Class 31, by Accurascale - It's time 2 Brush Up!

[Andy7]

43 minutes ago, JaymzHatstand said:

I had the roof panel off this afternoon for a quick play with the Aux switches as I'm trying to get both tail lights on at the same time, if thats at all possible. I've got the sound version of 128, Chlamydia, for reference.

 

If it's not possible, I certainly won't be complaining, I'm just curious more than anything! I'm thoroughly enjoying investigating everthing this loco has to offer, and it definitely won't be the last A/S loco I invest in! I just need a couple more NYMR relevant locos (55009 as first preserved would be an absolute clincher!) There are two or three others I've got my eye, but sadly not wallet at the moment on!

 

 

I've not had chance to fit either the crew (though the second man now has a grey shoe(s)), or detail bits, but I'll get there, along with a touch of light weathering!

 

Cheers

 

J

Can’t remember the exact setup but between F17 and 21 they can give you, no lights one light or both. It’s all in the instructions.

[philg]

3 minutes ago, Andy7 said:

Can’t remember the exact setup but between F17 and 21 they can give you, no lights one light or both. It’s all in the instructions.

I think the OP is asking from a DC perspective

[Andy7]

31128 is now ready for weathering. Detailed as per my requirements, drivers at both ends, wheel faces painted track dirt brown, cabs and fan weathered. 37422 will be joint it tomorrow for hand and airbrush weathering. Both stunners.

[Albie the plumber]

1 hour ago, JaymzHatstand said:

I had the roof panel off this afternoon for a quick play with the Aux switches as I'm trying to get both tail lights on at the same time, if thats at all possible. I've got the sound version of 128, Chlamydia, for reference.

 

If it's not possible, I certainly won't be complaining, I'm just curious more than anything! I'm thoroughly enjoying investigating everthing this loco has to offer, and it definitely won't be the last A/S loco I invest in! I just need a couple more NYMR relevant locos (55009 as first preserved would be an absolute clincher!) There are two or three others I've got my eye, but sadly not wallet at the moment on!

 

 

I've not had chance to fit either the crew (though the second man now has a grey shoe(s)), or detail bits, but I'll get there, along with a touch of light weathering!

 

Cheers

 

J

Chlamydia? 

That's one extra feature we can all do without .

[adb968008]

1 hour ago, JaymzHatstand said:

 I've got the sound version of 128, Chlamydia, for reference.

 

Sounds painful, I wonder how it compares to other model bourne diseases like mazak rot, chip blow, motor burn out etc ?

😄

Edited Saturday at 20:33 by adb968008

[JaymzHatstand]

35 minutes ago, philg said:

I think the OP is asking from a DC perspective

 

Sorry for the confusion, I am running on DCC, I should have stated that.  I'll recheck the destructions!

 

Oh, and the Chlamydia reference, just for full disclosure, is one of the colloquial nicknames that 128 gets referred to as, and oddly enough, my auto correct jumped to that from such references! 

 

Cheers 

 

J

[JaymzHatstand]

1 hour ago, rob D2 said:

Would a second man be allowed slipons ? Was there no requirement fur safety shoes back then 

 

That's just from the old bashing lore that a true thrash merchant would have worn white socks and grey slip on shoes. 

 

Nowt but a bit of fun to amuse myself in a small way!

 

Cheers

 

J

[zr2498]

1 hour ago, rob D2 said:

Would a second man be allowed slipons ? Was there no requirement fur safety shoes back then 

My safety shoes used to be steel toe capped leather. I didn't know fur was available?

[Accurascale Fran]

50 minutes ago, JaymzHatstand said:

 

Sorry for the confusion, I am running on DCC, I should have stated that.  I'll recheck the destructions!

 

Oh, and the Chlamydia reference, just for full disclosure, is one of the colloquial nicknames that 128 gets referred to as, and oddly enough, my auto correct jumped to that from such references! 

 

Cheers 

 

J

Hi @JaymzHatstand,

 

Just confirming now that our warranty does not cover STDs. 
 

Play safe, everyone!

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

[adb968008]

Heres my little comparison review of Accurascales 31 against the Hornby one.

(I dont own a Bachmann one and am on the fence still, but a good number of us will have a Hornby one).

 

on the left Dutch livery (ex 31147 Floreat Salopia but partially renumbered / denamed and never got round to finishing it in the last 4 years).

 

on the right Accurascale 31432. (I have two of these, the other becoming 31427).

 

I should start by saying Hornbys 31 has a chequered past with several early ones affected by mazak rot. Later ones had detail accuracy issues, indeed my 31147 here turned up as an ex-eth fitted 31/5 body complete with fan surrounds… 31439 was minus headlight, D5511 with wrong engine room doors etc,

So where do we begin.. dimensions…

 

length and width they are the same.. width differs by .06mm (35.31 vs 35.37 mm for Hornby vs Accurascale).

 

The roof curvature on the Hornby diversifies them but in critical dimensions they align.

 

its the body side they really diverge in all aesthetics the Hornby one is chunkier.. rivets, body side join strips especially, fan details,..

 

but to me its when looking side on, and the engine room doors the aspect of the Accurascale one is just saying “31”…

look at the battery boxes !!

ive tried to align as central between the two bodies head on as possible here to give an accurate comparison. What stands out is cantrail, windows and size they align. Even the headcode boxes are pretty close. But the Hornby body is a little shorter at the bottom, and the front is a little more curved, and horizontal angle just below the windows isnt as sharp… This again makes that crucial difference.
 

