Half price at Hattons

KeithT

KeithT

Hillwalking, chickens and - err - garden railways.
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Shame they didn't do it in, say, 1:24 - it might have become Hornby's 'Big Hauler' and spawned a cottage industry for kit bashers.
 
I think Hornby got their fingers burned with this..

A pity the G Scale version was dropped by Lionel.

PhilP
 
PhilP said:
I think Hornby got their fingers burned with this..

A pity the G Scale version was dropped by Lionel.

PhilP
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Yes, with Marklin concentrating on silly money fancy stuff, there isn't much around for grandparents wanting to indulge small people with attractive starter sets which fire young imaginations. My in-house consultants (8 & 10) reckon trains with faces are for little kids, so that doesn't leave a lot.
 
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Certainly an odd choice of scale and track gauge!

1:24 or 1:32 scale on 45 mm gauge track would have sold better IMO....
 
For some reason Lionel who made the sets and decided for reasons better known to them to change the Potter sets from 45mm to 53mm or thereabouts no doubt loosing many sales into the bargain. Hornby controversially advertised it as G scale originally which is why I bought one. The loco is pretty well ok for G1 with a strangely spaced front bogie, but the coaches are a very odd scale, likely nearer 0 gauge but well under length. The coaches and track have been flogged on but I still retain the loco to change the gauge to 45 (as seen in here and Garden Rail) and alter the front bogie plus bits to turn it into a 2-6-0, a project that I am not showing much enthusiasm for at this time.
 
I wrote to Hornby when they first announced this set as I knew it wasn't G scale as they were advertising. They did respond and soon after they dropped the G scale from the blurb. I still wanted one but didn't want to pay the Hornby price of £150 so actually imported mine from the USA eBay for about £60 including delivery and custom charges!

Paul
 
Rhinochugger said:
What were they thinking of?

Or perhaps they weren't thinking :oops: :oops:
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Almost certainly the latter, it happens often nowadays. The new car I bought in 2020 had the A/C partly controlled through a touch screen - find the right menu page, touch the correct icon, then touch various icons depending on what you wanted to change and then adjust the setting of what you were changing by sliding a finger over the appropriate part of the screen! On the facelifted model just released, all this tech stuff has been replaced by control knobs.
 
Software Tools said:
It's clearly a toy, not a model.... so nothing particularly odd about it!
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Yes but from toys one can easily justify expanding a little bit at a time to something more uniform in the hobby rather than it not going with the one they already have. After all it is just a scale/gauge choice. No point reinventing the wheel.
 
playmofire said:
Almost certainly the latter, it happens often nowadays. The new car I bought in 2020 had the A/C partly controlled through a touch screen - find the right menu page, touch the correct icon, then touch various icons depending on what you wanted to change and then adjust the setting of what you were changing by sliding a finger over the appropriate part of the screen! On the facelifted model just released, all this tech stuff has been replaced by control knobs.
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Joy someone has understood that drivers need to concentrate on the road ahead, both sides and behind rather than looking at a tv screen to find something. I have often wondered how screen control of things fits in with the highway code regulations, those screens are to my mind akin to using a mobile phone whilst driving completely illegal except hands free for the time being. You cant beat a good selection of sensibly placed knobs.
 
dunnyrail said:
Joy someone has understood that drivers need to concentrate on the road ahead, both sides and behind rather than looking at a tv screen to find something. I have often wondered how screen control of things fits in with the highway code regulations, those screens are to my mind akin to using a mobile phone whilst driving completely illegal except hands free for the time being. You cant beat a good selection of sensibly placed knobs.
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Agreed, and different shaped well placed knobs My boss at work at one time had abiggish Fiat saloon which had 15 or more windscreen wiper settings which involved up to three different controls scattered more or less at random around the dashboard. As regards different shapes, I was surprised when I sat in the cockpit of a Vulcan bomber to see that there were knows of all shapes and sizes, why? because flying at night on a mission lighting was at a minimum and so the crew worked by position, touch and shape when selecting a control knob.
 
Software Tools said:
It's clearly a toy, not a model.... so nothing particularly odd about it!
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Well, yes and no, minister.

OK, yep, it's clearly a toy - I don't think Harry Potter is real, but then you never know ;);)

On the other hand, it is certainly strange that a long-standing model manufacturer should choose to go so left field, with no possible spin-off purchases from their other product lines :mm::mm:
 
playmofire said:
Agreed, and different shaped well placed knobs My boss at work at one time had abiggish Fiat saloon which had 15 or more windscreen wiper settings which involved up to three different controls scattered more or less at random around the dashboard. As regards different shapes, I was surprised when I sat in the cockpit of a Vulcan bomber to see that there were knows of all shapes and sizes, why? because flying at night on a mission lighting was at a minimum and so the crew worked by position, touch and shape when selecting a control knob.
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It's the same in a more modern aircraft.

The Weapons, Sights and Sensors controls in the Apache also has different shaped knobs for different functions. When you are in the dark, eyes out of the cockpit or on the displays and wearing gloves, this helps them identify the correct button.

The Co-Pilot/Gunner (CPG) has 74 different switches, some of these having multiple functions dependent on the action selected.

I used to joke with younger visitors of the PlayStation generation, that these knobs replaced the square, circle, triangle and cross buttons on the controller as the Weapons Control is exactly the same shape....
 
Rhinochugger said:
Don't buy anything from FB :shake::shake::shake::shake: There re more scams than real offers - possibly all scams :punch::punch:
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I was suspicious, but it’s also listed on Freeman’s web site, not that I’m in the market. Just tempted for the loco chassis to re gauge and use for something else.
 
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