Happy Birthday Mr. Hornby

Today, the 15th of May 2013, is the 150th anniversary of Mr Frank Hornby, who invented Meccano construction sets, and of course, Hornby Trains.  As such, he had a HUGE impact on the childhoods of countless boys, and the Hornby name remains one of the leading names in model trains.  Needless to say, my first 'proper' train set was a Hornby Dublo (00 gauge), built on an 8' X 4' table.  It was a very sad day indeed when I learnt that the Meccano empire- the makers of Hornby- had been taken over, and that there would be no more proper Hornby trains produced.  Little did I know that 50 years on from that sad event there are still lots of Hornby trains available courtesy of auction sites such as ebay, and therefore it is still possible to build a very nice Hornby layout or collection.  There is a very active organisation with members all over the world called the Hornby Railway Collectors' Association  (HRCA) which does a very good job of keeping the name alive, and produces an excellent monthly magazine.

Incidentally, it is often joked about that it is very fortunate that Mr Hornby had such an acceptable name, after which his products were named!  I'm sure readers can think of many less suitable names!!  Good on you Mr Hornby, and thanks for the many hours of fun I've had with your trains!!