Hornby Class 31, 31112, with Howes dcc sound

[ba14eagle]

Finally I managed to finish this loco and get something new on the workbench!

This was a Hornby, factory weathered, 31270 in BR blue. Whilst researching another loco or item of rolling stock on Flickr, I found some pictures of 31112, which as a Stratford loco in the early 1980's, had been treated to a few embellishments, when a depot open day had occured. It was still carrying evidence of this in 1987, shortly before entering Doncaster works for overhaul. So, this became my chosen loco to model. (Unfortunately, I only noticed too late in the process, that the Hornby body wasnt quite right, as it had no raised bodyside band that the unrefurbished 31112 did )

To begin, the loco body was 50% de-weathered and numbers removed. Loco was then renumbered and the weathering subtly changed, using the airbrush and Tamiya weathering powders. I have added a driver and secondman, and despite being very small figures, they made the cab difficult to refit .

A Howes dcc sound chip has been fitted to the loco - another operation easier said than done. Howes recommend using a 40mm x 60mm rectangular speaker with this chip, but I could see this wasnt going to fit, so I chose to stick with the supplied round speaker, thinking this would... Think again Iain - it didnt. The only way around the problem was to remove the cooling fan drive unit and put the speaker, complete with sound box, in its place. Placed upside, I was then able to fix the cooling fan, onto the back of it, so at least that looks right. Lastly, bufferbeam details were added at one end - a job which would have been done better if i had checked the Flickr photos rather than following Hornby's guide to where everything went - - Hornby's wasn't quite right - 2 items have swapped places. Oh well.

Overall, I would say that the Hornby class 31 has been the most awkward loco I have had apart and fiddled with, purely because there are screws which are very small and fiddly to get to and because there is too much fine detail to break off!!

PS sorry about the rubbish photo, but its too wet to get outside, in some decent light, so the garage has to do

[ba14eagle]

Better photo in real light..

[ba14eagle]

Another Hornby class 31 has joined my locomotive fleet.

This model started off as 31452 in Fragonset livery, but has been backdated to rail blue 31447.

Thanks to a work colleague for doing this repaint and work