products might not ship for a year. I'd love to be proven wrong, but we should try to control expectations so people don't get really disappointed on April 2. The following is a list of upcoming products and my best attempt to guess when they will arrive. New A4s and new Mk 1s are essentially guaranteed. You can see confirmation in the TT120 magazine. The 0-6-0T is likely to arrive. The best guesses I've seen is that it will be a Jinty. This is backed up by a few things. There's some evidence of it being a Jinty in the TT magazine. It's also a historical locomotive for Hornby. And finally, it's also a good companion for the forthcoming LMS locomotives. Simon did confirm they wanted to do a Terrier, but Southern region has no large locomotive. So, that points to an LMS locomotive. That way we'll have A3/A4 and J94, Duchesses and Jinty, and Castle and Pannier Tank. As an aside... The goal seems to be to get a large loco and a small loco to cover every region. Accelerating the Jinty and J94 makes total sense. Get the existing large locomotives their smaller companions ASAP. Then work on the Pannier to be released alongside the Castle. The GWR Castle, Pannier, and coaches should all be released within a short window. Eventually, an LMS black 08 would be a good companion too. Same obviously goes for the BR black 08. Beyond the new A4s, Mk 1s, and 0-6-0T we can expect the British Pullman Set. I retain my prediction William Whitelaw will be in its LNER Garter Blue livery. If it's BR Green, I will be surprised. I also predict the Easterner set will live on. Stockists are still taking preorders. While it's technically the same locomotive, William Whitelaw in the Easterner and William Whitelaw in the British Pullman Set should look distinct enough to justify two different sets. Someone who owns both a TT Mallard and a TT William Whitelaw from the Easterner can verify they look quite different while both being A4s. My final prediction is the launch of new Pullman coaches. The existing named Pullman cars have been out of stock, and there's no indication of resupply. Octavia, Plato, and Zenobia are not going to make it out of the event. New Pullman names will be added into the range. Hornby caught some criticism for choosing Southern Railway Pullman coaches. It's possible that Hornby might launch LNER/ER Pullmans this go around, but that would require new tooling for the bogies. It's possible. But either way Pullman fans should have a good event! From there, it's more speculation than anything else. Things like new private owner wagon liveries, new A3s, Teak Coaches, and the J94 are also possible. There's also the possibility of something entirely unsuspected. But there's not a clear picture. Whatever happens, I'm sure it should be interesting!

I’m also planning to a build a “museum” too. I’m thinking a wealthy benefactor donated to preserve a roundhouse as a museum. It’s a place where I can store the locomotives that are out of my era, while keeping them on track. It opens up the possibility of cool world building. I have to be creative to get a little steam on the layout! Admittedly, this is a longterm goal. We’ll see if it comes to pass.

That’s exactly right. The Class 66 and Class 50 digital versions were only revealed in January. Many people with longstanding preorders placed them when they had 15% discounts. Cancelling them now would result in them losing their discount. Might as well buy the decoder separately!

Likes all around! 🤣

Just a quick point on the data stock level. It's important to distinguish between Hornby's entire stock of products and Hornby's website. Much like other retailers, hornby.com receives an allocation from the Hornby warehouse. I presume it receives first priority for additional allocations. That's why the 08 shunter on hornby.com sold out repeatedly and then was restocked. Basically, Hornby's warehouse allocates more of their supply to hornby.com as needed. The data stock level is a helpful tool to track the pace of sales, but it can be difficult to gauge when exactly something will be sold out for good. And with that nerdy explanation, I shall see myself out... 🤣

As far as I know, we never received a good explanation for why they were cancelled. I've conjectured it had to do with decoder shortages, but that's only a guess. And why did they choose to cancel the Swallow in particular? It was an odd situation. Obviously, as your decoder fitting proves, it's not a catastrophe. But it is odd.

Agreed! That's the version I've got on a preorder. As @Moccasin mentioned, I think we should be good!

Relatable! People need to stop posting so many good comments on here. It's very frustrating trying to budget my daily allotment of likes! 😉🤣

When I clicked the title I was expecting another post about your renumbering video... 🤣 Excellent to hear! I've attached a document with reasonable expectations for April. TT has a great future!

Exactly!

