RMweb Premium MJI Posted December 24, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 24, 2012 I have just started to paint strip my 31154 Needs motor bogie overhaul - someone here offered to service it for me, will be fitted extreme etching grill. Repairing the plated over door. And yes it is a Bath Road machine as both Triang D5572 and Airfix chose Nothing wrong with improving a 40 or so year old model Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jim s-w Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 My first ever P4 diesel was a converted and detailed Airfix 31. Its pretty awful these days but I still have it. Cheers Jim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickL2008 Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 Everyone has to start somewhere Jim, my first detailing effort was a Hornby 58 NL Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hancockshire Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 I love the Airfix 31s personally. Great motor, great weight & great power! I got the Green one from an exhibition in ayr & only paid £15 for it! Boxed & in gorgeous condition. I'm keeping it original though I may buy a none runner (I have a spare motor bogey) & detail that (maybe model a green with warning panels) then have the two locos running together. I've had no running problems with my ped on my temporary layout so it may just be your choice in track Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Hopefully I am not annoying anyone here by asking a question answered elsewhere (but I haven't found the answer yet), so here goes.. How many body styles did the Lima 31 use - I have the unrefurbished 'skinhead' type and the 'partially' refurbished type (seemingly nothing done but to plate the front doors) and have seen the refurbished type (plated doors, removed waistline, plated headcode box, removal of side steps and roof plating added etc etc) with both cowled and 'uncowled' buffer beam, but what I have yet to see is an unrefurbished body with a headocde box (and would like to buy one!!), so I ask this in all innocence...! Best, Marcus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Clive Mortimore Posted March 31, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 31, 2015 Hopefully I am not annoying anyone here by asking a question answered elsewhere (but I haven't found the answer yet), so here goes.. How many body styles did the Lima 31 use - I have the unrefurbished 'skinhead' type and the 'partially' refurbished type (seemingly nothing done but to plate the front doors) and have seen the refurbished type (plated doors, removed waistline, plated headcode box, removal of side steps and roof plating added etc etc) with both cowled and 'uncowled' buffer beam, but what I have yet to see is an unrefurbished body with a headocde box (and would like to buy one!!), so I ask this in all innocence...! Best, Marcus Hi Marcus One of the disappointments of the Lima Type 2 for us 1960s modellers was they did not do a unrefurbished loco with a 4 figure headcode box. Rob has done a very good reworking of the front doors on this model. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/62561-rough-engineering-made-easy-converting-diesels/?p=844740 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Hi Marcus One of the disappointments of the Lima Type 2 for us 1960s modellers was they did not do a unrefurbished loco with a 4 figure headcode box. Rob has done a very good reworking of the front doors on this model. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/62561-rough-engineering-made-easy-converting-diesels/?p=844740 Thanks - that's pretty much the reason for my question - I am aiming at one of the earlier 31s (post-skinhead, pre-engine out) so am happy with the Mirrlees engine exhausts and all the rooftop gubbins. I guess I'll just have to backdate the doors and we should be fine...they are getting too expensive to simply lop a 'box off one and plop it on a skinhead even if I did want to redo all the handrails and lamps etc or swipe the skinhead doors and poke them into one with a 'box - way too much fuss! (that is a technical term, of course...) Best, Marcus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 They are just lovelly, anybody created the two experimental liveries or GFYP with BR Arrows? Tom I'm on it...watch this space (5624 on 17/2/1971 - the day it fell of the end of Hertford North Station!) it will be LIMA with Hornby power... