Hornby ex Lima class 73 buffers

[simon b]

Hi all.

 

For some reason Hornby do not seem to offer their class 73 with the correct size of buffers, the ones fitted are far too small. Looking at the online spares catalogs nobody list's the correct part as being compatible with the 73 either, the ones you need are: x9774. These are what used to be fitted to the lima class 47, and are the correct size for the 73.

 

Hopefully this will be useful to someone.

[Halvarras]

16 hours ago, simon b said:

Hi all.

 

For some reason Hornby do not seem to offer their class 73 with the correct size of buffers, the ones fitted are far too small. Looking at the online spares catalogs nobody list's the correct part as being compatible with the 73 either, the ones you need are: x9774. These are what used to be fitted to the lima class 47, and are the correct size for the 73.

 

Hopefully this will be useful to someone.

 

Yes, I've noticed that. I have a pair of Lima bodies on Hornby chassis (I bought them that way), and the buffers were not the expected Class 47 items but appeared to be a new moulding, not one I've ever seen on Lima products, and they also have overly-domed buffer heads. The '47' buffers are long enough to put the heads in front of the gangway rubbing plate, the new ones are shorter positioning the heads behind the rubbing plate - having the latter as the leading buffing surface looks wrong for the use most of us will put these models to. I have two sets of turned brass buffers to replace these shorties and will 'retract' the rubbing plates if necessary.

 

The trouble with having two items serving the same purpose is that greater care needs to be taken not to get them mixed up - remember Hornby's GWR 'B-Set' coaches on B4 bogies?! Recent releases of the Limby Class 47s (I think they were the first 'Railroad Plus' models) had these shorter buffers fitted instead of the correct, er, Class 47 buffers, and looked a bit ridiculous as a result - not to mention making the tension lock couplings look even longer!

[John M Upton]

The very first releases of the Lima 73 way back in the days of old had tiny undersized buffers. 

 

For some unfathomable reason Hornby resurrected the original type buffers on some releases despite Lima having changed them to a more accurate representation decades earlier.

[Mark Saunders]

3 hours ago, John M Upton said:

The very first releases of the Lima 73 way back in the days of old had tiny undersized buffers. 

 

For some unfathomable reason Hornby resurrected the original type buffers on some releases despite Lima having changed them to a more accurate representation decades earlier.

 

The Lima 20's were the same on release!

[andyman7]

On 27/02/2023 at 15:31, John M Upton said:

The very first releases of the Lima 73 way back in the days of old had tiny undersized buffers. 

 

For some unfathomable reason Hornby resurrected the original type buffers on some releases despite Lima having changed them to a more accurate representation decades earlier.

I suspect it is more cock-up than intentional - the 'wrong' buffer tooling presumably still has 'Class 73' marked on it and just gets pulled from the tool store when a run of these is made. Still, it's reasonably easy to deal with.

[Halvarras]

TTBOMK the buffer with short shaft and large round head with a domed face was not a Lima product - possibly Lima's last Class 73 output had them although an image search suggests not. Therefore if Hornby tooled them for the Class 73 I'm not sure why they bothered, and if they hadn't a batch of Class 47s wouldn't have been defaced by them 🙄 

I think the reasoning behind the original buffers with small round heads was to clear raised coupling hooks on curves, which clearly wasn't necessary. These small-headed buffers reappeared on Hornby's first Class 20 releases and I replaced them on my blue 20035 with large brass items. At a show a few years ago I picked up a Hornby shorty clerestory brake coach in BR crimson and cream livery, partly out of surprise as I had no idea such a thing existed and it was neatly painted. However it had buffer heads fitted rather than proper buffers so I swapped them for those off the 20, then later on decided I really had no purpose for it so traded it in with Hattons........and a search for 'Hornby R1089 coach images' will still bring up a picture of it, with its ex-20 buffers and missing door hinge!

[adb968008]

The buffer Hornby uses now is its own creation and a bit more accurate.

The Lima ones are too long, but were better than anything else at the time.

 

The rubbing plate is also sitting too far out, but on the old buffers that wasnt obvious.