Trainset Tuesday: Hornby TT:120 Branchline Goods

Good grief, something approaching a Product Review? On this blog? That's, like, Serious Modeller territory isn't it? Nary a cartoon wolf in sight recently, so maybe it's time to embrace the metaphorical Tweed Waistcoat and start taking my responsibilities to the hobby with a bit more care and attention that displayed previously, especially having hit my early 40's this year. A couple of people have mentioned that with me appearing regularly in Hornby, BRM, and Garden Rail I probably ought to accept I'm getting at least a little well-known in the field, even if most of the projects are a bit starter-level and silly. So, let's dive into a product review of sorts.

Anyway, it's nearly Christmas, and who doesn't like getting a trainset for Christmas? Well most kids these days, allegedly, but I'm just enough of an old fart that getting a train set still lifts my mood. Takes me back to the 1990's, and saving up all my Birthday and Christmas money to go to Argos in the after-Christmas sales to get a Hornby set. Or that year I got the "Flying Scotsman" set actually on Christmas day itself, a world before Tiktok, Insta, and all the rubbish of the Day Job and mortgages, etc.

So, to business. I was waiting keenly for this to arrive; I've been dabbling in the world of Hornby's TT:120 range since it launched, but frankly whilst I'm something of a Bought and Paid For Company Man when it comes to doing articles for the Collectors Club, I'm not an actual Hornby employee, and certainly not in a position to receive free stuff to review. I've not had money for a HST or Mallard set, but this seemed a bit more do-able, budget and size wise.

First off, opening the box. No horrible polystyrene trays these days, unlike in the days of my childhood sets. Lots of lovely recyclable cardboard. Quite a compact box too, to emphasise the smaller size of the models.

First negative- I've never liked these styles of controllers. The ones Younger Child had on her childhood sets were a bit naff; they did the job, but weren't very accurate control-wise, encouraging rocket starts.

But then straight to a positive, the loco. A slightly-coarse representation of a Southern B4 tank loco, in a mix of plastic and die-cast metal. Now I'm not 100% keen on the design (I really don't like that cab front), but I can't deny it has character. It's very dinky, and has a certain charm to it.

Nice basic chassis and metal wheels below.

Impressively it has an open cab, all the mechanical gubbins is hidden inside the side tanks, and there's even a reasonably complex representation of the cab controls and levers on the backhead.

Printing is a bit simplistic, and there's a tiny bit of overspraying and such to be seen. But it does the job, and being simple, keeps the costs down in production.

The rolling stock is freelance, but does the job. Long wheelbase to, I guess, help people placing them on the track. 

Very basic underframe detail, but I don't mind that. In fact I really don't like the current fad for overdetailed underframes on stock which bangs the prices up, as the only time you'll ever see them is if something derails. Doing it this way keeps the costs down, and it looks ok and normal viewing distances.

Track- a basic oval, but with larger radius curves than I might originally have expected. But then this is presumably meant to be a gateway set, and the rest of the Hornby TT:120 line is pretty much massive express locomotives, which wouldn't cope well with 1st Radius.

So, everything hooked-up, and running. Straight out the box, even with the basic controller, the loco was smooth and quiet, and ran well. I was genuinely impressed with it, and half an hour running in, in each direction, left it even smoother. I need to try it over points, but I didn't have any to hand when I set this up.

Conclusions? This is an excellent set. Perfect for a starter, tempting enough for a new beginner, and very good value, especially for what you get in the box. The loco is lovely, and the stock is good enough for a starter.  My plan is to use this set (well, the two I bought) as the basis for a bigger project later in the year, all being well, so I'm looking forward to doing some mods on the loco and the wagons. All in all, very happy with this, and it's a good first step into the world of TT:120.

See? I can do a serious review, even if I haven't frothed about the weight of the loco, torque tests, and so on, but hey, baby steps.

 

Clockwork Trains in the Snow; the Christmas project for 2025

What's this? Some actual model-making on the model-making blog? Good grief. Well actually I've been up to my neck in making stuff (alongside the hideously busy Day Job), it's just nothing can be shared yet as the projects haven't been published.

I've been doing a lot with vintage clockwork trains lately for a project for Hornby, and at the start of December thought I'd take time out from the commissioned stuff for a couple of evenings to do something a bit fun and seasonal with it all. Excuse the chaos of the workshop.

Lighting was a mix of Lemax streetlamps, Christmas tree lights, and mini LED torches.  The majority of the stock and models were from Bing, and some Hornby bits like the footbridge.

The snow were some old bits from a ripped pillow case, some felt, some sprinkled flour, and a bit of stuffing from a teddybear.

By the time I was getting to this stage, and sticking cotton-wool on the arms of the lamp-posts, I figured I was going a bit over the top and decided to stop the detailing work and just crack-on with the pictures.

Shooting the pics- I managed to find a box with a humidifier in it, to create some swirling steam effects, and then started sprinkling flour in front of the lens for falling snow.

Trying some arty greyscale shots.

The figures were the ones from the S&D range I used for the Steampunk station way back.

These weren't really intended for anything, though I did end up sending them off on-spec to the Train Collectors Society. It was more that I felt like I needed to do something that wasn't a commission, just for a change of pace.

