Pre-War Hornby Trains

This 4-4-2 is a No.3E in Great Western livery, named "Caerphilly Castle". It dates to 1927.

Nice Castle. I have a very small collection of British trains. Mostly cars no engines. Someday. I find it hard to find information on them. Do you have any tips?

This is the largest locomotive issued by Hornby, the 1937 4-6-2 LMS "Princess Elizabeth". This needs at least 20 volts to move on the track, and my copy has a trailing truck / bogie that is a millimeter or so wider than gauge. I suppose I need the opposite of a "wheel puller" to fix that.

quote:

Originally posted by Silver Lake:
Nice Castle. I have a very small collection of British trains. Mostly cars no engines. Someday. I find it hard to find information on them. Do you have any tips?

If your items are Hornby, the definitive resource is a book by Chris and Julie Graebe, entitled "The Hornby Gauge O System", published in 1994 by New Cavendish Books, London. Also, there is an active Yahoo group related to HORNBY. There is also a Dutch Hornby Collectors group with an excellent website, which you can find HERE. Finally, the Train Collectors Society is the British equivalent of the TCA, and joinder gives you access to its members and publications.

Then, of course, I have gotten some of my best info on any brand of trains just by using a search engine like Google.

Export for Argentina



Banana Wagon

That's a nice No. 2 Tank, and the FCCA logo was used up until 1939 or 1940, per the book. I also like the banana van.

quote:

Originally posted by jay jay:
If your items are Hornby, the definitive resource is a book by Chris and Julie Graebe, entitled "The Hornby Gauge O System", published in 1994 by New Cavendish Books, London. Also, there is an active Yahoo group related to HORNBY. There is also a Dutch Hornby Collectors group with an excellent website, which you can find HERE. Finally, the Train Collectors Society is the British equivalent of the TCA, and joinder gives you access to its members and publications.

Then, of course, I have gotten some of my best info on any brand of trains just by using a search engine like Google.

I have a Cavendish book titled Hornby Companion Series Vol 1 and a 70s reprint of the Hornby Book of Trains 1927-32. I do find those useful. I was hoping for a more recent book on the subject. I occasionally find some British Model magazines but there does not seem to be enough interest in the older trains to support a OGR or a CTT. I am especially interested in learning more about the other train makers too like Leeds MC, Exley, Bing and Bassett Lowke.

Leeds is a difficult brand to find much about. The only Leeds info I have is a 1930's era catalog. I have a B-L locomotive, also, and a helpful book is Bassett-Lowke Railways, published by the company in 1968 or so. Another good book, although fairly general, is A Century of Toy Trains, by Allen Levy, published by Crescent Books in 1974. I'm not aware of anything more recent than the book by the Graebes. I think that the best source of current info would be the TCS, and I may join that myself.

Hello,
For those of you interested in the history of leeds products here is a link to the web site of David Peacok, in Great Britain where he his the authority on the subject.

http://leedsstedmantrust.org/index.html

He has just wrote a very high quality book about this typical english manufacturer. The book is of great interest and acompanied by a DVD with terrific pictures of near all Ledds models ever produced and also videos of interview and british layout where you can see Leeds trains running in a very british way. A part of the video can be seen on his web site.
This book is really a must to have.

Very best, Daniel

Merci, Daniel. I will review that website with great interest.

Feel free to write me about questions you have concerning Hornby trains. I've been
collecting them for 30 years. You can see my collection at www.lewrail.jalbum.net.
Have fun. Lew Schneider lewrail@comcast.net Located in Waban MA

Thank you, Lew. Your collection and layout are phenomenal! You won't remember this, but you assisted /advised me in the purchase of the Princess Elizabeth at the TCA Eastern Division meet at York, in October, 2001. I have looked in on your website from time to time since then.

John, you have a very nice collection of Hornby trains and the Princess is still a dream for me. If you are interested in finding more documentation and a great service for spare parts you could join the Hornby Railway Collectors Association, many collectors of Hornby from all over the world, mainly Great Britain but also USA, France, New Zealand and many others. And you have a wonderfull magazine each month full of excellent informations.
Their website is here, http://hrca.net/

And now some pictures from my collection,

A N° 1 passenger set from the Great Western i think around 1927



A n°2 passenger set from around 1926 with the L and N E R engine, nut and bolt



A LNER clocwork engine N° 2 from 1927-28



A LMS N+2 Tank engine also clocwork



A funny piece, the snowplow from 1928 and from the L N E R



Very best, Daniel

Thank you, Daniel, both for the compliment and for the link to the Hornby collectors group. I enjoy these trains very much, although I grew up with Lionel, American Flyer and Marx. You have some terrific items, and I also like that snowplow. By the way, I enjoyed your video of French tinplate trains very much, and look forward to the second installment!.

You should recognize these two wagons, which comprise the sum total of my French Hornby items:



The Pullman Car



The Restaurant Car



End detail of the Pullman Car, with Harvey and others waiting to board.



Together.

John, thanks very much for your coments, i want to make a precision, very important, i am not the owner of that fine video.... in fact i have never done any, not enough time for the moment.

Your french Hornby passenger cars are in very good condition and you need to add a locomotive to this set, i have not seen any at the York show but there is some inexpensives ones on ebay in France as this model from the same period, certainly the most produced of all Hornby engines; a model as this one can be obtain for a very fair price.
The BB 8051



I grew up with Hornby and JEP trains and now i collect Lionel O and standard Gauge, some American flyer, Ives an Marx also .... life is really hard for toy train collectors from either side of the pond ...

