Hornby prairie slide bars

[RobMG]

Has anyone yet come up with a way to improve the look of the Hornby prairie sloping slidebars.

I have one of these and haven't really done anything with it other than fitting Alan  Gibson leading and trailing wheels. 

The one thing that spoils the looks are the sloping down slide bars.  I am wondering how this problem could be cured .

Cheers for any suggestions.

Rob 

[melmerby]

Hi Rob

I have two comments

a) Why not posted in the Hornby Prairie topic?

 

b) I could say "what sloping slidebars?", the ones on mine (both locos) are absolutely horizontal.

This suggests that they can be moved into the correct position if they have been dislodged.

Edited March 26, 2021 by melmerby

[RobMG]

Because I thought this might be the best place. 

I will have another look, but when looked before they didn't seem to have been moved they just didn't seem to want to sit level, but i could easily be wrong.

[The Johnster]

Lh motion bracket came loose on my, which meant the slidebars dropped a bit.  Simple task to re-attach it to the bottom of the running plate with a spot of superglue, but had I run the loco in that condition matters might have been a lot more serious.  I have had a few bits coming off recent Hornby locos and don't trust their QC 100% after a 42xx managed to shed a buffer on the first run out of the box.  I now go over all new locos, including those in boxes which are not red and which have never given me any cause for concern, pulling and examining things, and fixing them in place if they are a bit wobbly.

 

My previous large prairie, Hornby body on Airfix chassis, broke the rh top slide bar, which was on the other side of the loco.  When running, the piston came out of the back of the cylinder and, on the forward stroke, dug in to the ballast, causing a fairly spectacular comedy somersault with the loco landing on top of, and demolishing, a Parkside 5 planker (easy enough to put back together).  This loco got a replacement chassis and is still running as a spare, but the replacement chassis went the same way.  I caught it before running it this time, and the loco now runs facing in one direction only (not a big issue on a South Wales Valleys layout), hiding the fact that there is actually no connecting rod, crosshead, or piston on the rh side.  It is of course only a matter of time before the lh slide bars give out and the loco is u/s. 

 

Have a look at the motion brackets on your loco, Rob.  It's an easy fix, but shouldn't be a problem in the first place.  The loco should probably be returned to Hornby for a replacement, but I couldn't be bothered with mine and superglued my way out of trouble. 

[melmerby]

4 hours ago, RobMG said:

Because I thought this might be the best place. 

I will have another look, but when looked before they didn't seem to have been moved they just didn't seem to want to sit level, but i could easily be wrong.

It's certainly not a universal problem.

There have been some reports of sloping slide bars but as Johnster says it can usually be easily remedied unless you don't want the hassle of doing it.

 

Talking of QA problems, I noticed that the smokebox dart from my Dapol Mogul has vanished, it must have fallen out around the layout somewhere.

I won't find that again

[The Johnster]

Yes you will, but not until you've bought a replacement...

[Steamport Southport]

Try Brassmasters.

 

They are doing replacement chassis parts for the Dapol Mogul and Hornby Prairie. But other parts will be available separately including "better" slide bars.

 

They're not full replacement chassis, just replacing the parts which have been problematic and probably a bit more useful if you are of a wider gauge persuasion.

 

http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/dapol_43xx.htm

 

http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/hornby_2-6-2t.htm

 

 

Jason

[Il Grifone]

Sloping plastic slide bars. GJC would not have approved....