HM171: Hornby Class 390 Pendolino

Hornby's ‘OO’ gauge Avanti West Coast Class 390 Pendolino makes a welcome return following an extended break from the range.

Read the full review here:

Buy your copy of the latest Hornby Magazine with free delivery here:

Drone footage courtesy of @Cottesmore

[Chauglington_Station]

You used to be able to get a pendolino train set for about £175 now it's £275 just for the train pack and all that has changed is the livery. Ridiculous the way prices are going in this hobby

[richardswiderski]

Nice model and a great video keep
them coming lads.

[peters]

Thanks for the review, this one beautiful looking limited edition train set.

[grahmck]

Just taken delivery of the Pride one. And it's amazing can't wait for the coaches- hopefully we see a video of yours??

[kevinmottram]

Soon it will only be Manchester City and Chelsea that will be able to afford Model Railways! That is a nice model though, and the close coupling really enhances it.

[dylanstrainvideos]

I was so excited when my avanti pendolino arrived at my house

[EastMidlandsVideography]

I have both the pride & awc pendolinos, arguably two of the best emus in my fleet!

[houndog]

Bought my Virgin Trains Pendolino back in 2009, for £90 brand new. The prices are just getting silly now.

[alanrobertson]

Single power bogie for a 9 coach train. Is this adequate?

[PoshManSweets]

Still not sure why Hornby numbered it as an 11car unit but only sell 9. ;)
On the subject of price...To be fair, 2 HST Powercars are easily 250+... then a rake of Mk3 Coaches too, at least 25+ each!

[eastmidlandparkway]

Love the new avanti livery on what is already an iconic train I have the virgin alstom 4 car set I replaced the axle with traction tyres for the modified one and added 2 more pendolino weights to compensate for not having the traction tyres and what a transformation it flies now thanks for another great video Richard and Mike best wishes
Kev Beighton Parkway Sheffield

[spitfirecrusader]

Looks smart. But with the APT release around the corner. I’ll keep my wallet in my pocket til that drops. Especially as Hornby has upped the price of that from £434 for the 7 car set up to £533 and additional coaches from £89 up to £98.99. I’m almost having second thoughts as wanted the full 14 car set. Just not sure how ‘worth it’ it’s really gonna be. Sincerely hope you guys get a good look at one on your layout.

[alexdrennan]

You have to produce a version of the traindear that was in operation over the christmas one year

[ecmlelectrics]

It’s an incredibly smart model, highly tempting. Fortunately I’ve started to limit my range of modelling or I might just go bankrupt! Enjoy this style of video though!

[Hvids]

This seems like a strange decision by Hornby. Re-releasing an old set, with outdated traction tyres/motor/pick-up combination, wrongly numbered and without interior lighting, while whacking the extra 10% onto the already heavy price tag, seems like they're begging for criticism. Reading the comments, there's plenty of it.

[FinleyMarshall-yndm]

Where to buy this? I have always wanted a model train but they cost WAY To much

[AlecDenholm]

What a magnificent set! Slightly alarming that they couldn't have put a 5-pole in it given that they're often available in the same form factor so the tooling would still work. Still, it's cheap compared to a Bachmann EMU for example.

[maringarvanovic]

Price is always the first consideration nowadays. I have 9 full Hst sets so I am going to compare this to one of them. This 5 car set is less than the 2 HST power cars. I think that makes it good value and the HST set overpriced.
It looks great and I really do not care about the motor. It looks good, runs well and can run with the full 9 or 11 cars.

[lapiswake]

It looks good. However, Hornby has chosen a 390/1 to represent, yet is only making it available as a 9-car set instead of a 11-car set. The lack of cab detail is annoying, especially how this model seems to have a lot of light bleed from the top marker light so it acts as a cab light. The lack of interior detailing is also annoying, but the window tint means you can't see in without interior lights anyway. The pantograph being plastic and unsprung is irritating, because it never stays up when you position it upwards.
IMO, for the spec of this model, a 4-car set isn't worth over £200.

Mine is the original release 7-pin DCC fitted 390012 Virgin Star, which I have extended to 11-car with the correct 5 extra coaches for 012 plus the 2 correct vehicle types to make it into 112. However, I haven't yet renumbered the unit to 112, or the 2 extra middle coaches to their new identities, or removed the pantograph from one of those 2 extra coaches. However, I have added bullfrog snot and quite a bit of weight into the motor end to give it enough traction to cope on a flat layout.

[MrScottmac]

Still love your stuff, even though I don't model in OO, but 24 'as well''s in 11 1/2 minutes ?