Hornby 00 Gauge Trains on Film Titfield Thunderbolt Steam Locomotive Train Model

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I thought (and perhaps I'm wrong) that Hornby had been working on their concept before Rapido made their announcement. The story was inspired by the group of enthusiasts, led by Tom Rolt, who took over the 2ft 3in gauge Talyllyn Railway in 1951 and thus kick-started the railway preservation movement. This time however, Hornby have been caught with their pants down as they didn’t have the image rights for the model, as it was a character in a movie, something that they really should have done their due diligence about…. No manufacturer is going to say when they actually started working on them and why and as many wouldn’t believe them anyway in this situation, what’s the point?

The fact that what they've quite clearly done is take the wagon/coach and brakevan set-up from The Titfield Thunderbolt and just put "inspired by" on the box and said Lion appeared in multiple films, of which Titfield was one, just smacks of "we've started work on this model and got x far and so we're going to finish it!So the question is, if what Rapido says is true, is Hornby's train set violating Studiocanal's copyright? Nothing secretive about it, there didn’t need to be, Rapido acquired the licensing rights from Studio Canal in a legal and professional manner. They have Tornado and Pullman coaches in their Railroad range, they (presumably) have the Lima 'Crab' and the circus train (which is freelance) could be made up of the usual Railroad curtain-sided vans and vent vans.

One presume money changed hands between Rapido and StudioCanal and both of those parties can't be pleased with this.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase, and we can sell Great British Rail Sale fares! I was waiting for January with excitement as Hornby had ’let the cat out of the bag’ that they would be producing a model of this. Whether it's the first shot or Hornby have already been served with a cease and desist notice only Hornby and Studio Canal know. I think a Buster set would get mired in the debate on the real robbers treatment of the driver though.

Do you think Hornby has finally come up against someone and a studio that’s willing to defend their copyright? I may be wrong but I can’t see StudioCanal devoting too much time/legal resources to a tiff over the rights to an obscure 70 year old film they have inherited which most people will never have heard of. Now, I wish to make it clear that, if that is the case, I am not accusing Rapido of copying Hornby, but equally if that is the case it would be an unfortunate case of two companies working on 'secret' projects, each without being aware of the other. However, there is a wrinkle in the story, as Canadian model train manufacturer Rapido Trains had previously announced their own Titfield Thunderbolt train set.And even if Hornby does decide to change their mind it would be easy and just say they are producing the Lion loco and the rest of the model moved around to say railroad. They've already got things such as the four- and six-wheeled coaches, which are in competition with Hattons, they've got their Terriers, which are in competition with Rails of Sheffield, and then they've got this - a set featuring what is probably the most specific and niche combination of engine and train you could ever have thought of. I find It’s funny that Simon says give us suggestions it’s your range, yet for the decade plus people were screaming for the class 91 we were ignored, yet the second Cavalex announced it, off Hornby went. Their rush for the class 91 nearly destroyed Cavalex, and it’s clear today Hornby had nothing but a rushed computer render going, given the time it took for even a prototype, let alone how long it’s taking for release. Getting refused the license then blatantly copying the film version when you know you should have a license?

these were done some years ago and already included the ‘grounded coach body on well wagon’ coach, even if the rest of the set was made up of items lifted from the main range. Personally I would like to congratulate Hornby on an (unintentionally) excellent piece of advertising. Please note that this service is NOT insured, therefore if purchasers require further cover, then they must arrange this themselves.Whatever, the fact is that when Hornby finally got around to enquiring of Studiocanal about a TT licence they discovered that Rapido had beaten them to it months before. I think it's likely that Lion has been in the works since 2020, when it became clear that there was a strong market for Rocket, and they figured it was worth seeing if they could get the licence for Thunderbolt as well. To me the madness is, they could have tooled up the 14xx and the Wisbech coach and enjoyed complimentary sales from the licensed rapido product. STUDIOCANAL informed us that, on March 5th, another party had tried to acquire the rights to the film.