Best Price Square HORNBY CALEDONIAN BELLE BPSCA R1151 - LH03989 By HORNBY

Now having a son of my own, I decided it was time to indulge myself in a lifelong desire to buy my own child a 'right of passage' Hornby train set. Thomas is only 2 years and 8 months old so is very young and needs constant supervision but he will 'grow into it' and this is a good starter set.Hornby have been transmogrified many times over the years but incrediibly are still British company though the products are made in China, no surprise there.This is great value set and well made (but see below) and in terms of 'bangs for bucks' globalisation has meant that you get for more for your money. You get a locomotive, a loop of track and two pieces of rolling stock. Also a useful layout mat. The only problem (and why this gets 4 stars not 5) is the cheap and nasty contoller unit. It is a transformer and a simple rheostat with a polarity reverser switch so the train can have its speed contolled and be reversed. Poor construction is an understatement. It is flaky in operation. The cut-out (caused by the regular short circuits on a train set) is always tripping and you have to disconnnect it from the mains for one minute for it to reset rather than having a simpler reset switch. Construction is poor - unlike the lovely locomotive and carriages which are very nice for the money. The transformer / controller unit costs about £30 retail as a separate purchase which is a joke (more than half the price of this set!) - it looks like it costs £5 to make. The first thing I did was I bought an older version of the controller second hand on the well known auction site. It was 20 years old, solidly made and worked like a dream.

I bought this as a Christmas present for my husband, and it has been a great success. We have both enjoyed playing with it, and are currently building the layout together too.One thing I would suggest is that rather than buy the plastic buildings and scenery, take a look around and either get yourself some of the excellent ready-cut card kits available for stations and other buildings, or take a look online and download some to print out and make up. You will be able to add something different to your layout.There is sufficient track here for a simple oval layout with a siding, although the image on the plastic mat provided does not quite fit the track once you lay it out, which I feel does detract from the look of the thing. However, the mat is really there only to give you an idea so I recommend you rapidly dispense with it and build your own layout as soon as possible. If you are lucky enough to be able to find a good model railway shop within reasonable travelling distance I also recommend a trip there for advice.All in all an excellent starter set which will enable you to have fun from the word go. Well worth the price!

i bought this at around 50 quid as i needed a spare little shunter and another power supply and controller, which would have cost around 45 quid on their own.I got some spare curves, short straight a couple of little wagons for a couple of extra quid when buying this.i have noticed some things though.....the quality of the detail on the wagons isn't as good as those i have of around ten years old. even though they look like the same moulding they look a little less "sharp"the transformer doesn't push out as much power as the older (larger) type ... i tried an older one on this new controller and the speed and overall grunt of the engine was increased quite a bit, as was low level speed consistency.the engine itself isnt as fast as the older ones of the same type either ..... but as you're simulating a scale speed this isn't a problem ... just needed mentioning.Overall it's a great little starter kit with a few little normal hornby issues but worth 50 quid in my opinion.

My little boy is train mad and had been asking for a Hornby train set for the past few birthdays. We finally got him one for his 7th birthday. The track is a little fiddly for him to get together so he needed some help. Once located on the track, the train runs really smoothly. I was worried that it might come off easily, causing frustration, but it doesn’t. The train comes with the trakmat which I hadn’t expected, so that was a nice surprise! We have one extremely happy little boy who is now busy planning expansions!

My son loves this - it's his first bit of Hornby railway and he was very taken with it this Christmas. The controller is my only complaint - doesn't always work. We have not used the mat that comes in the box and we have added on some extra track. I can see my living room being taken over by this by the time we get to next Christmas!

A really nice little OO gauge starter set from Hornby for children of all ages (including 51 year old me). The track mat is rather on the large side (about 51/2' x 3' (roughly))so please make sure you have the room to lay it down somewhere. If space is an issue you might wish to look into N gauge starter sets instead.

Got this for my Dad for Christmas as I remember him going on about used to having a train set and wishing he'd had one again.He loved it. Took a bit of fiddling but got it working eventually.Only tip - if you buy one for use in the house. Get a nice solid bit of flat wood to build this on.It'll run smoothly then and not pick up bits of dust, stays flat and not liable to contours of a dodgy table, etc etc.

Lovely train set for grandsons birthday, easy to put together. Will buy other bits & bobs to add to set

Bought this for my two grandsons for Christmas and as my brother had a Hornby as a child this was the deciding factor. Put it together on Christmas Eve afternoon and I found to my horror/disappointment discovered it did not work. My grandsons are 5 and 7. Contacted Amazon on the chat line and another set is promised for the 30th. I cannot describe my dismay (understatement), that this major present for two little boys was not working. Tried it on wooden flooring as well as tiling. Lesson for anyone purchasing this set is to check it out in advance of giving as gift. Amazon reacted speedily and I appreciate it is Christmas but it was a gift and I am so disappointed.

My 7 year-old granddaughter told me she wanted an electric train. This was difficult for me as she lives in London and I am in the US. I took a guess when I chose this particular train set and my son told me it's exactly what they wanted. He said it's well made and he enjoyed setting it up for the girls. I plan to add some more cars and other extras in the future.

This set is amazing, the new controller unit is great, the new powered track is execellant as it easily powers the complete track layout you make with all the track packs, just need some power wires to link the loops. As for the Caledonian Belle, it is a beautiful, well made Locomotive im going to have a great time building this set, Flying Scotsman here I come!

The media could not be loaded.  I ordered this set but it wasnt available so was offered the GWR one instead. It looks great but the engine won't stay on the track,we managed after quite a few hours to get it to go round a few times but it cant pull even one truck or carriage without derailing in seconds. Disappointing especially as this was a Santa present for my daughter

Nice little starter set with everything we needed. Really liked that the train came with both a carriage and a wagon. The track went together smoothly and it runs really well.Couple of down points - the track supplied doesn't line up with any of the track rings on the map (not enough straight bits vs curved) so we quickly bought a track pack add on. Also the controller seems a bit temperamental, needing to be unplugged and plugged in again. This could be an issue with some of the old trains we are running from my husband's childhood.

My wife bought this starter set for me as I am now disabled. The price was excellent and great delivery. The item was very securely packaged and arrived on the exact date as told. The entire unit was great and easy to build and I have since added lots of extras. A lovely set to start with and a great engine to get the model railway going. Very very happy and would recommend this seller totally. Thanks

Nice train set and easy to use and setup up ..