Hornby

Hornby is a British model railway company. It launched its official Thomas & Friends range in March 1985, shortly after the debut of the television series, consisting of a series of 00 gauge model railway engines, track, accessories and box sets based on the series. The track and couplers were Hornby's standard; therefore, the range was compatible with other Hornby products. It primarily utilised modified versions of existing Hornby engines and rolling stock to produce replicas of Thomas characters.

In 2014, the range was discontinued, with Hornby releasing a statement saying that it was "under review". In 2015, Hornby reintroduced the Thomas line with selected models, rolling stock and sets released in December 2015 and into 2016. The reintroduced models retain their original faces; Edward, Gordon and James received improved tender driven motors and Henry was upgraded with a loco driven chassis, which allowed for being equipped for Digital Command Control (DCC) via a standard 8-pin socket.

The Thomas & Friends range was retired at the end of 2018. The company said it was due to "changing trends and toy safety age restrictions". As of 2019, Bachmann secured the rights to distribute their HO/OO scale products in the UK and Ireland with further availability expanding in 2020.

Parts from Hornby's 00 gauge models were used to make the engines and rolling stock for the 1953 television adaptation of The Sad Story of Henry.

Train Sets
The newer sets were supplied with a "Midi-Mat" with printed scenery and track layout, enough track to create a basic oval, one or two engines and rolling stock, a transformer, controller, and a power clip. Customers were encouraged to purchase further Thomas-branded "track packs", "building packs" and other models to complete the layout printed on the mat. The older sets had cut out figures (such as the Fat Controller) and tunnel and the sets also advertised the buildings and accessories within the range.

Clockwork Train Sets, Locomotives, Rolling Stock, Buildings and Accessories
Hornby also produced Thomas and some of his friends in clockwork form. The sets were available as 'Playtrains' (plastic track) or as standard Hornby track. The playtrain coaches and wagons had simple up and down couplings and plastic playtrain wheels which meant that they were not compatible with standard Hornby track. The rolling stock on the normal Hornby 00 gauge track clockwork sets was exactly the same as the electric versions.

1985

 * Thomas Passenger Set - plastic track
 * Thomas Passenger Set - metal track
 * Thomas Goods Set - plastic track
 * Thomas Goods Set - metal track
 * Percy Goods Set - plastic track
 * Percy Goods Set - metal track

Additional sections of playtrain track including points and buffers were available.

1995
The clockwork playtrain sets now had the normal Hornby logo rather than the Playtrains logo.

1997

 * Bertie
 * Annie and Clarabel were available separately

1998
This year saw a revamp in the clockwork Thomas system. The system was now only available as clockwork 'Playtrains'. Thomas' chassis was remodelled to an 0-6-0 chassis rather than the inaccurate 0-4-0 previously carried. Also, the plastic track had a totally new design. The models, accessories, and sets were as follows:


 * Toby
 * Bill
 * Ben
 * Troublesome Truck 1
 * Troublesome Truck 2
 * Thomas No.1 Set
 * Thomas and Ben Wind-up Train Set
 * Signal Box/Water Tower pack
 * Thomas Station
 * Turntable pack

In 2003, the entire clockwork system was retired from the Thomas line.

