Hornby Class 31 Lighting

[Tobes248]

Hey all :)
Wondering if you have a solution to a problem I’ve caused by being a little dosey lol
Have replaced a part of the gear system on Hornby’s Super Detailed 31, but now can’t seem to get any lights to work. Any ideas on how I could fix it? Thanks in advance!

[Pete the Elaner]

The connectors are very small & can easily get a little bent which stops them from making contact.

Do they work with the body off?

 

Later models such as the class 87 have big springs on top of the chassis which connect to large contact plates in the roof. I guess Hornby felt they needed a better solution?

[SRman]

I have been having similar problems with a Hornby class 56 and an HST dummy power car, with exactly the same contact arrangements. It took a lot of fiddling and tweaking of the springy wire contact shapes to get all of the class 56 lights working, and in the case of the HST, I was able to prove that all of the lights worked by holding the cab base with contacts against the floor of the chassis, but I have still not been able to get the white headlights working with the body on. Because of the shape of the HST power car, the chassis has to be inseted and slid forwards, which means that the springy wire bits either catch on the end of the chassis floor, or don't quite touch the contact pads.

 

The class 30/31 is equally fiddly, but the lights on both of mine are working fine at present. However, I will have to bite the bullet and remove 31 233's body soon to find out why it is running particularly slowly now, so expect more trials and tribulations with the lights when I try to get the body back on in perfect alignment.

With the HST, I am seriously considering hard-wiring the contacts, but anotehr idea has presented itself even while typing this. I may try some springy brass or phosphor-bronze added to the floor contacts to present a slightly raised area for the wire to contact against. I'll post something on my own layout topic if this works when I get around to it.
 

[Tobes248]

5 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

The connectors are very small & can easily get a little bent which stops them from making contact.

Do they work with the body off?

 

Later models such as the class 87 have big springs on top of the chassis which connect to large contact plates in the roof. I guess Hornby felt they needed a better solution?

They don’t seem to - which is the common positive? I could always be using the wrong one as common lol 

[Tobes248]

3 hours ago, SRman said:

I have been having similar problems with a Hornby class 56 and an HST dummy power car, with exactly the same contact arrangements. It took a lot of fiddling and tweaking of the springy wire contact shapes to get all of the class 56 lights working, and in the case of the HST, I was able to prove that all of the lights worked by holding the cab base with contacts against the floor of the chassis, but I have still not been able to get the white headlights working with the body on. Because of the shape of the HST power car, the chassis has to be inseted and slid forwards, which means that the springy wire bits either catch on the end of the chassis floor, or don't quite touch the contact pads.

 

The class 30/31 is equally fiddly, but the lights on both of mine are working fine at present. However, I will have to bite the bullet and remove 31 233's body soon to find out why it is running particularly slowly now, so expect more trials and tribulations with the lights when I try to get the body back on in perfect alignment.

With the HST, I am seriously considering hard-wiring the contacts, but anotehr idea has presented itself even while typing this. I may try some springy brass or phosphor-bronze added to the floor contacts to present a slightly raised area for the wire to contact against. I'll post something on my own layout topic if this works when I get around to it.
 

Haven’t got onto my 56, dreading it having done this one lol

 

I feel like the contacts aren’t making in the 31, but another thing is that the LEDs seem to be wired as a negative common from what others have said when I’ve been searching for solutions, making getting independent tail lights oh so more difficult lol