[The Doc]

I have only just started reading your magazine, and it is now my "must buy" bit of reading for each month, far better than my previous first choice. My query is this: I haven't seen any of the Hornby Railroad items being reviewd in your magazine yet (it may be that they have, but not in issues I've seen). I have just bought their Flying Scotsman following your great article in the June issue (which justifies having one at almost any time from 1924 to the present day!). I was expecting a fairly robust but basic model with a crude chassis (perhaps like the original Triang model or the ealier Margate built tender-drive version). What I've got is in fact a superb model, a smooth runner, with the very latest high quality chassis, pick-up from driving wheels and tender etc. The body looks good too, with separate handrails on boiler and tender. I think plenty of your more experienced readers would appreciate it. It's certainly not the child's toy that I thought a "Railroad" model would be. Can I suggest that you review the Mallard and Evening Star models that Hornby are due to release in the Railroad range this year?

 

[Mike Wild]

Thanks for your post with regard to reviews of the Railroad range.

When Hornby launched the new range we did a feature review of the initial batch rather than individual models. This appeared in the November 2007 issue of Hornby Magazine and I'm pleased to say that we are now tackling a few projects involving Railroad models to make them more appealing to the BR steam era modeller and showing their potential at the same time.

The Flying Scotsman model was something of a surprise to us too. Like you we were expecting a standard tender drive model, much the same as what had gone before, but Hornby took the plunge and fitted them with a locomotive drive mechanism and, as you say, it performs superbly!

Rest assured that when future Railroad models are released we'll be reviewing them in Hornby Magazine.

Best regards,

Mike