Hornby releases production schedule for Rivarossi

A little later on - I did some more excavations among my older paraphernalia and managed to find a near 25-year old copy of 'The Continental Modeller' - the March/April edition of 1981 which just happened to contain their sixteen page illustrated report on the Nurnberg Toy Fair for that season.

Also present is a full page advert for Rivarossi products and there are a few items of nostalgia value that readers might find interesting.

The 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, pictured above, was priced at £69.70 by 'Just Continental' of Sutton Coldfield. This appears to have been a mail-order only business and, though very well known at the time, probably no longer exists, though someone else might know better. Big Boy was probably quite well discounted as The Nurnberg Report announced that a 'new improved' version was to be introduced that year.

Also interesting to see the impressively large range that Rivarossi then produced, which included O Gauge and 'British HO/OO' as well as the much larger and better known range of HO American And European models, a small group of high quality BRASS HO locos, plus a very reasonable range of N Gauge models, both North American and European. I have some of their N gauge product and might manage a photo or two in time. It wasn't quite in the same class as the better known German models of the day, but was still pretty decent, had one or two locos that no one else provided and was considerably cheaper!

At Ontracks, For the log cars, it says: " Nov 05 Set 2 pcs. Log Car NP". Does that mean 2 cog cars or is it a 2 piece log car? That is going for £35.83


The Alaska RR coaches, dome car and passenger cars are not yet listed. Nor are the 60-foot heavyweight passenger coaches.

The Big Boy 4-8-8-4 is £225.00


The Allegheny 2-6-6-6 is £345.84


The Hudson 4-6-4 Rebuilt is £166.66