Yeah, the digital version (TT3022 TXSM) holds the unique distinction of being the only Hornby TT:120 product I know of that has been cancelled. Unless you count TT6022, but I consider that more of a replacement... We never got a good explanation for why it was cancelled, but it might have had to do with limited decoder availability. 🤔

It looks fantastic! I love the upper level in particular.

I agree a Plux 22 should be one of their longterm goals. Obviously, first priority goes to the standards Hornby uses in its UK/Continental models. But as you say, the more hardware Hornby creates the more likely it is to find its footing. I think HM7000s product strategy has been exactly right. Initially, they focused on getting it into the basic train sets. Now they are adding more complex features and addressing edge cases. With each update the entire product platform and system gets stronger. In the same way I think it would be smart for Hornby to eventually add sound profiles for locomotives they don't produce, I think adding more decoders will also be helpful. The big question is whether HM7000 exists to sell Hornby trains, or whether it's a serious DCC system in its own right. All indications are that they want this to be serious product with widespread appeal. From the way Hornby and its team talks, this is not some parlor trick aimed at Hornby train set buyers. Instead, this is the start of a longterm platform that will feature complete layout control. In order for HM7000 to reach its full potential, that will take supporting other industry standards. Obviously, patience is required. No offense to the fine people or products at Bachmann and Gaugemaster, but their new DCC systems seem incremental compared to HM7000. The sky is the limit!

It turns out that Hornby Magazine's "Twelvemill Bridge" had a special guest at MRS. The first painted sample of the Duchess locomotive was making runs around the layout. The model is clearly preproduction, with several details a little wonky. But overall, it looks like it's going to be a great model. They're set for a Summer release: https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/hornby-tt120-duchess-decorated-samples

I wouldn't worry. We know for certain that the MK 3s were to be shipped with their corresponding Class 43. It's been mentioned multiple times in the materials we've received, and they were listed alongside the Swallow Livery as "due imminently" on Gaugemaster. The only sort of thing that could push release back to August is if there has been some critical fault found upon taking delivery. Something like a livery misapplication or manufacturing issues. Even then, ordering more coaches should only take 3ish months. It would cause delays in other product releases, but the MK 3s would be the priority. One possibility is that individuals have purchased more MK 3s per pair of Swallow HSTs than expected. Maybe Hornby was expecting people to purchase 3-4 MKs per Class 43, and instead they're purchasing 5-6 per Class 43. That might cause the MK 3s to sell out more rapidly than originally expected, but it shouldn't impact individuals with longstanding preorders. You'd be the priority. Until we hear otherwise, I'd expect your Class 43s to be pulling MK 3s in no time! In order to get into the Class 43 spirit, here is a video of one of the power cars featured in the train pack "John Wesley" back in the day. This is when it received its name and there was a corresponding rail tour.

There’s good news related to the track system. Roco acquired those toolings and relaunching them. The first few elements might already be shipping. Roco has also committed to expanding the system further. There seems to be a good amount of momentum in TT.

This is really on point. One of the things I hypothesized, was that N-Scale buyers would tend to buy more wagons/coaches than a typical OO modeler. I later got confirmation of this from one of the Revolution founders. Whereas OO modelers/collectors spend more of their buying power on individual locomotives, N-Scale modelers try to create full length trains with many wagons and coaches. TT will likely fall in line with N-Scale. That means longer formations. I’ve already seen TT modelers describe their surprise at seeing short formations that look fine in OO, look silly in TT. HSTs are one of the trains that will benefit from TT. I think as the scale adapts, we’ll see an emphasis on longer trains. Eurostars, Intercity 225s, Pendolinos, 80Xs, and Flirts all are prime candidates for adaption. And despite criticism of Hornby’s early selection of locomotives, big engines like the A1/3s and A4s also are much more feasible. An A4 with 7+ coaches behind it is pretty impressive. It’s also much more attainable. Writing this down does remind me of an idea I saw suggested early on- wagon/coach packs in TT. This scale is perfect for those.

On a related note, the GWR and BR Blue HST product pages have been updated with new photos. There are pictures of an entire 7/8 car formations on those pages. These trains are going to be great!

Great catch, Tim! I wouldn’t worry about the MK 3s. It’s typical for the shipment to be unboxed and catalogued in their system product by product. It may take a few days, but they’ll get them on the website soon enough. Fantastic!