A fun little project anyway, and a taster for the upcoming layout I'll be making for the Hornby Collectors Club. As close to a Christmas project as I'll get time for this year at any rate.

 

(Not Railway) Research Trip: Bradford Science and Media Museum

I know, another week, and no actual model making. Actually, there's been a hell of a lot of model making, just nothing I can post yet as I'm waiting for things to appear in print. So here's another research trip, to the Science and Media Museum in Bradford.

Bradford is City of Culture this year (stop sniggering at the back), and this museum is a major component of the cultural and artistic efforts of the city. Now I've been very cynical about this place; part of the Science Museum Group, there were efforts made to run it down about 10 years ago. I knew staff who worked here and lost their jobs, as there was an attitude from London that "the North didn't need three museums" (Manchester Industrial, and the Railway Museum). The archives were transferred South, so that Jocastah and Tarquin didn't need to sully themselves slumming it up here on the clapped-out old trains to the concrete hell of Interchange Station.

Then we got City of Culture Status, and various people seem to have realised it might be a negative thing to shut down your main photography museum. But it stayed shut for refurbishment (or putting back all the things that had been stripped out ready for the closure, if you're feeling cynical). Now I've always loved this place, since a trip here from Uni in 2004, and The Wife has been coming here since it operned. So I was very happy it got a reprieve and a refresh, but hadn't had time to get over to see it until a random Saturday when Middle Child was at an event up at the Uni, and we had a few hours to kill.

Quick snap on the way there, old tram-lines uncovered and integrated as A Feature of the refurbished city centre. 

So there's plenty here to love from a miniatures point of view- including this from the first Shaun the Sheep film. There used to be a scene from the "Wrong Trousers" too, so it's great Aardman still have a presence here.

Here's an example of something great here- hands-on exhibits, machined miniature replicas of the full-size exhibits.

Here's some fun, which me and Younger Child got into- creating sound effects, in time with the vids.

Moulage! Wish I had a kit like this at The Day Job for doing woundcare.

Costume from the first Alien film, this is amazing. Lovely to see it up close.

Some interesting animatronics on show. Again, Younger Child was really into this.

Another nice bit of miniatures work, and a frontage of the Clock Tower done for a BBC prog's title sequence in the 1950's.

Shadow puppetry.

Cottingley Faeries. Always fancied doing a project around this, being as the real location is about a 15 minute walk away from the house.

Happily there's still loads of vintage camera tech here...

...and some fun newer stuff; the penguin camera drone from "Spy in the Wild", this was fascinating to see.

Overall thoughts? Cynical as I was, the place blew me away. Absolutely loved it, and planning to go back to give it a much longer visit over the Christmas hols, if I can score some leave off work. The place is definitely worth a visit!

 

Railway Research Trip; The Middleton Railway

Considering I'm a railway enthusiast, a railway modeller, and a regular contributor to various railway magazines, I've not managed to make much of the Railway 200 celebrations this year. In fact, the only specific event I managed to get to was the Middleton's end of summer Gala. A bit of a case of FOMO with it all, but then real life and a busy job as a med-tech took priority. Stupid having to earn a living.

Anyway, enough moaning. I love the Middleton, even in its present, rather truncated, form. The atmospheric Balm Road Branch is closed for the foreseeable future (the ungated level crossing being somewhat lethal to the volunteers having to walk out into the local traffic with flags), so the Gala featured just an intensive service with a mixed train up and down the main line. Now, I have a potential project on the boil for which the Middleton is a perfect inspiration, so I thought a morning pottering about with the camera was in order.

Blimey, all the most scenic spots for my photoshoots. Some photographers are busy taking pics of fashion models on yachts out in Monaco. 

Hell... yes, glad it was 9.30am. I don't think I'd go down here after midday without Kevlar and a pet lion on a long-leash.

The old Dartmouth branchline, or what's left of it.

First train trundling past.

See, this is what I like about the Middleton; not much in the way of lineside fences (though mainly because the scrap-metal fairies wander off with them in the night, I'm told).

Finally, a bit of sunshine. Our normal trips to the Middleton coincide with superb weather; this was my first overcast visit, ever, so clearly Amy is the good luck charm for the Sun God.

There was one steam loco in operation during my visit. The nicer-looking machine was out on the Sunday, but I wasn't free, sadly.

Opportunities for linesiding were a bit limited though, as there were a couple of shady-looking characters who'd clocked me and were paying me a bit of attention, because, you know, Broken Britain and all that (even at 10am on a Saturday morning. At least it shows a certain work-ethic amongst the e-bike riding drug peddlers of the modern youth I suppose). I stayed around Park Halt for a bit, where there were enough witnesses, normal people with families, who could at least identify my remains if things went wrong.

There were some nice people aboard the train, so I got chatting to some of them, re-assuring my faith in humanity somewhat. 

Sadly, the open-ended carriage was also out of use, but I made do with poking the phone out of the window.

Back again to the other end of the line, for the sort of splendid viewpoint the Middleton offers.

And, because I was up to my elbows in work at that moment, it was time to head home and crack-on with some model-making. Plenty of shots as research for the project. Shame about the local atmospherics, I take my hat-off to the Middleton for running a suburban preserved railway without armoured trains. It's a lovely line, the vols are cheerful, and the trains eccentric, so all in all a nice, if rushed, morning for me.