Trivia

 * In the early 1980s, Hornby reused an existing tooling of a generic 0-4-0 steam locomotive to produce several push-along locomotives under the "Playtrains" brand. These included blue locomotives named "Thomas" and "Gordon", a green locomotive named "Percy", and a red locomotive named "James". These did not have faces and were probably not officially licensed. More info can be found on Dave Angell's website.
 * The Hornby range is the longest-running brand of merchandise in the history of Thomas & Friends to date, spanning 33 years from the early days of the television series in 1985 to 2018.
 * The 1997, 1998 and 1999 Hornby catalogues are the only catalogues that did not illustrate the Thomas & Friends range since its debut in 1985. Instead, the range was listed in the price lists and published its own catalogues.
 * Thomas (clockwork and 0-4-0 shell only), Percy, Toby, Bill and Ben are the only engines to have their tooling created from scratch, as a result, these are the most accurate television series looking characters to date, with Thomas (clockwork/free-rolling) and Percy being the closest to their first series models (although Percy is eight millimetres too long).
 * Bertie is the only non-rail Thomas character to have been released.
 * Flying Scotsman, Bear, Spencer and Murdoch have sprung buffers, whilst Spencer and Murdoch have detailed handrails and loco drive motors. This is likely due to them being made using newer toolings than some of the locomotives made before them.
 * The Thomas and Bertie Battery Powered set was later reused as a Fireman Sam set with different figures, vehicles and scenery.
 * The close-up pictures on the prototype box cover of the musical Thomas set showed pictures from Hornby's station master train set, as using the same tooling. The same set was later used as the 'My first Hornby' set.
 * Hornby also made toys for one of The Britt Allcroft Company's other major productions, The Magic Adventures of Mumfie.
 * There have been several instances where the Hornby Thomas range has been featured in pop-culture:
 * In 2014, when artist Jenny Bell decided to paint a mural of the nativity at Nottingham railway station for Christmas, she added a golden model of Thomas into the picture, using the wind-up model of him as a guide, akin to how the Rev's models were used for the book illustrations.
 * The blue open wagon featured in "Mr. Perkins' Railway".
 * A model of Percy along with the Troublesome Trucks made a cameo at the Choo Choo Barn in "All About Fast Trains", and "A Wonderful American Journey with Thomas and Connie".
 * A model of GWR No. 101 which was made by Hornby was seen in the episode "Mr. Perkins' Railway Lesson" as part of the Engine Driver Segments.
 * Thomas' model originally came fitted with traction tyres on the centre wheels which helps give the model grip on the rails. However, these have been omitted from Thomas models produced in recent years, likely to improve its running performance.
 * Thomas' 1985 model had a face that resembles his appearance in The Railway Series, but was changed the following year to match his appearance in the television series. Earlier models of Thomas also featured the red lining on his back.
 * Thomas and Percy's models originally had a blue and green running board respectively, but since their 2015 re-releases, they have both gained a splash of white, Thomas on his front valance and Percy up to the front of his cab.
 * In 2016, Thomas gained a lamp on the front of his running board.
 * Henry was the last model to be produced with bright plating on his wheel tyres, connecting rods and valve gear along with having bare metal handrails. His initial release also marks the last production run of the whole range with these same features before the change to darker plating and black painted handrails began in 2003. Some of the first models produced with this darker plating have their production dates on the leaflet inside the models box as 2003 but have 2004 printed on the underside of their chassis.
 * Henry's body came from a revised tooling Hornby made for their Black 5 model in the early 1990s. This was different from the previous version of their Black 5 with the new one having slightly more detail as well as two rectangular holes in both sides of the boiler saddle. These holes now made the boiler look to have a sudden cut off so a separate piece was made to go inside the body to complete the roundness of the boiler. This body type was only seen with the previously mentioned first production run of Henry that had bright plating and bare metal handrails as later releases of Henry had the rectangular holes filled in. This was most likely done as the separate piece was not moulded in the same green as his body but was instead moulded in black, making the intended effect difficult to see and it would have been more labour intensive to paint each piece to match the body. Altering the tooling to have the holes filled in and removing the need for the separate piece entirely made the most sense.
 * Henry's 2016 re-release is the only tender engine in the revised Hornby Thomas range to be given a loco driven chassis, while the 2016 Edward, Gordon and James models have improved tender driven motors.
 * Gordon's prototype model had a different face when he was featured in the 1986 catalogue. Duck and Diesel's prototype models also share this distinction in the 1987 catalogue.
 * The original Gordon models (1986-2013) had oval buffers, whereas the 2016-2017 present models have round buffers.
 * Percy's prototype model was originally a modified Caledonian Pug, but it was decided to use a new-build tooling, likely to make it look closer to his appearance in the television series.
