Like many small boys I was introduced to Hornby-Dublo through a Christmas present. A (second hand) gloss Silver King set. I still have the engine although the box has long gone.
I did little with my Hornby-Dublo growing up although in one of those quirks of fate as a boy I met Michael Foster (The Hornby-Dublo Story) who knew my father through his work in mining.
It is only within the last twenty five years that I have built up my collection. Why? I can do no better than repeat the words of Michael Foster in the Introduction to the catalogue for the Bianco collection, auctioned in 1996.
“For accuracy, for play value, for reliability- the Hornby-Dublo range of model railways, covering the final years of steam, will come to be regarded as perhaps the greatest range produced in the 20th Century-a fitting souvenir of a day and age of quality now gone”
In all my collecting I have always purchased the best available. Almost all items are boxed. Some are hard to come by and there are a good few duplicates because this was not meant to be a reference collection. I was buying what I liked so there is a bias towards three rail and I have a fondness for tank locos. I liked the engineering of the older models and the super detail of the new.
I have had a lot of pleasure building up the collection but it is time for it to move on and let others enjoy.
CMM