Watched Bargain Hunt on BBC at lunchtime today. The bonus buy was a Hornby Dublo 3-rail train set in its original box. It went for £45.00 which I thought was a bargain, but I was stunned when the young female auctioneer described it as, a Hornby Dooblo train set! "Dooblo?" I said to my wife, "Dooblo? Where did she get that from?"

Wife looked at me with pity in her eyes, which told me she didn't really care, so I gave a sigh, had a sulk, and thought it must be me. The Dublo name was dropped ages ago, so I suppose it is me, but has anyone else ever heard it called Dooblo?

Anyway, auctioneers generally know their stuff, and she suggested a value of £40 to £50, so she was spot on with that!

Umm, I'm not exactly a young thing anymore, and "Dublo" was a name from the past even then and I don't think I've ever heard it pronounced until I saw a video on the history of model railways a couple of weeks ago (
this one). I'd have guessed the correct pronunciation, but I can easily imagine someone not familiar coming to a different result.

I had a Hornby Dublo train set when I was young..

Sorry - I was a Triang kid, but I still have never heard of Dooblo
To me it was and always will be Dublo

Quote from: newportnobby on November 05, 2014, 03:27:28 PM
Sorry - I was a Triang kid, but I still have never heard of Dooblo
To me it was and always will be Dublo

Same here.

Quote from: Ditape on November 05, 2014, 03:32:18 PM

Quote from: newportnobby on November 05, 2014, 03:27:28 PM
Sorry - I was a Triang kid, but I still have never heard of Dooblo
To me it was and always will be Dublo

Same here.

Me too!

No justification for it unless she had a strong Northern Accent ;-} Or has 'double-O' fallen out of use, do people say 'O-O' nowadays?

I live in Holland, but listen to Radio 4 all the time, and notice even well-educated speakers often using spelling pronunciations of words they have presumably never heard spoken by someone in the know (or not taken any notice).

As far back as I can remember it was Hornby 'Dub-low'. Always heard said as that.

Radio & TV announcers used to be coached on pronunciation and often had a phonetic version in their script to help say the word or name correctly. Perhaps they don't do that any more.

Dave G

At 28, I'm too young for first hand experience with it, but when looking at my Dad's old catalogues, I always read it as du-blo when I was younger.

I don't remember ever hearing anyone say dublo out loud before when I was younger, or if I did, didn't realise they were saying Dublo. I'd have probably thought they'd have been saying Hornby Double O and being lazy over the word Double.

It was only a few years ago that I suddenly thought it should probably be read as dub-lo because of it being double O gauge.

I'll probably continue to say dooblo out of habit though...

I've always heard it as Dub-low at train fairs up and down the country since I was about 5 (I'm 30 now) - I wonder if the confusion comes from the pronunciation of Lego Duplo?

I don't pronounce Dublin as Doob-lin so I'll stick with Dub-low for now!

It's pronounced like George Dubya Bush.....

I well remember being given my hornby  'Dub-low' train set at Christmas 1950 by my father---------------of course I was only allowed to watch whilst father 'played' with it-----------wise I guess as I was only 5 years young

The same is true of Lego.
I've heard it referred to as Leego but I've always called it Lego and yes, it's definitely Dublo (no double o!!).

But by the same token, Lego Duplo (with which she may be more familiar) is pronounced Dooplo...

I've often been known to go down the pub but never to the poob