MY TOP THREE PRODUCTS THAT HORNBY HAVE EVER MADE.

[Mountain]

1. Their hydraulic buffer stop. One of the best ways ever invented to protect a full force catastrophic. The one I bought in the 1980's and kept for many years was sprung "Just right". While designed to model a terminus station, these double up to make ideal hidden siding accident protection devices! No other product really like them as other makes are either more fragile or do not have such a lovely springing effect.

2. Their rail cleaning rubber. I use both Peco and Hornby rail cleaning rubbers and while the Hornby one is larger but thinner, and cleaning wize there isn't much between both makes as both work very well, I would say that Hornby is my first choice here (But only just) and only because the Peco version is more prone to leaving bits of rubber on the track as it ages. It is actually hard to tell which actually lasts the longest as I have not noticed, as I would say that both actually seem similar? As the larger surface area with the Hornby version compared to the thicker smaller Peco version (Where the Peco version does seem to wear out faster when it is on its final remains while I get the sense that the Hornby version wears a little more evenly), there really is not a large difference in their abilities and how long they seem to last as both last a while before they wear out.
BUT I will say the Hornby version is an outstanding product as track cleaning rubber go, making this one of those items that Hornby sell that I am most impressed with, and this is NOT to belittle any of their other most excellent products. It is more to show how the things we can take for granted are actually really good impressive products. And why do I use a rubber? When making my own track, sometimes the top surface needs to be filed down, and files leave larger scratches in the rail surface. This is where the track rubbers really come into their own to polish out the scratches left by the file. One goes heavy at first and when the scratches come out one then uses the rubber lightly and quickly to polish the railhead up to a mirror-like shine. For what I use them for, nothing else works as well as either a Hornby or a Peco track cleaning rubber. (Once tried other makes such as Gaugemaster. While they do work it is "Meh!" when one compares with Hornby or Peco as this type of rail cleaner goes).

3. Their various "Smokey Joe style" 0-4-0's which all share the same type of chassis. Has had various sympathetic tweaks and upgrades over the years and many different bodies... Love them or hate them, but no one can doubt these have been such a success, and more than one of us has started out with one. (GWR number 101 was actually my second loco back in 1979. (My first was the GWR pannier number 8751).
They are so simple and easy to repair and keep on the rails... And the latest versions are so improved (Do Hornby still make them?) that Hornby surely deserve a MASSIVE THANK YOU for making them for so long, and long may they continue for many years to come!

(If Hornby want to re-invent these little 0-4-0's for future years, how about coming out with an almost toy-like 7mm narrow gauge version with matching waggons?)

SO WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE YOUR TOP THREE ITEMS THAT HORNBY HAVE MADE? Tell us what they are and why you like them.

[centenary]

Id have to include some of my old Dublo stuff into this.

Current number 1 is the latest release Intercity 125. Lovely model with HM7000 sound.

Second is a tough one but Id select my Dublo red recovery crane and support wagons.

Third would be my Dublo Class 08 shunter. Pestered my parents like mad for this and even though it didnt work properly, the fact I got it for my 9th birthday when they didnt have 2 pennies to rub together means it will always be a favourite. Shame on Hornby for saying they couldnt find a fault when it blew out the magic smoke every time it was put on the track!

[Phred]

Mountain wrote:
how about coming out with an almost toy-like 7mm narrow gauge version centenary

I'd definitely be interested in that at the right price.

Centenary, it's funny that you should be the next member to post in this thread. I was just about to say that I really enjoy my Hornby Thomas the Tank Engine and there he is as your signature photo! I find Thomas reliable and pretty well bomb proof so that the grandchildren can handle him without giving me a heart attack.

[Mountain]

Id have to include some of my old Dublo stuff into this.

Current number 1 is the latest release Intercity 125. Lovely model with HM7000 sound.

Second is a tough one but Id select my Dublo red recovery crane and support wagons.

Third would be my Dublo Class 08 shunter. Pestered my parents like mad for this and even though it didnt work properly, the fact I got it for my 9th birthday when they didnt have 2 pennies to rub together means it will always be a favourite. Shame on Hornby for saying they couldnt find a fault when it blew out the magic smoke every time it was put on the track!

Dublo 08. Absolutely superbly made loco. (Odd yours went up in smoke as they really are mechanical marvels. It might have a massive flush fitting screw holding the body on, but mechanically underneath the build quality on the 08 is one of the best 00 gauge models I have ever seen. I have the Wrenn version which has not actually been used that much from new. So saught after now (And I can see why) that the rare times they do go for sale at more reasonable prices they are snapped up. Wrenn also came out with a rare non-motorized version that fetch a good price just because they are rare. Odd but there you are!
Hornby Dublo made them in both 2 and 3 rail versions. Why HD and Wrenn 08's are so saught after is due to their durability on outdoor garden railways where these were run daily in all weather for well over a decade and were still owing strong with having almost nothing done to them other than a brief clean. Excellent locos. Just don't expect to DCC them. Remove the body and take a look and you will see what I mean! Is is possible? I honestly don't know but it is easier just to buy a Bachmann 08 if one wants DCC rather than attempt one of these marvelous things!