Very best, Daniel

Daniel, thank you for the clarification regarding the video.

I appreciate the suggestions regarding the locomotive. I will look for one similar to the one in the catalog here.

quote:

Originally posted by lewrail:
Feel free to write me about questions you have concerning Hornby trains. I've been
collecting them for 30 years. You can see my collection at www.lewrail.jalbum.net.
Have fun. Lew Schneider lewrail@comcast.net Located in Waban MA

Lew it was nice to meet you at Trainstock on Saturday. Just like this topic we spoke about British toy trains.

Hornby is not one of my strong suits, collection wise, but I admire it. Here are the sets (electric locos) that I have: the E320 "Flying Scotsman" (1933-1936) and cars; the early 3E Nord (1928-9) pulling the Riviera "Blue Train" cars and a French hornby set that our cat Loki seems to like!

Great photos, Jim! Your "Verona" is in much better shape than mine! I'll post a picture of it when I get a chance. I admire your great collection of Tinplate!

Pullman "Verona"



Pullman "Arcadia"

Nice cars, John! I've been looking for the Arcadia, Iolanthe, etc., but not seriously enough. Your Princess Elizabeth is spectacular!

Here is a fish van and a few private owner vans:

Terrific vans, Jim! I have a few brake vans, gondolas and a tank car (pictures will be posted later) but I don't have the private owner vans, despite the fact that I admire the graphics greatly. The fish van is really cool!

By the way, I posted a flagpole on the O Gauge Forum that I cannot identify. Could you take a look at the thread and tell me if you've ever seen it before? The thread is HERE.

Brake vans

Well, John...we're having fun posting our Hornby! Here's some Hornby downstairs on my layout...a No. 2 station, breakdown van and crane...and a snowplow:

Very nice pictures Jim, and a lovely cat also, he seems to really enjoy your (or his...) french Hornby set.

Nachtjager you are right, hornby produced a ton of the BB 8051 model, certainly the most comon one but anyway a very good runner. It needs 20 volts to run at full speed and a circle of a 120 centimeters diameter originally.

Hornby is also famous for the great quantity of accessories which allows to make a specific world, very colorful and it has a special appeal with many collectors.

Some more pictures to add to the thread,

French Hornby station of Dijon, around 1930



French simplified station of Lyon, around 1935



French freight station with crane from 1934



The french railway crew from 1935



The french passengers from 1935



And a very important car in french railways, the wine transport, this one with guard from the 30's



A french level crossing also from the same period,



Let's see your pictures, i will post more later,

Very best, Daniel

Fantastic pictures. What a pleasure to see these. Thank you to all who posted.
Great thread.

Thank you to everyone participating in this thread!

Gondola



Tank car

quote:

Originally posted by jay jay:
Thank you, Daniel, both for the compliment and for the link to the Hornby collectors group. I enjoy these trains very much, although I grew up with Lionel, American Flyer and Marx. You have some terrific items, and I also like that snowplow. By the way, I enjoyed your video of French tinplate trains very much, and look forward to the second installment!.

You should recognize these two wagons, which comprise the sum total of my French Hornby items:



The Pullman Car



The Restaurant Car



End detail of the Pullman Car, with Harvey and others waiting to board.



Together.

Jay Jay those coaches are magnificent! If you don't mind me asking, what is the blue interurban poking around from behind in the last picture you posted? It looks to me to be some sort of older Japanese Interurban.

Those are the CTA 6200 cars issued by MTH several years ago. The MTH description is here: http://www.mthtrains.com/content/30-2889-1

quote:

Originally posted by jay jay:
Those are the CTA 6200 cars issued by MTH several years ago. The MTH description is here: http://www.mthtrains.com/content/30-2889-1

Ahh I see now. Thats a good color for a that set, jay jay.

No. 2 Engine Shed

There is a fair amount of Hornby mainly British but also some French that you can find on US e-bay. Go to O gauge and type Hornby in the box on top and it will take you to what is up for auction. As you would expect most of it is in the UK and some in France. You need Pay Pal to buy from most of the sellers. I have purchased a number of British outline clockwork engines some cars and one French outline electric locomotive. Shipping can get expensive so I try to buy a group of items all at once from the same seller. If you are thinking of buying electric powered locos keep in mind some will run on only DC and some on both AC/DC. Usually if the loco has a remote controlled reverse its a DC only one but if in doubt ask the seller. The French electric I have has a manual reverse lever on the roof and will run on AC. Ive had no problems from the venders Ive dealt with; the items were as described and arrived within 2 wks. The large semi-scale electric powered locos can be pretty expensive, in some cases as much as current production ACE, Darstead etc. Most of what I have is lower end but is appealing in the same way as Marx; thin metal but great lithography. bertiejo

Thanks, Bertiejo. I've been lucky, as most of my British outline stuff has been bought at TCA meets here in the States. One locomotive was an E-Bay purchase, from a gent in New Jersey.

Of my three Hornby locomotives, one is clockwork, and the other two run well on AC, except that the PE requires at least 20 volts to move. I was running the Castle just this morning, and it ran well at 10 volts AC, pulling a Bassett Lowke RPO and three "Bing for Bassett Lowke" carriages. The headlight was barely lit!

Restoration Project

Nicely done! I have yet to take on a project of that scope.