 * Toby's model is oversized and is too tall to fit under most shed doors and tunnels because of this.
 * On Duck's model:
 * His handrails are painted gold, similar to his earlier appearances in the second series.
 * His wheel arches are green, when they should be painted black.
 * Oliver and Stepney's models state 2004 underneath them, despite not being released until 2005. It is likely that they were meant for release in 2004, but were delayed to the following year.
 * Bill and Ben's models are oversized and their prototype models had yellow wheels.
 * Stepney and Class 40's buffers are black instead of silver.
 * Flying Scotsman appears in the Railway Series and Television Series with two tenders, but the Hornby model only has one. The lining on his tender is incorrectly shaped as if it was for a Fowler tender.
 * Emily's coal load is removable.
 * Murdoch's name is written in black on his nameplates instead of gold/yellow.
 * On Spencer's model:
 * The wheels and tender corridor are black.
 * He has a Kylchap double-chimney as opposed to a single one.
 * His tender buffer-beam is red.
 * The 2008 model had silver handrails, while the 2012 version had black handrails.
 * For unknown reasons, 'Arry and Bert's faces look like Splatter and Dodge's. Interestingly, however, their prototype faces resemble that of their Ertl faces. Their prototype models also had red buffer-beams.
 * Dart is the only CGI character to be introduced into Hornby's range.
 * Dart's model has side rods, due to using an inaccurate tooling.
 * In addition to that, Dart is also far taller than he is depicted in the show.
 * The brown first series style Troublesome Open Wagon originally had a 5 plank wagon tooling, but its non-faced replacement has a 7 plank tooling.
 * Although the milk tanker usually carried blue lettering, several earlier models were done with red lettering; these are extremely rare and are likely to be factory errors.
 * Oddly, earlier releases of the cattle wagon carried the words "TO BE RETURNED TO LEWES" on it; this was removed on the 2005 re-release.
 * The mail coach originally had four wheels due to being tooled from a CCT van, though not of southern origin as the show ones were; however now the mail coaches have eight after being reintroduced in the Percy and the Mail Train Set using the toolings of the existing Royal Mail Operating Coach.
 * Toad is painted brown instead of grey.
 * The prototype models of Spencer's coaches were LNER Gresley coaches painted red.
 * The stickers on Bertie's 2005 model are different from those on his 1988 model.
 * Toby, Bill and Ben all share a chassis designed specifically for them which can be in either 0-6-0 or 0-4-0 configurations respectively.
 * D7101 (Bear) is the only character exclusively from the Railway Series to be released from Hornby.
 * Although Hornby had sold OO gauge models of Oliver, Hornby also sold an OO gauge model outside the Thomas & Friends range of a 14xx (Oliver's basis) in BR green with the number 1436, Oliver's number from the Railway Series.
 * The Prototype images of "The Great Discovery Collector Buildings" series were Behind the Scenes.
 * Stanley's Shed is depicted with one less window on each side.
 * The Thomas model made for the Thomas and Bertie set has a variation with flanged wheels, similar to the 0-4-0 clockwork engine. However, they likely got quickly replaced; no-one is quite sure whether it was a first production run or simply just an error. In any case they are very rare and hard to come by and so far only YouTube user flyingtardis is known to own one of these. However, another was sited by YouTube user Blue Tank Engine Pictures a while ago.
 * Thomas' 0-4-0 model was reintroduced as a generic 0-4-0T without a face in 2009 for Hornby's Railroad range, now produced in a variety of liveries; these include:
 * "Billy" in red with yellow lining
 * No.629 in LBSCR umber
 * "Mosley Tarmacadam" in lined black
 * No.43209 in BR lined black
 * Transatlantic Industries No.585 in green with yellow lining
 * Queen Elizabeth II No.60 in brown with white lining
 * Hornby's James model was a tooling modified in a similar fashion to the Reverend W. Awdry's model by re-using a Tri-ang 3F with extended running board and pony wheel fitted to the front.
 * Emily, although based on a GNR Stirling Single, was inaccurately made from a GWR Dean Single. This is due to Hornby not producing a Stirling Single, even though many other versions of "Singles" do exist.
 * D261 (A.K.A. The Diesel) is inaccurately depicted as a BR Class 37 rather than a BR Class 40. The year after D261's Hornby model was produced Hornby would acquire Lima, who made a Class 40 model with the number D261 in the years prior.
 * Edward, Gordon and James all have Southern tenders fitted rather than LMS Fowler tenders, which is strange due to the aforementioned Tri-ang 3F (as well as Hornby's own Midland Railway compound) having a Fowler tender.
 * Märklin HO scale Thomas series was the Hornby models with additional pickup shoes. Therefore, they were only available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
 * In the most recent Hornby "The Collector" Magazine (Issue 128 - Summer 2021), Hornby released an article about tooling recycling of various models in the Thomas Range, including a rare glimpse of a Prototype 0-4-0 Electric Thomas made out of Plastikard.
 * Some of the information in this Hornby article is inaccurate, as it incorrectly mentions that said prototype and the clockwork bodies were one and the same. YouTube user Johns Amazing Trains - chambs123 discusses the different toolings of Thomas in this video.
 * Despite Mavis appearing as an artwork on the packagings, she was never made by Hornby.