We take a look at the Hornby Playtrains system announced by Hornby as part of their 2021 range.
Playtrains by Hornby is toy train system aimed specifically at youngsters just starting out on their first railway adventures.
The system comprises of battery operated and remote-controlled locomotives complete with working lights, three speeds, in both forwards and reverse, plus multiple sounds and now even smoke and steam!
With easy clip together track, a TrakMat, accessories such as facial expression stickers, ‘Quickbuild’ card station and tunnel. As the track gauge is OO Gauge they can even be run on standard OO gauge track and layouts.
The initial train sets can be further expanded with several track extension packs including points. 
An easy-to-use remote control can be simply switched to a train using the A/B switch underneath the controller, ensure that the train being run matches to A/B, then off you go. A second remote controller is available to enable twice the fun at the same time!
For those wondering the earlier trains have an Italian flavour ‘Flash’ was based on the “.italo” high speed train, whilst ‘Bolt’ and ‘Thunder’ are similar to the Ferrovile dello Stato (FS), Italian State Railways, E.402A class locomotives.
The latest sets, with a familiar British outline available include the following:
R9360M Hornby Playtrains High Speed Train Set
R9361M Hornby Playtrains Steam Goods Express Train Set
R9370SSM Hornby Playtrains Hogwarts Express Train Set with Steam
To see the full Hornby Paytrains range currently available click here.
Build and expand the Playtrains world and layout with the Track extension packs and a second controller to double the fun.
R7407 Hornby Playtrains Solo Controller
R9335 Hornby Playtrains Track Extension Pack 2
R9367 Hornby Playtrains Track Expansion Pack
To see the full Hornby Paytrains range currently available click here.
The expanding world of Playtrains...
Look out in the future for more characters via additional train sets and train packs, more ‘Quickbuild’ buildings and accessories, to give more adventures and more fun. Playtrains will become a key, expanding and evolving part of the Hornby range for years to come introducing new generations to railway modelling.
