Hornby looking for ideas for more British N

[Trainfish]

It's not dignified when grown men start a handbag fight

Now there's an idea for a street scene. With women as opposed to men of course.

Depends which era you're modelling, there seems to be quite a trend for manbags nowadays! 

I think you'll find that's more a French thing

[MikeDunn]

though I am almost insulted by the unnecessary manner of your response.

"As you sow, so shall you reap" ?  Perhaps if you had made your attack on LNER / Gresley designs / steam locomotives (take your pick, you aimed at all of them) in a less confrontational manner, you may have had a better response ?

Marklin bought the assets in 1997, but did Mangold sell the British toolings prior to that? Or did they change hands when Marklin themselves almost went bust in 2009, at a time when Hornby were making a land grab for a large number of brands?

So you expect them to use an 18+ year old tooling ?  Really ? I don't ... if they want to be taken seriously, they need to have modern tooling.  That's why they have their RailRoad range - to get more profit out of long paid-off tooling while it's viable, and make new tooling to meet the current level of detail demanded by those not into the toy train arena (and also allowing those so inclined a lower-cost product to super-detail what was a good product in its day to their own requirements).

I'm sick of seeing them!

Then stop looking at them, hmmm ?  If they're that prevalent, that says a lot about the wider demand in toy train circles, yes ?

Have Dapol taken advantage of their position with this very model in N? Not really, they've left a void there IMHO.

Have you actually looked at the range Dapol have produced ?  Because it does not appear so !  5 seconds on Dapol's site shows no less than 12 entries for A1/A3 engines, and a further 8 for A4s - and that's just current availability, not considering the ones no longer available, or done as a special for another seller.  Hardly a void.

Just because you despise steam locos (from your posts, this is what you are strongly implying) doesn't mean that the market does; given the strength of steamers vs electrics, surely that tells you something ?  And in N, Hornby is not the market leader - they're not even in the running !!!   Union Mills have a much larger presence than Hornby have, be honest.  Unless they do something dramatic (and that costs a lot of money), that will be the case for some years to come.

No matter; you're extremely biased and I have no doubt you'll come out with more vitriol. 

I would suggest Hornby bring out Stephenson's Rocket
in N, complete with top hatted crew, unlikely though.

Grief, that is an old one   Have they done it since that large  steam-powered version many years back ?

[Bob Tidbury]

Stephensons Rocket would be great for my layout  its a Railway museum so can I vote with both hands and feet .
Bob

[sparky]

In principal hornby looking at n gauge may just push dapol and farish to get on with their current programme just a tad more quickly....do both dapol and farish not start production until enough preorders have been taken by the retailers?

[Newportnobby]

Having extrapolated the non contrary stuff from Mike/Zunnan's posts they both make valid points. I must admit as soon as I saw the thread title I thought "Oh no, here goes another wish list thread". Maybe we need a separate board for them as, to my small mind, any wishing should be done on the requested website but I guess lots of folks like to express their wishes and see who agrees/disagrees.
It's great that Hornby have entered the N gauge market and, yes, I damn well hope it is giving Farish/Dapol cause for concern as maybe they'll shape up a bit in the customer service area and bringing announced stuff to market in a timely manner. Only by voting on the Hornby website (rather than here) will we see something emerge as a 'most wanted' and we'll have to live with it - regardless of whether we want one or not.
Please post with decorum and due respect for others opinions, for the sake of the rest of us.

[scruff]

from the tone of this:

"With plans underway for more additions to the N gauge range, what would you like to see?

Any and all suggestions are welcome and, while we can't make any guarantees, all the ideas we receive shall be passed on to our Development team"

it sounds like Hornby have got something up their sleeve already....

Cheers
Mark

[McRuss]

I think it would be great, if Hornby will expand their UK N gauge range.
And I hope they will reintroduce Lyddle End, and with a bit of luck they
produce a K1.

Markus

[scruff]

I like the sound of "additions"
that's plural and means more than one to me!

Cheers
Mark

[Railwaygun]

I vote for a Javelin or the new Eurostar - suitable models for the 21st C!!

[zwilnik]

I'd also expect Hornby to produce a Flying Scotsman. I'd also be very happy if they produced models competing with Dapol and Farish and I'd like to give my reasoning. It's not because I want to compare them side by side. I'd also love to see lots more different trains come out of a new (re) entrant to the N gauge marketplace.

Firstly, I've given up on buying any Dapol steamers as they've proven to be poorly designed and built. So Hornby A4/A3 models would be great.

Minitrix have a really good reputation for their current build quality and the detailing (and reliable running) on their european steam engines proves it can be done. Even though they're done at a smaller scale than the UK stock.

Hornby's UK dealership has mentioned a lot of issues with delays etc. on the OO stock, but I'm wondering if that applies to the Minitrix manufacturing line too? I suspect they're better set up for more rapid turnaround of new designs with the scale they have.

I'm looking forward to lots of new stuff already loving my Brighton Belle, even though technically it's a rule 1 on my layout

[jivebunny]

Bickering schmickering, it's still rock.n roll to me.....

I would suggest Hornby bring out Stephenson's Rocket
in N, complete with top hatted crew, unlikely though.

Whilst this would probably sell fairly well and would certainly make a nice model, the OO model was absolutely tiny for the scale and in N the boiler would probably be roughly the same diameter as a AAA battery (the thin ones you put in remote controls, etc). The locomotive itself is actually shorter and not much wider than an N gauge PGA hopper, so in N I think it's quite likely it would require a motorised coach.

Please ignore the border collie in the background 

JB

[Pengi]

I vote for a Javelin or the new Eurostar - suitable models for the 21st C!!

My votes too plus the new EMUs on the East Coast and Great Western. Dapol/Farish produce loads of steam locomotives so it would be great to have a manufacturer that does something different 

[Karhedron]

I have chucked my votes in for some of the GWR items Hornby do in 00 that are not available in N Gauge such as the King, County and heavy tanks.

As for hurrying Dapol and Farish along, that would be nice but I won't hold my breath. Farish seem to plod along at their own rate, regardless of the outside world. Dapol still seem to be a post-Dave torpor. Still, hopefully the recent release of the Maunsell coaches means they will be getting back on track.

[porkie]

This is great news, I would love too see more buildings that they do in OO.
As for loco's this very difficult as the main contenders have released a great range. Which would be very difficult to produce something that would sell strongly and not put them off N gauge.

I wouldn't mind if they went down the same route as peco and produced a massive amount of rolling stock which does have a big RTR hole in every era modelled.

[Mr chapman]

As for loco's this very difficult as the main contenders have released a great range.

What's that? Someone greatful??? Now I have seen everything