The latest locomotive to join our fleet is this Hornby celebrity Class 66 - 66731 'Capt. Tom Moore', Catalogue Nº 30069.
When Hornby first launched this model at the end of April, as a way to thank, not only Captain Tom Moore (now a Sir and an honorary Colonel) and the NHS but also GB Railfreight, they initially planned to produce just 500 models.
Well, within a day, it was obvious that demand was such that the number became 1000 and, then, 1500.
By the next day it was clear that this would still not be enough so the number went up to 2000.
Hornby eventually confirmed that the total number of models would be 3500 and even these quickly sold out.
My model arrived earlier this week and, sad to say, many have already appeared on eBay at around twice the original price of £80. Many people, wholly predictably, buying these models in order to make a fast and vast profit - shame on you all!
Such a fate will not befall my loco, however, and she has already been fitted with a Hornby TTS sound decoder and I have just uploaded a video onto YouTube of her in action.
Clearly, at the price Hornby were charging, compromises have had to be made and she has nowhere near the amount of detailing found on other Class 66 models, notably by Bachmann and Hattons.
She has no working lights and lacks a decent amount of weight so that her pulling power suffers as a consequence.
Fitting the TTS decoder was simplicity itself as the body just clips to the chassis and is very easy to remove.
There is also lots of space inside the body for a decent sized speaker and, maybe, the addition of extra weights to improve haulage capacity, if desired.
She is certainly the most modern loco that we have on the railway, which actually began life in the BR Blue era but which has slowly morphed to entertain a much more eclectic mix of motive power.
Our 66 will predominantly be handling freight, such as the ballast hoppers shown here, but not exclusively so. Indeed, she was working a passenger train at the weekend and seemed to handle that with great aplomb!
When Hornby first launched this model at the end of April, as a way to thank, not only Captain Tom Moore (now a Sir and an honorary Colonel) and the NHS but also GB Railfreight, they initially planned to produce just 500 models.
Well, within a day, it was obvious that demand was such that the number became 1000 and, then, 1500.
By the next day it was clear that this would still not be enough so the number went up to 2000.
Hornby eventually confirmed that the total number of models would be 3500 and even these quickly sold out.
My model arrived earlier this week and, sad to say, many have already appeared on eBay at around twice the original price of £80. Many people, wholly predictably, buying these models in order to make a fast and vast profit - shame on you all!
Such a fate will not befall my loco, however, and she has already been fitted with a Hornby TTS sound decoder and I have just uploaded a video onto YouTube of her in action.
Clearly, at the price Hornby were charging, compromises have had to be made and she has nowhere near the amount of detailing found on other Class 66 models, notably by Bachmann and Hattons.
She has no working lights and lacks a decent amount of weight so that her pulling power suffers as a consequence.
Fitting the TTS decoder was simplicity itself as the body just clips to the chassis and is very easy to remove.
There is also lots of space inside the body for a decent sized speaker and, maybe, the addition of extra weights to improve haulage capacity, if desired.
She is certainly the most modern loco that we have on the railway, which actually began life in the BR Blue era but which has slowly morphed to entertain a much more eclectic mix of motive power.
Our 66 will predominantly be handling freight, such as the ballast hoppers shown here, but not exclusively so. Indeed, she was working a passenger train at the weekend and seemed to handle that with great aplomb!
Finally, Hornby were able to donate a whopping £140,000 to the NHS through sales of this model.
So, a very big thank you to Captain Tom Moore, the NHS, GB Railfreight and, of course, Hornby!
So, a very big thank you to Captain Tom Moore, the NHS, GB Railfreight and, of course, Hornby!
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