To celebrate Hornby's Centenary TIM SHACKLETON looks back at the profound influence the Hornby brand has had at key of his 60-year modelling career.
Above: Box artwork from a Hornby-Dublo train set. For me this image captures perfectly the sheer magic of railways. Note the eye-level viewpoint - far and away the best way to watch model trains.
WHEN I WAS AROUND ten years old there were three things that mattered more to me than anything – Halifax Rugby League Football Club, the trains that ran along the Calder Valley main line, and my Hornby-Dublo model railway.
The ‘Fax were on a roll at the time and my father knew Garfield Owen, their full-back. Our section of the Calder Valley was still entirely steam-worked (other than the DMUs that ran between Bradford and Huddersfield) and visits to the lineside would regularly produce ‘Jubilees’, ‘Patriots’ and named ‘B1s’ with, on summer Saturdays, the bonus of ‘9Fs’ on holiday trains for Blackpool. As the 1950s became the 1960s, Hornby-Dublo was going great guns, and the introduction of well-detailed injection-moulded rolling stock and diesel locomotive bodies had lifted their range (and my expectations) to fresh heights.
I came to Hornby Dublo at a good time. Since I was six or seven I…
