Hornby Time

A little more nostalgia today. Yesterday, January 9th 2024 was Hornby range release day. As always, there is a great fuss about this. Which is indicative of the place that Hornby holds in the hearts of many modelers.

I can cast my mind back to my childhood, eagerly waiting for the arrival of the new catalogue in my local Hornby stockists. There was no internet back then, so the arrival of the catalogue was the first indication of what trains were coming in the new year. The catalogue only cost a few pence back then. I remember the catalogue covers like they were yesterday…

My first Hornby catalogue, it came with my Freightmaster Trainset.

The first Hornby catalogue I bought with my pocket money.

The catalogue covers clearly indicate the year that I took up the hobby. Christmas 1976. It will be 48 years this coming Christmas. 

1977 there was a big year with the introduction of the Inter City 125 train, shown at High speed on the cover. WOW!

Times change and there’s now a big release video on YouTube, so there’s a whole new type of excitement out there. Social media reminds you to check in on the channel to see the streaming of the video. A far cry from my day, hoping that the catalogue would be in at the barbers, (who also ran the local model shop) when I went for a haircut.

The images in the catalogues fired the imagination. Clean, shiny, model locomotives on a layout of clean shiny very plasticy buildings. As scenery methods have changed over the years so the layout scenery changes. But those pictures of Hornby trains on the layout still fire the imagination. 

What of 2024? The catalogue cover is different this year. With no photograph of a train on the cover, but an illustration.

Where’s the cool photograph?

Locomotion No.1 is the cover star this year. As the loco is not planned to be released until the autumn of this year there are no photos yet, just CAD renderings. Which is a little odd for a cover considering the past. I suppose it kind of harks back to the days of the Triang trains and the paintings of Terence Cuneo. Or maybe even that image on the cover of the catalogue that came with my first train set.

Terence Cuneo Hornby catalogue cover

What of the range this year? To be honest as I don’t model in 4mm scale at the moment. I don’t have much interest. But I can’t wait to see the Locomotion No.1 when it’s finished and ready to be released. All these old, early era trains do fascinate me, and the Hornby model with all those tiny rods and pistons working will be a great sight I’m sure. 

But it’s just nice to see that the excitement is still there, and that I still feel it myself, and I can still feel nostalgia for those childhood days.