His reading of the situation was absurd. Take his quote from Hornby’s financial statements. Here’s what he found issue with, “after a few weeks, the sets had all but sold out.” This statement means that the sets took only two weeks to almost completely sell out. Anyone following TT120 knows that the sets sold out a few days later. What followed were months of no availability. That is clearly shown in the statement, when it describes efforts to create bundles to offset the limited availability of sets. Instead of interpreting it as a successful launch, he decides to argue this means the sets never sold out. If he had bothered to ask any TT120 fan, they could tell you that the sets have sold out multiple times. That was either: 1) Intentional 2) Obtuse I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he just didn’t know any better. But that only makes him seem sloppy in his research. Maybe he shouldn’t opine on things he doesn’t know about or understand?

In all honesty, this seems like an issue across all Hornby Model Railways marketing. Putting out content consistently and on schedule is important as you say. Regular “Signal Box” (equivalent to TT Talk) content for OO has also been sporadic. In theory, I think those are supposed to come out monthly. Normalizing content schedules for both TT and OO should be a priority for the new team. It’s better to make a promise you can keep (like a video once every quarter) than make a promise you can’t (a video monthly). And if there’s going to be a gap in communication, they should provide updates instead of apologizing when the time comes. Broadly, I think there’s reason for optimism in TT. I keep repeating the stats on how many new projects are coming through, since it’s the real proof of Hornby’s commitment. I do think inflation really ended up burning them. It’s one thing to provide preorders a year out when inflation is 2%, but the inflation we’ve seen over the last few years has been staggering. Hornby honors the original preorder price, so that means their costs soar while the promised price remains fixed. That’s part of the reason why Hornby is switching to a Bachmann style of more gradual releases. Unfortunately, this means a bit of a drought in new announcements right now. Absolutely right. I think he hated Simon in particular, so he actually has been nicer recently. Not nice, but nicer. I know he was friends with Hattons people, so the Class 66 incident might have had something to do with it (competition is good when other manufacturers compete with Hornby and Bachmann, but bad when Hornby and Bachmann compete with other manufacturers). But a turning point was the case of them criticizing his track work. The new Hornby 9F locomotive slowed down on some of his curves, so he criticized the motor. Hornby replied, somewhat cheekily, that the train was fine but they couldn’t speak for every person’s track work. That was pretty much the end of their relationship. As an aside, Key Model World had this to say about the 9F’s performance: Straight from the box our samples ran smoothly and quietly throughout the speed range and that only improved with running in. After subjecting them to light engine testing, each was loaded with a modest 18 wagon coal train which we later increased to 30 and then 50 wagons. Even the longest train was no match for these powerful locomotives with their adhesion being helped by the use of die-casting for the boiler and chassis. The model also ran faultlessly through points and crossings throughout our testing. We should be getting really close to the 0-6-0T. It was first mentioned in January of 2023 as about to enter tooling. By March of 2023, we received information that it had advanced into the tooling stage. In addition, another 0-6-0T was also entering tooling in March of 2023, so that makes at least 3 projects that should arrive late 2024 to mid 2025.

I think this is right. I do expect we will get some word on the Small-Tank Locomotive. It will also be the time spotlight the upcoming British Pullman set. The last we heard it was slotted for an April release. From there, we'll get new liveries for the A1s, A3s, A4s, and Pullmans. I get the sense that Martyn is trying to deliver on existing projects before promising new ones. That's fine by me. I do think it would be in Hornby's best interest to recommit to the previously announced projects. Even if it's a statement along the lines of, "we remain committed to releasing previously announced products in 2025 and beyond." Lots of people are counting on Class 47s, Class 37s, CFAs, Castle Classes, etc. Giving them a little encouragement would be sound. But again, the numbers speak for themselves. 2024 is going to be a good year, with 5 locomotives, 4 coaches, 2 sets, and 3 wagons. The total number of HST products set for release in 2024 is 29 (23 coaches, 5 train packs, and 1 set). 2024 is not going to be a slow year by any metric.

