Yeah, I know.... it's technically the 374 Class! :laughing:

The set is the Railroad version of the Blue Rapier which is atrocious quality. This is not like the normal one Hornby do/did which costed around £150. The Railroad range was meant to be a cheap way to get into Hornby but it has ended up still being too expensive.

In general Hornby's pricing is insane because the trains are massively overpriced considering the cost of manufacture. They are never going to get kids interested at these prices plus there needs to be more new trains like the E320 rather than reissuing Victorian stuff.

It's mostly railroad stuff on their sale, which is fine for me as a newbie but would be great to have some of the real McCoy on there.

The comment thread in here reminds me of something

I find myself in a real quandry with Hornby trainsets and similarly Scalextric sets.
When I was a kid other toys were pretty crappy, so you went out, played football in the alley, played war at the park and so on.
In the winter months when the light was bad and the grass was sodden you needed inside toys that could keep a few of you happy for a few hours while mum cooked tea.
The alternative toys (space invaders for example was an insanely bright red display and 2 control options L-R and fire) were fairly uninteresting after a while, I've never been a reader so a decent slot car set and my hornby (and was it Lima?) trains were good entertainment.
They have not moved on at all, unless you spend hundreds and hundreds on the digital sets, but the alternative indoor toys have move on exponentially, X box/PS is a technical wonder that is almost limitless, radio control now extends to helicoptors and drones (oppposed to the tamiya grasshopper that I lusted after each Christmas!).
I brought my slot car stuff down from the loft, miles and miles of track added to the "silverstone" base set, set it up and remembered the very simple secret to winning every single race, yawn, my lad thought it was hilarious for a while but soon got jarred off with fetching his mk1 Escort back from across the room at the end of hanger straight.
2 years ago I bought him the olympic trainset from hornby, plasticky feel, pretty poorly made to be honest, again it just didnt hold any longevity.
Back in the day these kind of toys were a real headline act, the stuff of wonder, envy and desire at playgrounds across the land, now they are but ordinary toys that hold little excitement and are primarill (I suspect) bought by Dad's trying to relive their youth through their offspring.
Sad times, or maybe I have over thought the whole thing and just need to get of HUKD for a couple of days.

True, the Hornby sets aren't the same quality they used to be, but then lets face it what is these days, almost everything is made to a price point to sell, shame.On the other hand, would model railways still be as popular today if they weren't?.I was never into model railways as a kid, but my son was always a Thomas fan, and naturally when he was old enough we got a set like this to test the water with for Christmas about 5 years ago.Fast forward to now, and we have a decent layout mostly built using parts from sets like this, Metcalfe kits, etc, so personally I think no matter what, these are brilliant value, and not too expensive to be worth trying, and of course children will relate to this, more than an old Hornby / Lima BR HST.
Have some heat! :wink:

If you click onto their Black Friday pages they've got some really good prices various coaches half price down to £9.99, there's the Caledonian tank engine for £13.99, even The Flying Scotsman is reduced to £49.99.

Sadly this entry level Hornby stuff is nothing like the stuff I got as a child which luckily I still have some of, it's made to a price point and it really shows BUT they are designed for a kids first foray into model railways.

I've bought a couple of sets cheap prior to this and I got my old stuff out to clean it up and service it and the kids have been going mad for it saying they really want to play with it etc so dead chuffed that i've got them some for Christmas. I suggest if you want better quality stuff pick it up second hand from ebay or checkout Gumtree etc

that is cheap if you are after some extra track and an extra train

That's dirt cheap, but a crap set - very poor quality.

Good for the kids, but you'd be better looking elsewhere if it's something you're adding to your collection