Man after me own heart. I have done the same myself. This will be a really useful video people will refer back to again and again for years to come. Thanks.
Liking this series, and I can't wait for part 3. I built rebuilt 2 from brass sheet as you know. A video that I think will be a great reference point for future modellers.
All these manufacturers making the same prototype again. It's just not sustainable. Loving what you are doing here Nige. This is crying out to be 3d printed!!! I'm with you on the lead. People often use wheel weights but these are just iron. Lead is 50% heavier for the same strip.
WLW - Walls Locomotive Works. I can hear Brush and EE shaking in their boots! Very well done. I prefer the work of my own (shaky) hands over RTR. There's something about the investment of sweat equity. The next step, which I'm someone has already done, is a replacement chassis from a 3D printer. As an aside from our life in the 12 inch to the one-foot scale I saw at an expo brake portions made by the OEM in a 3D printer. They were metal!
As my dad would say: Adapt, improvise, overcome This is exactly what you’ve done, and rather well too, most people I’ve spoken to would throw the towel in at the first sign of a model failing, oh how skills like this seem to be lacking in the modern generation of modellers…
The lack of skills these days can be traced to the 1970s with the introduction of the HASAW act. Once the cost of new machine guards, covers, training etc a lot of Education authoritys just closed school woodwork and metalwork workshops rather than obtain money from central goverment to comply with the new legislation.
Your plastic chassis idea is beneficial not only for the Class31 but other locomotives as well. I considered using brass to replace the rotten chassis on my HO FA1 but I'm more comfortable using plastic so I'll give it a go.
Absolutely brilliant! I think this is a wonderful idea. I've got a 31 sitting all sad with no chassis and this gives me hope. Would your plastic chassis lend itself to 3D printing do you think?
Compromise.. it seems a lot of us are forgetting that word when it comes to our modelling! Nice to see this work being done. I’ve thought of picking up a mazac ridden 31 and bashing a chassis myself but never had a clue.. now I do!
Bloody hell mate, that's a massive job . All credit to you. Could you have made a chassis to use the hornby innards in the lima body. Trouble with hornby body is there is no central band for an unrefurbrished loco I've got a brand new chassis going spare if you are ininterested Funny you mentioned captain of titanic our friend we respected the other week I alway used to wind him up about looking like titanic captain! Cheers Russ
My brain gets muzac rot every time I get in an elevator.😁 Nice job on the replacement chassis. Did you put a link to that drawing? I can't see it anywhere. I've got one of these that's about to fall apart any day now. I can see the crazing. I use Tungsten putty for weight. (used for fishing sinkers) You can mold it to fit in the tiniest areas. Cheers!
Struggled with uploading it last night hopefully on in the description now also link here drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ia67rWVGac-mK8qzBTqHYGiMjR2Da4Hi?usp=sharing
To all the people who bought the Hornby 31 and dismissed the Lima as plastic rubbish, the Lima 31s will still be 100% okay. Plastic - for some reason it actually works pretty well. Even if it's a shame it feels 'plasticky' (because it is).
WHERE DO HORNBY MAKE THEIR ROLLING STOCK ? "Mazak Rot" was a problem with a single batch of Class 31's produced in the SANDAKAN plant 15 years ago. A plant Hornby got "booted out of" when Bachmann snuck in under Hornby's nose & bought Sandakan around 10 years ago. Giving Hornby 3 months notice to quit". In panic Hornby had to rush up the road to Canton & climb into bed with PIKO (ex East German train range) !!
THIS FIX WILL PROBABLY ONLY LAST A YEAR OR TWO !!!!!!! The problem with "Mazak Rot" is that after you've cut, hacked, & rebuilt it with plasticard. Another two years later the remaining metal section is still expanding, until finally it begins to flake into bits !!! At the time this problem was discovered (15 years ago) with this particular batch of Class 31's. Hornby quickly began offering FREE chassis replacement. I only had to pay the postage to send mine to them. And received a replacement about two weeks later (I lived in Germany at the time).
The Lima 31 is about 4 millimetres shorter. It is possible to build a chassis from the Hornby parts that fits under the Lima body. Only relevant if you have lima models with the old chainsaw motor. I prefer the Hornby body so will continue on the way I am for some time 👍
