Hornby : 2017 - What a year!

Hello and welcome to the first Engine Shed blog of 2018! In this edition of your favourite model railway blog, we thought, as our heads clear from many counts of over indulgence during the festive period, we'd take a look back over the past year at some of the highlights of our Development Blog.

Now that all the decorations have all been cleared away and the mince pies have begun to turn in the staff kitchen, we can't help but reminisce about the goings on over the twelve months just gone. We've had so much fun getting to know more of you at numerous model rail shows up and down the country and bringing you regular updates on all our new 2017 items like, the Princess Coronation Class, Class 87 and Hitachi IEP Class 800, to name but a few.

Our stand just after our 2017 LIVE range launch at Warley 2016

This time last year we were still reeling in the post-Warley-high, which was, at the time at least, our biggest yet with our ground-breaking Facebook LIVE presentation, in which we announced the final new tooling's for 2017. The one that stole the show however, would have to be the Princess Coronation Class, and it was the first running sample of the Duchess that we kicked things off with at the end of January last year.

With the loco now available and on layouts up and down the country (we've seen some amazing shots of it uploaded to our Customer Image section), it is great to look back at old videos and photos of our first running samples - seeing the model in its stripped back form, with loose buffers and no rivet detail. Remembering how much hard work went into its development, we can sit back and be proud with how it's turned out. Of course, there were some hurdles to overcome along the way (we're glad we've all agreed on the maroon colour now) but ultimately, this is one of our most detailed and one of our favourite models to date.

BR 4-6-2 'Sir William A. Stanier F.R.S.' Princess Coronation Class by Peter Gower

Live updates from across the border

The start of the year would not be complete without our annual trip up across the border to Glasgow for Model Rail Scotland. For this show, after our trailblazing foray into the world of LIVE broadcasting, we wanted to bring you the best coverage of the show possible, and that meant regular 'on the fly' Engine Shed and Social Media updates over the course of the weekend.

Of course we had all of our latest models on show, but as always we were bowled over by all the layouts and collections on display by various societies in attendance.

With our full 2017 range now out in the open we enjoyed talking to everyone about what we had on offer and not only that, we were all celebrating picking up no fewer than FIVE awards in the annual British Model Railway Awards, including Overall Manufacturer of the Year and 00 Gauge Manufacturer of the Year! Needless to say, our award plaques took centre stage on our stand as well as models like the Peckett W4 which scooped up awards also.

Throughout the weekend we endeavoured to bring you regular updates from the show across our Social Media channels and here on the blog, including a visit by YouTube sensation IC82!

We'll be back in Glasgow again later this year and as always, it is set to be one of the highlights of our calendar. Here's a look back at our time there last February.

Behind the scenes of water labelling

It has been a well documented fact that one of the things we enjoy the most about The Engine Shed is our ability to take you behind the scenes in the Hornby Development office and give you a glimpse at how our models are developed and manufactured. This included pulling back the curtain on the design of one of most complex liveries to date. The one and only Hitachi IEP Class 800 Test Train.

As you'll have read, the livery is simply too complex to be applied using the tried and tested method of Tampo Printing and therefore we had to explore different ways of scaling down and accurately representing Hitachi's striking and eye-catching red and white creation. The method we turned to was water labelling. Well, in order to represent the livery as accurately as possible, we chose to apply the livery using both Tampo Printing AND water labelling, as we weren't entirely happy with some of the details on a completely water labelled livery. The GIF above shows you the different aspects of the design and which we've chosen to apply using water label and which we're tampo printing. In an Engine Shed exclusive we were very excited to show you some video direct from our factory showing the combination of the two different methods and how they are applied to one of the highlights of our 2017 range.

A touch of Class… 87

Another modeller favourite from our 2017 offering, and one that prompted a fair few gasps and cheers when it was originally announced from eager AC Electric fans, is of course the Class 87. Being one of the most requested models we've come across, it was exciting to be able to bring you every step of the model's development here in the Engine Shed, and our blog where we gave you a step by step of the building of the first engineering sample was in fact one of our most read blogs of 2017. Thousands of you logged on to see how our in-house R&D team meticulously and skilfully assemble these samples, which arrive to us much like an Airfix kit and help us asses the quality of the tooling.

The Class 87 featured in The Engine Shed a lot throughout 2017, and once again feedback from modellers who read the blog has directly influenced the development of the model. We will just say 'Battery box', and leave it there…

Whilst we have taken you through each stage of the development for the Class 87, it is no secret there have been some delays in shipping the final model. These delays have been unavoidable, but there is not long to go and we've just got receive the final approval samples and it will be all systems go. Look out for more updates coming soon but until then, take a look at the first Engineering sample in action on our friends at Hornby Magazine's show layout, as a little taster for what's to come.

Warley - our biggest yet.

The Warley National Model Railway Exhibition is one of our highlights of our calendar, and in 2017 we wanted to mark the occasion by bringing with us a very special guest. We'd been working with the chaps at The Bluebell Railway for many months leading up to Warley and they, along with the supremely talented team at Heritage Painting were busy preparing Bluebell's Wainwright H Class to museum standard, ready to make its way up to the NEC for the weekend.

We've seen so many photos of our stand from the weekend and it's great that in almost all of them is the looming presence of the H Class in the background, centre stage and gleaming in it's glossy green finish. The weekend was a tremendous success with hundreds of you coming on to the stand to talk about models old and new. As always it was great to see so many families and children embracing the hobby and some familiar faces also. The weekend flew past and now work must begin again, it's back to the drawing board to see how we can top it next year! Below is a little flashback to when the H Class was loaded up at Bluebell and when it made its entrance to the NEC back in November.

Turning 60 isn't so bad

We'll be honest, when we first launched The Engine Shed back in March 2015 the idea of releasing our 60 edition was too far off to even take seriously. But in August this year, our 60 edition went live, and with it, a very special announcement.

It's fair to say out Peckett W4 model took the railway modelling world by storm, so we thought what better way to celebrate than to announce not one, but TWO new liveries for 2018, the Peckett Works Livery No. 560/1893 and Peckett Willams and Robinson No. 882/1902 'NICLAUSSE'.

With today's edition marking edition number 66, we're extremely excited to share regular updates on how we are progressing with our other 2018 models with you over the course of this year. 'But what are those 2018 models?' we hear you cry! Well, it is no secret now, we are pleased to say we will be revealing our entire 2018 range on 8 January 2018 at 10AM! We're aware that many of you were disappointed that there were no big revelations at Warley last year, but with so many 2017 models still to be released we wanted to save our announcements and kick 2018 off with a bang!

So that about does it for another blog. These have been our highlights of 2017, but what have been yours? What are you hoping to see in our big range launch on 8 January? As always we love to hear your feedback so be sure to leave it in the usual places (Facebook, Twitter and our Official Forum).

Until next time, and until next year…

Happy Modelling!

The Engine Shed Team

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