They chose a good time for a sale, as someone who has been loving driving the 87 on the TSW Preston->Carlisle route that has just come out the thought of picking up a model had crossed my mind.
Yeah, does make you wonder. On one hand they're saying, costs have gone up and this is how much it is to make these days. On the other hand they can afford to do almost half price discounts. I can't imagine they're making a lot off these models though, probably just want them gone and to get the cash back in.
The only problem I have with the metal pantographs is with you over time they tend to fail with fatigue cracks forming in all the essential pivoting components of the pantograph itself
I got the one in grey large logo R30030 a while ago. It looks absolutely fantastic, in my opinion. Unfortunately though it has some quite serious flaws which led me to expressing some quite uncharitable thoughts about Hornby's design department in the privacy of my living room. I was never able to get it running to my satisfaction and so it lives in it's box under my layout.
I tried it with a Gaugemaster ruby and a zen - I couldn't achieve a smooth start from standstill. In addition the decoder position, as mentioned, is far from ideal. All they had to do was make the slot a tiny bit wider and it would not have been so much of a problem but as it is, the act of tightening the pcb mounting screws was twisting the decoder off it's pins. Solved that by packing behind the decoder using a sleeper and some kapton tape but come on - a little bit of thought could have avoided the problem. Which is a shame because as I said, the livery is probably my favourite in my collection.
Hi Rob- I just do not know what Hornby are thinking on their price point as it is £50-£60 more than a brand new tooled Accurascale or Cavalex loco with much more detail and features . it is the same with their Class 60 and their RRP should be around £125 where the retailers are having them otherwise why pay more for less. Cheers Kev
Hi James. The affiliate link is for Rails of Sheffield, but the model was reduced by 45% at multiple retailers and on Hornby's website. Also, just to be clear, this isn't an advert for rails and is not a paid promotion.
The original class 87 release was equipped for 8 pin, which really restricted the DCC options. Unfortunately, when Hornby "upgraded" this model to 21 pin they kept the 8 pin mapping for functions. That keeps the same restrictive functionality, and on top of that moving the decoder to the underside of the PCB brought with it problems of fitting decoders. Too thick, and they interfere with the flywheels, too long or wide and the PCB doesn't go back down because the decoder doesn't clear the chassis moulding. Its a really poorly laid out model. The livery error is just the icing on the cake...look at the red/white lining on the cab doors, its a different shade to the rest of the bodyside. I returned mine when this batch was first released, absolutely unacceptable model for the price; but that has become par for the course when buying Hornby products. That is most likely why they are so heavily discounted - poor specification, cheaply made and daft mistakes for a market leading price.
I hadn't noticed the door issues. I get the impression this was an old design that took so long to get to market that the tech had moved on and the model was already a bit "out of date".
@@LittleWicketRailway The original release of class 87 was extremely out of date when it was first released in 2018. It wasn't that its an old design, or that it took a long time to develop. On paper, it is a relatively recent release. For some reason Hornby persisted with 8 pin DCC for a decade longer than everyone else. Its only very recently that they have moved to using other interfaces. Their diesel models which were released as 8 pin (such as the class 31, 50, 56, 60 and 87) and have been 'upgraded' to 21 pin have pretty much only had a new 21 pin interface supplied but retain their 8 pin functionality...these being models which carry an RRP of well over £200, but look at the prices and spec of Accurascale and their directly competing models. Or the specification of the cheaper Cavalex class 56. Even Bachmanns class 31 is cheaper for a much higher specification. I think this is ultimately the answer as to why a large selection of Hornby models are so heavily discounted. They had the opportunity to improve and upgrade to meet the challenge from competing models, but for whatever reason they didn't; and now have set their prices insanely higher...Hornbys class 60 R30373 for £249.99 versus exactly the same livery class 60 from Cavalex with a higher spec for £194.95, or the class 60 from Accurascale for £169.99. I really cannot see the sense in Hornby expecting as much as £80 more for an inferior model. For £20 more than Hornby expect for their DC class 60, you can get a DCC sound fitted model from Accurascale!
They chose a good time for a sale, as someone who has been loving driving the 87 on the TSW Preston->Carlisle route that has just come out the thought of picking up a model had crossed my mind.
With the discounts they are still making a profit....(although a smaller one) for Mfg & dealers so it shows over inflated retail prices are !
Yeah, does make you wonder. On one hand they're saying, costs have gone up and this is how much it is to make these days. On the other hand they can afford to do almost half price discounts. I can't imagine they're making a lot off these models though, probably just want them gone and to get the cash back in.
Love the picture of the ultimate electric and diesel locos together. 87/60.