Sam’s Trains is out with another video on Hornby TT:120. While most people here probably don’t care, I thought it was in the interest of the scale to review the video. With 150,000 subscribers, he has the ability to impact sentiments surrounding British TT. For that reason, it’s in our best interest to monitor what he says. The video is divided into multiple sections, so I’ll go through section by section. Let’s begin! “What is Hornby TT?”- This section is a fair description of the advantages of Hornby TT120. To Sam’s credit, he does a good job describing why someone might choose Hornby TT:120. These include a good size between OO and N, brand new toolings and features, and the ability to fit the latest Hornby decoders. While he omits interoperability with European TT, I think in general his summary is fair and on point. “What’s available?/Is this enough?”- He describes the current range. Then he starts getting critical. He argues that the range needed to expand much more rapidly if it’s going to catch on. This is both true and untrue. On one hand, Hornby itself knows that rapid expansion is needed. At the same time, it’s clear that Hornby TT:120’s success has counterintuitively slowed the release of new models. Hornby itself would agree that the current range is not enough, but they can’t really do anything about it in the short-term. But then he claims “a lack of urgency.” That’s silly. As of today, five new tooled locomotives are set for release in calendar year 2024 (Class 43, Class 50, Duchesses, Class 66, Mystery Small-Tank Loco). That will push the tally up to 8 total tooling projects (including the A1/A3, A4, and 08). “Is TT succeeding?”- This is where he goes off the rails. He shares a poll he conducted on his YouTube channel. There were 2000 respondents, and 88% of them voted “I’ve decided against modeling in TT.” From that, Sam drew the conclusion that TT is in trouble. But this is bizarre for multiple reasons. While it’s true Sam has put out TT and more recently N scale content, his channel’s audience is primarily OO. Of course a poll sent to a group of OO modelers will yield results favoring OO scale! It’s not representative. In all honesty, I’m kind of surprised that 12% of his audience claimed to be modeling in TT. After less than two years, and with limited selection, TT already has 12% of Sam’s Trains viewers participating? That’s actually kind of hilariously impressive. Then he tries to insinuate the sales haven’t been doing well. In a since deleted video (January 2023 TT Talk), Simon explained that TT120 sets he had expected to last for nearly a year sold out in a few weeks. Additional runs of the Scotsman and Easterner sets have sold out multiple times. Sam seems to think that because the sets are still available right now, that means they aren’t selling well. But as I type the Easterner sets (both DCC and DC) are sold out, with additional runs scheduled. Other products such as straight track, train platforms, rail joiners, etc. have seen consistent supply problems. But to make matters worse, he points to Hornby’s decision to expand the pool of retailers selling TT as indicative of a problem. But it’s the exact opposite. Hornby didn’t include other retailers because most other retailers didn’t want to sell TT. They thought it was going to bomb. Now that TT has proven itself, Hornby is able to partner with other retailers. The fact you have Rails of Sheffield stocking TT is mind-blowing. Partially, that has to do with management forging a peace with Rails, but also it indicates that Rails wants a piece of the action. “Hornby’s biggest mistake”- He claims that Hornby should have cancelled their Class 31 and J94 tank engine. He argues that Hornby only included those in its range because it wanted to spoil Heljan’s attempts to enter the market. There’s no evidence of this. The original phase (Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, Phase 4) were supposed to last 6 months each. That means the Class 31 and J94 were supposed to have been released right around this time of year or in a few months. Development work on them was probably already advanced. And Simon was already creating the basic TT plan in the early 2010s. That’s right, the catalogue you see was largely based on work more than a decade old. The Class 31 is a popular model. It’s debatable whether cancelling it would have been worthwhile. The video ends with praise of the models we have received. But he still says that right now he couldn’t recommend the scale. Also, he claims that TT will probably force Hornby into bankruptcy. Groan. He says TT needs twenty models and 50 wagons/coaches to establish itself. But in order to do that, Hornby would go bankrupt. In conclusion, remember there are a nice variety of newly tooled products scheduled for release in 2024. 5 locomotives (Class 43, Class 50, Class 66, Duchesses, Small Tank Loco), 4 coaches (Mark 3, Mark 2F, Mark 2E, LMS 57), 2 sets (HST, British Pullman), and 3 wagons (HAAs, TTAs, 21 Tons). This will outpace the combined 2022/2023 tooling releases of 3 locomotive, 4 wagons, 2 sets, and 2 coaches (Pullmans, MK 1s). And April is likely to bring some new liveries to several of the existing products. There’s reason to be optimistic! Here's the video (featuring the clickbait title one would expect):

Weren't you thinking of cutting a hole in your wall? Maybe that can be the time warp!