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasslands Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 I'm on it...watch this space (5624 on 17/2/1971 - the day it fell of the end of Hertford North Station!) it will be LIMA with Hornby power... I have a Lima base model and a Hornby mechanism to create one of the experimental liveries. I have reference pictures, but I haven't found time to continue. Great that you are doing the green with double arrows version. I notice that Graham Farish have recently released an N-Gauge one. Tom Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Hopefully I am not annoying anyone here by asking a question answered elsewhere (but I haven't found the answer yet), so here goes.. How many body styles did the Lima 31 use - I have the unrefurbished 'skinhead' type and the 'partially' refurbished type (seemingly nothing done but to plate the front doors) and have seen the refurbished type (plated doors, removed waistline, plated headcode box, removal of side steps and roof plating added etc etc) with both cowled and 'uncowled' buffer beam, but what I have yet to see is an unrefurbished body with a headocde box (and would like to buy one!!), so I ask this in all innocence...! Best, Marcus Oh, dear... I have a feeling I have just created a 'faux pas' that will require some frantic scraping and refittting, so... Is there any chance a 'Skinhead made it into blue livery with the Mirrlees engines still installed? I think I know the answer ('No') as it would seem logical that, while EE'ing them someone should give them the once round with the blue paint and vice versa... If, however, some (one?? Ideally a 'red circle') did make it that far, I am guessing sans serif 'D' prefixed number...some time in '68, perhaps? So, which one(s)? Otherwise a nice newly painted blue roof is going to get a couple of big 'oles in it tomorrow. I know it isn't a big job, its the emotional side of it when considering five beautiful coats of Railmatch blue that went on so well in the warm weather last week...(chiz) C'est la vie...suffice to say I am peering at a sea of green in a effort to avoid these kind of mistakes on the next one...5624 c Feb/71 (any tips, apart from the grass tufts in the buffer beam...) Best, Marcus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tomlinson Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 Marcus, you've asked an excellent question. I'd really like to know if any Class 31's made it into blue still with Mirrlees engines. Research by photographs is pretty difficult, as only a tiny number of shots show the roof and exhausts clearly, as well as the number. You need to see the number to ascertain the font, ie original green diesel style or later type with or without the "D". John. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crompton 33 Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 All the class 31's where Re-Engined between 1964-1969 from Mirrlees to EE. The Exhaust port's need to be turned 90 Degrees. Rail blue first appeared in the late 1960's on the class 31's. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Marcus, you've asked an excellent question. I'd really like to know if any Class 31's made it into blue still with Mirrlees engines. Research by photographs is pretty difficult, as only a tiny number of shots show the roof and exhausts clearly, as well as the number. You need to see the number to ascertain the font, ie original green diesel style or later type with or without the "D". John. John The result of this thread and a couple of other postings I entered leaves me with the conclusion - though not fully substantiated (see below) that the answer is 'none'. My deliberations - and evidence so far discovered - is based on the huge repository of knowledge in the hands of one Brush Veteran 'of this parish' as they say (anything worth knowing or looking at on matters of Brush Type 2s or Class 31s is in his hands or his flikr galleries, so all I have to say is pretty much down to his knowledge, so look him up!) and some 'other stuff' I have trawled so far. The type 2 or 31 is a very popular engine and so flickr is well populated with great photographs. Anyway, the story seems to go something like this: Mirrlees Type 2s were re-engined according to a schedule that had little to do with things being painted blue, many of which emerged from their re-engine experience in their original colours if the paint wasn't beyond the pale. Those that went through the shops in 67-69 however, seem to have had a 'job lot' done on them insofar as they got a new engine, a coat of blue paint and for the pilot scheme locos a grille on the engine room door - except 5504/5519 (see more below). So, Mirrlees engined type 2s could only have been green, then becoming EE engined locos; the pilot scheme lot (5500-5519) at the tail end of the cycle (68-69) seem to have gone blue while they were being re-engined (and for blokes around my age that should sound familar) or some time after but NOT before. With me so far? Anyway, the anomalies; 5504 and 5519. Now I have before me a LIMA skinhead body that has the Mirrlees engine exhausts AND engine room door grilles. These two (thank you BrushVeteran) apparently had the grilles fitted while they had Mirrlees engines. Thus the LIMA body can ONLY represent these two locos and even then ONLY while they were in green as they both seem to have gone blue with the EE engines being fitted. LIMA seem to have been partially wise to this as this body configuration appeared as 31004 and 31019, though wrong for TOPS numbering as they had ALL been EE'd ('69) well before they got TOPS numbers. So that's that for the LIMA body as it stands: green, green, green but ONLY 5504 or 5519. Now, technically all of the above is hearsay, albeit jolly well informed hearsay. Conclusiveness lies in actual records of which loco