A great price for a very decent model.
Thanks for the update and happy Christmas to you
Hi. Rob. I visited Cheltenham Model Centre and noticed a Hornby R30030 £174.50
1970’s models had metal pans because Hornby had a working catenary system the trains could use without using the truck to pick up electricity.
The only problem I have with the metal pantographs is with you over time they tend to fail with fatigue cracks forming in all the essential pivoting components of the pantograph itself
I got the one in grey large logo R30030 a while ago. It looks absolutely fantastic, in my opinion. Unfortunately though it has some quite serious flaws which led me to expressing some quite uncharitable thoughts about Hornby's design department in the privacy of my living room. I was never able to get it running to my satisfaction and so it lives in it's box under my layout.
What was wrong with yours? Mine runs quite well, but I generally don't rate the design.
Is it possible it's the decoder used?
I tried it with a Gaugemaster ruby and a zen - I couldn't achieve a smooth start from standstill. In addition the decoder position, as mentioned, is far from ideal. All they had to do was make the slot a tiny bit wider and it would not have been so much of a problem but as it is, the act of tightening the pcb mounting screws was twisting the decoder off it's pins. Solved that by packing behind the decoder using a sleeper and some kapton tape but come on - a little bit of thought could have avoided the problem. Which is a shame because as I said, the livery is probably my favourite in my collection.
Hi Rob- I just do not know what Hornby are thinking on their price point as it is £50-£60 more than a brand new tooled Accurascale or Cavalex loco with much more detail and features . it is the same with their Class 60 and their RRP should be around £125 where the retailers are having them otherwise why pay more for less.
Cheers Kev
Thanks for a useful review
Thanks :-)
Hornby is asking £239.99 at time of this post.
I think this is a advert for Rails of Sheffield.
Screen shot is of Hornby, Black Friday sale. I agree rails of Sheffield have the City of Glasgow discounted, couldn’t see this one…
Hi James. The affiliate link is for Rails of Sheffield, but the model was reduced by 45% at multiple retailers and on Hornby's website. Also, just to be clear, this isn't an advert for rails and is not a paid promotion.
The original class 87 release was equipped for 8 pin, which really restricted the DCC options. Unfortunately, when Hornby "upgraded" this model to 21 pin they kept the 8 pin mapping for functions. That keeps the same restrictive functionality, and on top of that moving the decoder to the underside of the PCB brought with it problems of fitting decoders. Too thick, and they interfere with the flywheels, too long or wide and the PCB doesn't go back down because the decoder doesn't clear the chassis moulding. Its a really poorly laid out model. The livery error is just the icing on the cake...look at the red/white lining on the cab doors, its a different shade to the rest of the bodyside. I returned mine when this batch was first released, absolutely unacceptable model for the price; but that has become par for the course when buying Hornby products. That is most likely why they are so heavily discounted - poor specification, cheaply made and daft mistakes for a market leading price.
I hadn't noticed the door issues. I get the impression this was an old design that took so long to get to market that the tech had moved on and the model was already a bit "out of date".
@@LittleWicketRailway The original release of class 87 was extremely out of date when it was first released in 2018. It wasn't that its an old design, or that it took a long time to develop. On paper, it is a relatively recent release. For some reason Hornby persisted with 8 pin DCC for a decade longer than everyone else. Its only very recently that they have moved to using other interfaces. Their diesel models which were released as 8 pin (such as the class 31, 50, 56, 60 and 87) and have been 'upgraded' to 21 pin have pretty much only had a new 21 pin interface supplied but retain their 8 pin functionality...these being models which carry an RRP of well over £200, but look at the prices and spec of Accurascale and their directly competing models. Or the specification of the cheaper Cavalex class 56. Even Bachmanns class 31 is cheaper for a much higher specification. I think this is ultimately the answer as to why a large selection of Hornby models are so heavily discounted.
They had the opportunity to improve and upgrade to meet the challenge from competing models, but for whatever reason they didn't; and now have set their prices insanely higher...Hornbys class 60 R30373 for £249.99 versus exactly the same livery class 60 from Cavalex with a higher spec for £194.95, or the class 60 from Accurascale for £169.99. I really cannot see the sense in Hornby expecting as much as £80 more for an inferior model. For £20 more than Hornby expect for their DC class 60, you can get a DCC sound fitted model from Accurascale!
Oh Rob, I didn't know you no longer lived in Brum.
Yeah, my city days are done. I still go in occasionally.
Really poor design by Hornby that a speaker cannot be plugged into the HM7000 decoder then the body put back on!
The pantograph is utter rubbish, still waiting for some replacements
well you can always refund if you dont like it, simple