Hornby Arnold Brighton Belle

[Paul-H]

Hi all

I was browsing through an early edition of the N-Gauge Now magazine and they had a short review of the Hornby Arnold N-Gauge Brighton Belle, not seen one before but it looked quite interesting, one got one, what's your opinion, there are a few listed on eBay at over £250 Which foes compare well to a modern multiple unit set, the Farish Blue Pullman set is often listed at £399 but often can go as low as £250 ×with some sellers.

How foes the Hornby Arnold set compare,

Paul

[RailGooner]

I have the 1934 5-BEL. It's one of my most cherished models. I don't have a layout, so haven't run it since I bought it. But I don't remember finding any negatives with the model.

If I didn't own one already and could afford to buy one from ebay, I would. HTH

[Railwaygun]

I have one. It's a lovely model, although  The connectors are a bit tricky.

The blue versions Tend to be  cheaper to buy on EBAY , I understand.

[BobB]

I have both the belle and the blue pullman. Both are excellent trains that look good stationary and moving. The couplings on the belle are tricky to connect but I think they are stronger than first impressions. The couplings on the pullman are standard but a mixture of short and long to get a close couple evenly throughout the train demands correct formation.

[Bob G]

The price point for retail was chosen by Hornby at £199. Sold direct from the manufacturer so no discounts.
The 1934 versions are more desirable and represent a model from 1934 until about 1956.
After that the nameboards changed a little but the basic livery continued until 1967. That's why umber is the more popular livery. Its the classic colour.
From 1967 the blue grey livery was applied until they were withdrawn in 1973.
Hornby did two runs of the umber model, i believe, compared to one run of the blue-grey, which was a poor seller in comparison. As to numbers produced, i dont know how many were made.

1934 versions now sell for £250 and above.
1967 versions sell for about £150 - £200.

I have both, by the way. They are lovely. There are a few engineering shortcuts to allow the power bogies to rotate but no one owning one has complained massively about this.
Make sure you buy both the two car power car pack and the three car trailer coack pack, as the chances of getting the coaches separately are pretty rare.

HTH
Bob

[Bob Tidbury]

If I remember correctly there was one issue mentioned on this Forum ,it was the fact that the coach bodies were assembled on the chassis in the wrong order ,you couldn't just change coaches you had to remove the coach bodies and put them on the other chassis .
I don't know if that was corrected on the second run ,perhaps someone with a better memory than me can give you all the full information .
As all ready mentioned the coupling system was particularly difficult and the easiest way I found was to put the coaches on their roofs and connect up being very carefull not to knock the coach headboards off.
Bob Tidbury

[NeMo]

There are a few engineering shortcuts to allow the power bogies to rotate but no one owning one has complained massively about this.

I'm not so sure about that! Reading some of the comments on RMWeb gave me the impression that providing the extra clearance around the bogies was a deal-breaker!

Cheers, NeMo

PS, I do agree with you -- it's a lovely model. At one point the blue ones were on sale for £100, and that's when I got mine. I don't run it much, having end-to-end layouts, but when I do, it's a great model for zipping around a giant oval of Kato Unitrack.

[Bob G]

There are a few engineering shortcuts to allow the power bogies to rotate but no one owning one has complained massively about this.

I'm not so sure about that! Reading some of the comments on RMWeb gave me the impression that providing the extra clearance around the bogies was a deal-breaker!

And we all know how reasonable and objective some users of RMWeb are  .

Bob

[RailGooner]

The price point for retail was chosen by Hornby at £199. Sold direct from the manufacturer so no discounts.

Hornbys original plan was to only sell them themselves online. This was changed and they were sold through the major retailers at discount prices.

And there was an early bird discounted price for NGS members buying from Hornby - with IIRC Hornby passing the discount back to the NGS. That's when I got mine.

[Paul-H]

There are 3 on eBay now, unfortunately all Blue and all over £250

Might look good running with the Farish Blue Pullman though, will keep an eye on them.

're the couplings are replacements still available if they are subject to damage as some reports suggest.

Paul

[Bob G]

They never ran together.
The Brighton Belle was London - Brighton and was in blue/grey 1967-1973.
The Midland Pullman was St Pancras - Manchester 1962-1969 (Farish version)
The Western Pullman (due out shortly) was Paddington - Cardiff and Bristol and was 1962-69 in blue and 1969-73 in blue grey rewversed livery (Farish version).
When on the Western region they were used for specials over the e.g. Southern and Midland regions, especially when in blue/grey (reversed) livery.
HTH
Bob

[BobB]

Rule 1 Bob G !!! Having said that, the Belle without its 3rd rail is stretching things. When I run them together (seldom and only at the club) no one seems to notice.

[Bob G]

Third rail? What's that?? Old Hornby???   

[N_GaugeModeller]

Just in case no one noticed this

Hattons now have stock of the new batch of the Hornby Arnold Brighton Belle in Umber & Cream

Well they have the power car set in stock the triple coach pack is still waiting delivery

I didn't have these on pre order as I had something else on pre order that that now looks doubtful so expected to miss out expecting all stock to be pre order allocated but they have a number for general sale in stock

So have ordered the motor units and pre ordered the coaches.

NGM

[Bob G]

If anyone needs to know, this version is the 1962ish - 1967 livery of Pullman brown and cream with small yellow panels on the front, and with First and Second class cars rather than First and Third class.

Previous versions were
1938 - 1956 original Pullman livery - no yellow panels in those days and third class carriages
1967 - 1972 blue grey livery full yellow ends.

Happy shopping. Mine is on its way from Sir Hatton himself (at a cheaper price than from the Hornby Website before they sold out)

Best
Bob