went through re-rengining when and whether blue was applied at the time. For example, 5504 was green in August 68 but blue in August 69. It may have been re-engined while green, but maybe not. Similarly, it may have been painted blue and so have the engine room grille and Mirrlees engine in '69 but we have no proof beyond the difficult photographs. So, anyone out there have knowledge of exact dates of re-engining? Off to NRM or some other records source, perhaps - but not from this distance! As for 'D' prefix or serif/sans serif numering, you are at the mercy of photographs - though LIMA owners may like to know 5519 was numbered in serif condensed minus the D prefix in Septemer 1971...and looks quite elegant for it...but was in sans serif/no D prefix in April 70/August 69... Me? I am just going to rotate the exhausts and have done with it... I happen to like the look of 5510 anyway. Best, Marcus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Marcus, you've asked an excellent question. I'd really like to know if any Class 31's made it into blue still with Mirrlees engines. Research by photographs is pretty difficult, as only a tiny number of shots show the roof and exhausts clearly, as well as the number. You need to see the number to ascertain the font, ie original green diesel style or later type with or without the "D". John. John Onwards with 'part two' of this response; the post-pilot scheme lot (5520 onwards). Again, unsubstantiated by actual records, these locos went through re-engining as they stood at the time and remained green until they got the blue treatment 'some time later'. Some MAY have gone blue as the 'job lot' treatment, but for any to have been painted blue without the re-engining seems very, very unlikely. Again, no actual records to prove one way or another, but based on much reading and ferreting about, that is how I see it. Best, Marcus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tomlinson Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Marcus, Many thanks indeed for your very full answer to my question. In short it seems green was carried by locos with both types of engine, blue only by those with EE ones. As you say, out with the knife to the Lima exhausts, and the critical thing for blue locos is therefore the number font according to the date when one wishes to place the model. Out of interest, my blue Lima 31 019 came with a very fetching off white roof, placing it liverywise to the end of the 70's still with Mirrlees exhausts! Many thanks again, John. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 John The result of this thread and a couple of other postings I entered leaves me with the conclusion - though not fully substantiated (see below) that the answer is 'none'. My deliberations - and evidence so far discovered - is based on the huge repository of knowledge in the hands of one Brush Veteran 'of this parish' as they say (anything worth knowing or looking at on matters of Brush Type 2s or Class 31s is in his hands or his flikr galleries, so all I have to say is pretty much down to his knowledge, so look him up!) and some 'other stuff' I have trawled so far. The type 2 or 31 is a very popular engine and so flickr is well populated with great photographs. Anyway, the story seems to go something like this: Mirrlees Type 2s were re-engined according to a schedule that had little to do with things being painted blue, many of which emerged from their re-engine experience in their original colours if the paint wasn't beyond the pale. Those that went through the shops in 67-69 however, seem to have had a 'job lot' done on them insofar as they got a new engine, a coat of blue paint and for the pilot scheme locos a grille on the engine room door - except 5504/5519 (see more below). So, Mirrlees engined type 2s could only have been green, then becoming EE engined locos; the pilot scheme lot (5500-5519) at the tail end of the cycle (68-69) seem to have gone blue while they were being re-engined (and for blokes around my age that should sound familar) or some time after but NOT before. With me so far? Anyway, the anomalies; 5504 and 5519. Now I have before me a LIMA skinhead body that has the Mirrlees engine exhausts AND engine room door grilles. These two (thank you BrushVeteran) apparently had the grilles fitted while they had Mirrlees engines. Thus the LIMA body can ONLY represent these two locos and even then ONLY while they were in green as they both seem to have gone blue with the EE engines being fitted. LIMA seem to have been partially wise to this as this body configuration appeared as 31004 and 31019, though wrong for TOPS numbering as they had ALL been EE'd ('69) well before they got TOPS numbers. So that's that for the LIMA body as it stands: green, green, green but ONLY 5504 or 5519. Now, technically all of the above is hearsay, albeit jolly well informed hearsay. Conclusiveness lies in actual records of which loco went through re-rengining when and whether blue was applied at the time. For example, 5504 was green in August 68 but blue in August 69. It may have been re-engined while green, but maybe not. Similarly, it may have been painted