[Bigmet]

BR 7MT 'Britannia', all newly tooled in China, nearly all the serious lurking Margate design deficiencies that persisted into Chinese manufacture finally done away with. (Motor securely clamped to fully isolated chassis block, scale length correctly located loco to tender drawbar, plug in connection to tender pick ups.)
J50 0-6-0T. The first 0-6-0T scale model tooled by this business, farewell the awful 1950s origins 'one size fits all' 0-6-0 mechanism which is a model of nothing.
B12/3. At release comfortably the best 4-6-0 in RTR OO, sufficient weight from the metal body to deliver class 4 traction out of the box.

[Jim S-W]

For people who like chopping things about the Hornby 110 DMU is mega useful

[manna]

G'Day Gents

As a person that likes chopping things up ? The Hornby Dublo/Wrenn R1 tank engine, simple, rugged and goes on forever, must have cut up at least a dozen, to make Ex GNR J3's & J4's, the wheelbase is a bit short, but you can't have everything in a budget loco.

Tri-Ang Thompson coaches, nobodies favorite, but for me, great for chopping up, still cheap (after 50 years) good for making into Gresley's green and cream Tourist stock, including Artic Twins.

Last but not least, 'The Flying Scotsman'. The body can be used to make a P1 2-8-2, freight loco. the chassis can be used in Great Central 4-6-0's. and there many iterations of A1's and A3's that it can be bashed into.

Honorable mention to the GWR 4-4-0, same wheelbase as GN 4-4-0's.

manna

[Bigmet]

...As a person that likes chopping things up ? ...

Ooh, different criterion!
Bachmann 57xx for the Crewe wheelbase mechanism.
Bachmann K3 for the 'Doncaster stretch of the Crewe wheelbase' mechanism
Hornby 8F, cheapest eight coupled mechanism when released as a loco drive version over twenty years ago.

[Metadyneman]

No. 1 for me has to be the old Triang Hornby DMU motor bogie. Perfectly engineered, long lasting and up until more recent china made motored bogies became available,it was the go to motor bogie to use in kit built and scratch built multiple unit stock.
No.2 The XO3/XO4 motor for much the same reasons as above really. A versatile unit which could be shoehorned into most locos and were/are practically bomb proof if maintained well.
No.3 The humble re-railer! For the simple reason when I was younger I was able to put things on the track without one because the wheels were like steam rollers and the track a lot coarser, but these days it's become a little more difficult with fine scale wheels finer track and an ever ageing owner!

[End2end]

Not that I had any but "ZERO-1" was an interesting concept.
Although falling flat on it's face one could surmise that it was a precursor to DCC.
Thanks
End2end

[Mountain]

There are some lovely suggestions there.

The 110 DMU is such a lovely looking thing, I am not sure I could cut it up. I have had a green one (3-car) first which looked lovely but I bought it to repaint in B.R. blue/grey as back then there had not been one in that livery. I just wanted a DMU that looked like a DMU. A 110 was not really the class I wanted as I don't think they ever came to my area, but they looked the part and honestly looked really nice. I eventually sold it and a few years later bought a blue one (2-car) secondhand when I was all into B.R. blue/grey livery where the all over blue livery did make the odd very rare appearance so it was something different. Both the green and this blue ones were made in Margate and ran well but were a little prone to coming off the track where other locos didn't have a problem.
I eventually bought the one I wanted. A 3-car blue/grey version (Which I still have) which is an early Chinese made version where not only all the little Margate foybles were sorted so it ran exceptionally well, but it felt so much more refined and ran smoother. While normally I am one to take things apart and have a look though these days I am more of an "If it runs well leave it!" so apart from taking the body off to DCC her, I have not really looked beyond that, but I am almost sure it is a 5 pole ringfield motor? China did amazing very subtle improvements and fair play! It is great!
The only small downside is the UK Margate versions did have the chassis in a more flexible plastic where one has to go a little more careful with these Chinese versions if opening them up to DCC. Can't remember but I think I hard wired to DCC her, as I don't think she had a socket? (I was DCC-ing many locos so wasn't paying attention other that ensuring there were no hidden electrical connections to isolate as some ringfield motor types have hidden connections via a screw).
But yes. As 110 DMU's go, I think I struck lucky and had the best of the best of both worlds before the budget cuts in manufacturing came in to save costs. It goes to show how good products can become when Britain and China work together. British people have the inventive eye for design without overcomplicating things and Chinese people has the endless patience to take what someone else has made and perfect them and I caught both at their bet in one model!

[Ken Shabby]

1.) The Dublo Southern Utility van.

2.) Triang Mk1 coaches

3) The Triang Jinty, plus the others which used it's chassis.

Ken

[Bigmet]

...The Triang Jinty, plus the others which used it's chassis...

For all my regular grumblings about the 'inaccurate wheelbase for any prototype'* it surely powered a multitude of whitemetal and brass parts kit builds, and a great many other models whether built from scratch or kit-bashed.

I still have a first version of the Wills N7 body, which I bought for the set of Romford Bulldog motor, gears and wheelsets which were promptly reused 'elsewhere'. These mechanism parts were as new, but had been installed in the above chassis block with both flanged wheel axle holes worn ovoid ! It was sold as a 'non-runner', quelle surprise...

*If anyone knows different, and there is a UK six-coupled 7'9"+8'3" wheelbase locomotive, I should most gratefully receive the information.