Hornby

I teased it last week but to my surprise, you reacted with encouragement so this week our Video of the Week is about British model trains. The video we have below is one part of The Joy of Train Sets. Don’t worry, the other parts are linked further down. This 2012 documentary is from BBC Four’s Timeshift series. Fully titled The Model Railway Story: From Hornby to Triang and Beyond, this documentary explores how the British have been in love with model railways for more than a century. What began as an adult obsession with building fully-engineered replicas became the iconic toy of the 1950s and 60s childhood. With unique archive and contributions from modelers such as Pete Waterman, this is a celebration of the joys of miniaturization. Just don’t call them toy trains.

Yes, another famous name in the manufacture of British cars has been sold – although this time on a much smaller scale. Model railway maker Hornby is continuing its expansion in the hobby market by buying up toy-car firm Corgi. Hornby, which originally made its name with model railways, paid £7.5 million for the model car firm, which though originally a British brand was owned by a US company. “We are pulling together the hobby elements of the British toy industry,” Hornby chief executive Frank Martin told the Guardian. The firm also owns Scalextric, a brand that has been making a come back with Formula 1 and film tie-ins. It has also bought plastic model firm Airfix and Humbrol paints. Martin hopes to use the formula that has worked for Scalextric for the Corgi models, hoping that not only will […]