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.
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