rob D2

How accurate is the Hornby model ?

I could do with a couple of these for my fledgling China clay set up

Interesting.

If a loco was filled and then heading for the holding sidings did it do a complex Z pattern or go 6, outlet and then back to the holding sidings.

The layout looks rather ' model railway ' in its complexity for shunting !

A prototypical load ?

A broken Mercedes ?☺️

Two sidings and a run round = 1 x08,

And that's probably an extravagance

Looking good,

IS that the blue corridor thingy ?

I'd thought it would make a good scenic break as well, like the one at Leeds.

There's no reason why they should want the body.

I kept mine and just Sent the knackered chassis back

As long as it's not steam, and it's in s blue box I'll be happy

Never had a problem in many years of using their mail order.

In my mind they are not the cheapest, but if I want something FAST and accurate they are the ones.

I've also been on the other end of the phone when the public calls and I tried to be polite all the time, but it's the odd one occasion I probably didn't manage it, so I have some sympathy.

I'd be happy to see more females in model shops, stops them looking like old people's homes

There are some major mix up with the body though isn't there in terms of accuracy.

I had a limby bubble car with the new motor , that ran like a bag of scanners on DCC, which has put me off any warmed over Lima / Hornby hybrids unfortunately.

Ah, so your body has had it too ? That's a big problem.

I'd take the £100 and spend it on another different model, and buy a blue 31 off eBay for £75 ish.

U fortunately they are not planning on a blue batch, and they certainly won't tool up for, say, 3000 to fix those that have both knackered bodies and chassis.

I think you've reached stalemate

Mike,

Did they give you the option of waiting until they have some chassis available ? That's got to be the only solution as the 100 quid won't cover one in any colour.

This is why I'd really like to see another manufacturer take on making a 31. I don't understand why the boys in blue aren't considering it.

It's abit of a minefield - I have a requirement for more blue ones now and this week one of the ' 31111' variety went for over £100 on eBay.

the thing to watch for is not only the chassis, but the screw columns in the body become brittle and break off when the screws are loosened or titened.

You would have thought a bog standard BR blue 31 would be in production for ever, but ewhen was the last version actually produced ? 2008 ish ?

From memory we have 31270 ( original, flawed ), 31174 ( revised body with strap, some iffy chassis), 31111, 31165 ,31268, the last three being fine

That clay don junction portals in must be lonely outpost - is it manned 24hrs ? They must be bored rigid normally

A 33 towing an HST ? Weird...

Yes, that's the problem - it's batch production , so you have to wait until they are making the 31 chassis.

And of course it needs to be compatible in terms of cowls etc.

Be patient Mike,

I doubt the receptionist has anyone to put you through to - the service dept probably doesn't take calls as there all busy maybe ?

Relax...........

Mine took 10 months to return dos they had no chassis at that point....

Didn't even realise you'd made a new layout - I was a great admirer of ' oldshaw ' so was expecting something cool here. I wasn't disappointed !

Sorry mike,

It's amazing how things get out of hand easily on forums.....back on topic

So you can't leave it obviously,

My original post was not offensive - I'm not abusing you personally, my own opinion is that Lima is " xxxxxx". Unfortunately that didn't fit your view so you bit with your condescending comments , and kept on writing " xxxxx" . If someone said your choice of car was " xxxxxy" would you get all upset ? It's no big deal.

Please don't call me ' m'lad' either - again a kind of condescending comment obviously.

Like I said , good luck with the Lima. I was in the Lima collectors club 15 years ago, but the world has moved on for me.

obviously you don't otherwise you wouldn't make snide insinuations about there being two types of modeller - you obviously consider yourself in some way superior ? some form of model related snobbery ?

you are clearly a very humourless, uptight individual so I'll leave it at that .

ooh, Derek , I'm a box opener now - the ultimate insult has been thrown !

seems you have had a sense of humour bypass - regardless of how your Lima works , the fact remains , mine were all " crappy " - fact. I don't care how you fettle yours, I got rid of them a decade ago and I'm not going back.

you also misread what I said - the only one that ran well HAD a can of WD40 sprayed in it.... in desperation, that or binning it.

there's no denying the " crappy " ness of its construction either - what was that crude metal weight made of ? depleted uranium ?

and the hideousness of that feeble earthing wire to feeble clip attached to feeble bogie....

" crappy " , " crappy " with a side salad of " crappy "

I'm glad you like yours, but please don't assume everyone should

I don't want to go back to crappy Italian plastic chassis, or their badly running pancakes.

I had about 25 Lima locos and the only one that ran smoothly had the best part of a can if WD40 sprayed in the motor.

A couple of locos with Mazak issues and we want to go back to the stone age .......

I want CNC milled aluminium chassis......er, with no price rise please.....

Great photos as ever....

FC is spot on abou the Abingdon traffic, it was domestic coal until 1984.

I've seen a picture of a blue 31 in the yard there with those coal wagons that were bigger than 16T and had two doors per side.

Photos in this period of both the Abingdon and Wallingford branches are hard to come by

Ha, I wondered what the pick ups were for....

Great pics !