2015: What a year!

Hello and welcome to 2016! What better way to work off last night’s excesses than with a trip down memory lane from 2015, and a look into what we'll be featuring in Engine Shed this coming year. So kick back, relax and enjoy.

As we look back at 2015, one thing is certain, things are always busy in The Engine Shed and we hope we have given you a little more insight into the workings of our development office, what goes into researching and designing our products and with any luck, answered some of those questions you might have had about the design process.

Our first ever The Engine Shed blog post back on 17th March 2015

It all started back in March (we can’t quite believe it either) with a little taster of things to come, and the comments we received straight away on our forum (in addition to other forums) were positive:

“Sounds great, I'm looking forward to seeing the development of the Merchant Navy loco.” - Official Hornby Forum user JohnnyGee

“An exciting new approach, I welcome this.” - Official Hornby Forum user LC&DR

“I like this. I like the ability to be involved in and to communicate with and contribute with the people that make the models.” - Official Hornby Forum user Hush hush

The Engine Shed marked a major change in how we communicate with our customers, and caused a few anxious conversations here at Hornby before we launched, so we were thrilled that people were out there, getting behind our new idea. It was something that we’d been wanting to do for a while, and to know people were excited to hear what we in the Development Team had to say was a relief to say the least!

The Stereo Sample of the Class 71 as seen for the first time in The Engine Shed 17th April 2015

Over the next months we looked at the development journey of the S15 Class, Class 71, the 6000 King Class and the Merchant Navy, until one day in May, Frank Hornby’s Birthday in fact, when we tried something a little different. We had toyed with the idea of announcing something earlier than our usual time in December for a while, and in fact the King and Merchant Navy were announced earlier than planned, but there was buzz around the office about the fact we’d been given this platform and at the same time, with the help of our Social Media Team, a perfect opportunity to make the odd announcement! And that’s exactly what we did.

Our first exclusive announcement! The Collett 'Bow Ended' Standard 57' Corridor Stock Coaches were announced in The Engine Shed on 15th May 2015.

“Wowww!!! I never expected that. Blown away...! It was an interesting read. Good going Hornby.” - Official Hornby Forum user AJ Models.

“Fascinating blog as ever - however it surely means that those late-December days of speculating the following year's range is more or less over.” - Official Hornby Forum user Alessio.

“Well done to Hornby for announcing this!! I will definitely be buying at least a few to go with the King!” - Official Hornby Forum user IntercityModelRail.

The announcements just kept on coming, albeit after a (deliberate) brief cameo in an Adam’s Radial video...

A video of the First Running Sample of the Adams Radial - look closely in the background!

The official announcement of the Ex-LSWR 48' Maunsell Rebuilt 58' Coaches followed soon afterwards.

It’s been great fun announcing items earlier than planned as we are able to take a look at your comments during the development process, which sometimes brings to light a few tweaks that can be made before the models go into production. This is perhaps something that we’re most proud of with The Engine Shed, our ability to use the wealth of knowledge that our fans possess to directly influence our designs.

That’s exactly what we did with the the Peckett & Sons W4 0-4-0ST. The truth is, we needed your input. What with the sheer number of variations of this particular loco, tracking down reliable photographs of the different liveries proved to be tough. That is where you came in. Thanks to hundreds of suggestions on our Forum we're slowly building up more of an idea of how the final models will look - we are not in a position to divulge exactly what they are yet, but watch this space, all will be revealed soon! Whilst we have a fair idea of the chosen livery, there is still time to submit the one you really want to see. Head to our Official Forum and upload any reliable colour photos you might have of a W4 Peckett and you never know, it could be running around your layout before long!

A render and Painted Stereo Sample of R3428 Peckett 0-4-0ST

And so, on New Year’s Day we look forward to the coming year. With the 2016 range announced, it is heads down and concentration time in the Hornby Development office as we continue with research and design of the Collett Coaches, Ex-LSWR coaches, Merchant Navy, Class 71 and… well the list just goes on! We of course will be here giving you up-to-date information about our 2016 models and their progress and we may have a few surprises for you along the way. Plus, you can look forward to a series of exclusive announcements about our 2017 models throughout the year…

Well, we hope you've enjoyed our whistle stop (pun intended) look back on 2015. As far as receiving samples and development updates is concerned, we're just coming out of a brief quiet Christmas period here at Hornby HQ, but looking over our schedule for the next few months, we have some VERY exciting things to show you!

How was 2015 for you? Have you enjoyed reading The Engine Shed as much as we’ve enjoyed writing it? What would you like to see more of in 2016? Would you like to see anything different?

Well, to get the New Year off to a great start we are offering £100 to spend on the Hornby website for the best suggested topic or idea for The Engine Shed in 2016. Simpy let us know your suggestion on our Official Forum and on Facebook and Twitter - our crack team of judges will pick their favourite and the winner will receive a £100 giftcard. Entries need to be submitted by 5.00pm GMT Thursday 14th January 2016, and the winner will be announced in the next Engine Shed.

Well that’s all from us, there must be another mince pie around somewhere that needs eating. The diet starts tomorrow…

Happy New Year!

The Engine Shed Team