blue and so have the engine room grille and Mirrlees engine in '69 but we have no proof beyond the difficult photographs. So, anyone out there have knowledge of exact dates of re-engining? Off to NRM or some other records source, perhaps - but not from this distance! As for 'D' prefix or serif/sans serif numering, you are at the mercy of photographs - though LIMA owners may like to know 5519 was numbered in serif condensed minus the D prefix in Septemer 1971...and looks quite elegant for it...but was in sans serif/no D prefix in April 70/August 69... Me? I am just going to rotate the exhausts and have done with it... I happen to like the look of 5510 anyway. Best, Marcus Uh, oh... There, that's better... Now I can continue with 5510 with a clear conscience! Best, Marcus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Classsix T Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 I believe it to be the case that the moulds for the Lima Ped can be broken down thus: Roof, two moulds only. 1) As built, boiler filler hatch and exhaust, Mirrlees exhaust ports. 2) Re-engined, plated boiler hatch and exhaust, EE ports. Body, three moulds. 1) Early, boiler filler steps, waistband, grille engine room access door (common to all) . 2) Mid life, plated boiler steps, waistband. 3) Life extended overhaul, as above no waistband. Cabs, three moulds. 1) Early, skinhead, with waistband and nose doors. 2) Mid life, headcode box, plated nose doors, waistband, incorrectly going over the plated nose doors. 3) Life extended overhaul, as above, no waistband, high intensity headlight. Chassis, two moulds only. 1) Early, with buffer cowling. 2) Life extended overhaul, without buffer cowling. Lima were quite clever but obviously doesn't cover all bases for all permutations. Corrections welcomed if I have omitted/erred. C6T. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Marcus, Many thanks indeed for your very full answer to my question. In short it seems green was carried by locos with both types of engine, blue only by those with EE ones. As you say, out with the knife to the Lima exhausts, and the critical thing for blue locos is therefore the number font according to the date when one wishes to place the model. Out of interest, my blue Lima 31 019 came with a very fetching off white roof, placing it liverywise to the end of the 70's still with Mirrlees exhausts! Many thanks again, John. All Hopefully this will help establish which one was 'done' (i.e. Modified from 30 to 31): http://www.brdatabase.info/classes.php?type=D&subtype=Type2 Best, Marcus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 And here is the (almost) finished result. Yes, the cabs need to be fitted, yes the cab handrails need to be chrome (thankyou EnterprisingWestern) and yes, there should be bars behind the engine room windows. The truth is, this started out as a simple 'bung a LIMA body on a Hornby chassis' and went on to take in detailing, etched fan and wipes, laserglaze, a whole diversion into EE exhausts and another on fan mounting and a paint job based on photographs of the real thing in 1969 (and 1971 - yes, I know about the data panel), so for now I'm having a day off... Oh, and a whole thread on late 60's/early '70's diesel crew uniforms (and some wonderful tales and two very pretty drivers as a result). Monty's diesel crew was not quite right for the period, hence absence of cabs... Anyway, here is 5510... The lights need painting and the headcode disks need fitting too. Oh, and a P4 conversion. And Penbits bogies (we hope..) in the future. Best, Marcus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayG Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Hi Can anyone tell me how to convert an Airfix Class 31 to DCC? Ray Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tomlinson Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Hi Can anyone tell me how to convert an Airfix Class 31 to DCC? Ray I wonder if this question would be better placed in the DCC section, either in General help and questions or in Fitting guides. A search in these areas may yield an answer already, as presumably the issue is a common one to all non-DCC ready locos. I run analogue not DCC so sorry not to be of direct help. John. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
giz Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Hi Can anyone tell me how to convert an Airfix Class 31 to DCC? Ray From memory, the Airfix 31 only has pick-up on the trailing bogie and the motor bogie has plastic wheels so it should just be a case of splicing a decoder into the wires between the pick-ups and the motor brushes.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 The one 'caution' for the DCC fitting of the Airfix motor, is that it is advisable to use a 1 amp output decoder as minimum, as the motor can be very current hungry. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted June 18, 2017 Share Posted June 18, 2017 Coming soon to a (Hornby chassis) Class 31 near you...P4 sprung bogies. Test build under way...I said it would happen! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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