Hornby Dublo....

[LarryG]

A bit of a shock when this arrived today for the usual treatment (varnishing to lift the green). I googled to see when Hornby Hobbies revived the old Hornby Dublo trading name, but it came up with nothing.

Interesting and rather nostalgic for a chap of my age. I had an early 1950's HD 'Duchess of Montrose' in BR green and a second hand pre-war 'Duchess of Athol' in maroon.

 

[LarryG]

Several light waft overs with much diluted clear cellulose has darkened the original chalky green and reduced the contrast between the boiler bands and the green...


This image taken indoors shows better the amount of added gloss to the original matt finish. To forestall a question, no it isn't for Llanfair Road... While matt suits many model locomotives, if I had a Duchess on my layout I would want it to look impressively shiny as befits a prestige locomotive...

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I googled to see when Hornby Hobbies revived the old Hornby Dublo trading name, but it came up with nothing.

Hornby used this 'retro' packaging for their 2020 centenary range. As well as the old red Tri-ang, red Rovex and later red/yellow Tri-ang HORNBY style packaging before adopting Hornby.

Hornby celebrates its FIRST 100 YEARS

 

[LarryG]

Hornby used this 'retro' packaging for their 2020 centenary range. As well as the old red Tri-ang, red Rovex and later red/yellow Tri-ang HORNBY style packaging before adopting Hornby.

Hornby celebrates its FIRST 100 YEARS

I'm grateful to you for this, as I was beginning to think I had drawn a blank. I have to fitted the extras so I hope the packaging doesn't break them off afterwards...

 

[Donald Campbell]

Well done Larry takes me back more years than will say
the Duchess looks first class love it .

Donald

 

[Robbie McGavin]

Hi Larry, just like a bad smell, I turn up. Nice to see you still about. The colours on the similar Hornby Dublo recent die-cast LMS Atholl are superb, and are down to the Goddard touch, I believe. Lovely stuff.

Robbie

 

[Focalplane]

Seeing this packaging also takes me back in time to visiting a farm in Cheshire where a schoolmate had a Princess Coronation in green livery on a three rail layout. Would have been about 1955. I desperately wanted a Hornby Dublo but got Triang Rovex for Christmas in a pseudo North American train set. Oh well, but a portent of my future life, perhaps?

Seeing this thread makes me want to finish the Finney7 Princess Correlation as a priority. But I have too many priorities at the moment.

And if you call them Duchesses in this house you are not a welcome guest, by the way! We called all of them Semis, whether they were or not, when standing trackside at Tamworth. Along with Joobs, Pates and Scots. And, of course the “Black Foives” (remember Janice, I’ll give it foive!) were always called Mickeys.

 

[LarryG]

A late friend of mine and author of many well penned articles once said, "How can anyone say a loco is semi-streamlined just because the top of the smokebox is missing?"

 

[Stephen Freeman]

Well I still have my Duchess of Montrose, though I did convert it to 2 rail some years ago and fitted a new magnet (much more powerful than the original and goes even better), however, in reality I only remember ever seeing them in maroon on the WCML and of course we all called them semis, what else would you?

 

[oldravendale]

Nicknames seem to be regional. In Norf London Princess Coronations (whether red or green) were Coros, Jubilees were Jubs, 3F 0-6-0 tanks were Jinties and A4s were streaks. Patriots were, of course, Pats. For some reason "Royal Scot" was never shortened - neither was "Princess", "West Country" (even when it was a Battle of Britain) or Merchant Navy, although a friend living in Hornsey called them "Merchants". LMS 2MT 2-6-0's were "Mickey Mouse" and the big Hughes Fowler 2-6-0s were "Crabs. However I never, ever, anywhere heard a GWR 47XX 2-8-0 called a Night Owl. They were certainly not uncommon on daytime duties anyway.

Brian

 

[Pannier Tank]

Nicknames seem to be regional.

During my spotting days at Bletchley, I referred to them as Duchesses.

 

[oldravendale]

That's a name in use even today, David. I was a little bit closer to London, as in 'arrer on the 'ill.

I forgot about the Britannias. They were "Brits".

B

 

[Focalplane]

Larry, we called them Semis without even knowing why! Our seniors probably knew but never explained. The regional slang for LMS locos is quite well documented and there were some weird exceptions in some places which I have mentioned before (Jinty = Dobbin in Nuneaton, for example).

I agree with Brian about the Night Owl name, we never saw them anyway if we went to bed at the right hour, so why would we have coined a nick name?

 

[LarryG]

Back in the 1930's, it was logical to differentiate between the red 5X's and the 5MT's.

 

[Pannier Tank]

Larry, we called them Semis without even knowing why!

I took it that it referred to former Streamlined Engines with the Streamlined Casing removed but still having a sloping smokebox. The sloping smokebox was subsequently removed and the term 'semi' no longer applied.

 

[Mikerc]

I was in "the field" at Tamworth and also at Crewe in 1958-61 and I only saw "Manchester and Lancaster" with the awful sloping smokeboxes but all of the Coronations were universally referred to by spotters as "Semis"(or if you were from Brummigen, as Simmies)............love to go back to those days!!
Mike