Hornby R9271 00 Gauge Thomas & Friends Passenger Train Set

My son is fanatical about trains and he is now old enough for a Hornby. He was lucky enough to get 3 sets in one year (birthday and Xmas) as presents from family, The Devon Flyer, Eurostar and Thomas sets.

They all have most of the same plus points and minus points.

Plus –

They are great fun for any train loving child (or adult)

They can be converted to digital (at extra cost) which makes it able to run multiple trains on the same line

They can be extended and added to, to create a toy that should last years

Minus-

These will not last years, barely hours. They are made in China (not always bad), however in this case they are of very inferior quality. The engine is just a 12v DC motor in a train shell – how hard can that be?

The Devon Flyer lasted 1 hour before the motor burned out

The combinations of transformer and control box (just a variable resistor in a plastic box) which provide the power are very unreliable on sets and work intermittently. I will look to replace these with a unit I will build myself from Maplin components. How do you explain to a child that this is broken on Christmas morning, 1 hour into playing with it?

Also several couplings broke on all of the sets.

Overall, very disappointing that such a profitable company should resort to such cost-cutting at the expense of quality. I will buy other brand 00 Gauge trains from now on for my kids. Hornby are expensive and very poor quality.
Rating: 1 / 5