The boxes that Hornby packaged all those wonderful individual items and train sets in are as much a part of collecting as the actual trains and accessories. They can yield a lot of information as to what was made, when it was made, in what quantities and over what period of time they were released for sale. Most individual boxes from 1945 to the end of 1956 had a print code, date and quantity printed on each box . From 1957 no codes, dates or quantities were printed on boxes, but changes in the print style of boxes from batch to batch plus the codes rubber stamped on the inside give an indication as to how often items were being issued and using the data from the earlier period we can extend it forward to make an educated guess as to the quantities that may have been produced.

Combine this information together with Ian Laynes tin printing information, instruction leaflet numbers, train set lid labels numbers and other information we can build-up an overall picture and understanding of the items produced by Hornby.

These records were initially collected by myself but friends like Simon Goodyear and Albyn Austin plus other like-minded collectors, too many to list here, soon joined in and added to the data. One of the joys of collecting Hornby is that new bits of information seems to turn up with alarming regularity. This is certainly the case with box codes and there are so many gaps yet to fill, that I need your help to extend our knowledge still further - more about this later.