 

 

 

 

 Note 31432 (left) has the strengthened drivers window frame. Note the detailed printing of the ETH jumper, and detailed handrail. The headlight also has a lens which helps !

The positioning of the rear lights slightly higher. The windows themselves on Accurascales are lifted closer to the cantrail with less gap… this lack on the Hornby one pushes everything down a noticeable 2mm.

 

 

The Accurascale 31 just sits slightly higher on its bogies, but the bufferbeam heights align. This gives it a fraction taller height. The difference here is the roof. The Hornby 31 has more of it.. that means the cab windows sit lower, pushing the curved “nose” end lower, and hence the bodyside bottom, the compensation is a narrower gap between bogie and body.

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find both Hornby and Accurascale represented the A1A wheel set using a smaller centre wheel as per prototype…

 

note the 3 level relief rendition of the brake blocks on Accurascales bogie.

 

 

Hornbys however is a CO-CO all wheel drive. Accurascales 31 is modelled as a true A1A-A1A with centre wheels floating… making it a 4wheel drive…

more on this to come.

 

Diameter of wheels is 14.36, 12.97, 14.36 mm on Hornby and a very similar 14.16, 12.91, 14.16 mm on Accurascale.

 

My Accurascale 31 weighs in DC ready at 440g, my Hornby one at 427g

 

This means an powered axle load of :

110g per Axle Accurascale

71g per Axle Hornby 

How much weight is born by Accurascales centre axle was not monitored.

 

under the hood..

 

Accurascales body is clip on, with cab fittings on the chassis vs the body. No connectors required for the cab lights. The Hornby one has opening cab doors.
 

That said my eth jumper sits under the chassis and in removing the body, take care.. one of mine separated.

 

overall the interior of the 31 matches the other Accurascale models of 55,37 and 66 with similar board layouts, positioning on connectors, style of connections, labelling etc.

Hornby top, accurascale below..

 

note the improved fan on Accurascales.

on DC mine was off by default, as soon as I turned it on, it ran at full speed and sounded like a hair dryer !

 

Now heres where it gets interesting, the motor used in both Hornbys and Accurascales 31 is in my opinion the same… slightly different flywheels (Hornby used to put an elastic band on the flywheel to drive the fan).

 

Certainly performance matches, startup amps and running amps were identical at a 0.05amp start up and max at 0.19amp full speed.

The actual running speeds aligned too..

 

 

 

 So at this point I thought I would bench test.

I note on other threads a Goyojo pull meter has been used and measures in newtons.

Ive ordered one of these to put here, to be a common standard down the road, but the two I have (one found after being lost a few years in my tidy up, the other ive had a few years now ).

My Hornby 31 pulls 65g on one meter (which rounds in 5 and 0), the other recorded exactly 62g.

 

My Accurascale  31 pulls 70g on one meter (which rounds in 5 and 0), the other recorded exactly 73g

 

 

and on my other gauge..

 

and finally as a double header…

135g !

 

 

 

 

My takeaway from this is weight over powered axle seems to make a difference as Accurascales powered on 4, vs Hornbys powered on 6.. but with only a 13g advantage gave it the edge despite both models having what looks to be identical motors.

 

110g per powered Axle Accurascale

71g per powered Axle Hornby 

 

Finally.. I cannot get cab lights, or desk lights on my pair of Accurascale 31’s to work on DC. I did explore the auxiliaries. I did note Aux 7 (on the chip), but labelled spot light is actually the fan. 

Am I really looking at a drivers Hot plate here behind the cab bulk head

 ?
 

 

 

In conclusion this model looks and feels like 31… the front, the sides, the cab windows is bob on. Its crispness shines through. The level of accuracy on the Hornby one surprised me, it is very close in many ways that I did not expect, but the critical aspects are off and visibly makes it look like a likeness than an actual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 23:35 by adb968008

[McC]

1 hour ago, adb968008 said:

Am I really looking at a drivers Hot plate here behind the cab bulk head

 

Correct 👍 

[Dagworth]

1 hour ago, adb968008 said:

 

Watch out anyone on the North Circular, 31s incoming!

[adb968008]

1 minute ago, Dagworth said:

Watch out anyone on the North Circular, 31s incoming!

With all the Hornby Mazak rot ones floating about why has no one thought of that earlier ?

Edited Saturday at 23:37 by adb968008

[adb968008]

2 hours ago, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi @JaymzHatstand,

 

Just confirming now that our warranty does not cover STDs. 
 

Play safe, everyone!

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

Need to get treated, can do nasty stuff to a model…

 

This used to be a Triang Princess.

[atom3624]

Fantastic and very thorough review by adb, thank you.

I don't think the motors are the same on closer inspection - A/Scale's looks closer to the Dapol ones I think.

Al.

[derekdoestrains]

11 hours ago, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi @JaymzHatstand,

 

Just confirming now that our warranty does not cover STDs. 
 

Play safe, everyone!

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

I’m now cancelling all my orders… very dissapointed with this😂

[jjb1970]

450g is quite sufficient,  especially for a type which wasn't the most powerful locomotive in real life. 

[40B]

Fitted with crew, icing on the cake so to speak. Now to fit out 409. 

[classy52]

How is everyone getting the white tipped pipe onto the loco buffer beam where it should be, my 31128 doesn't have enough holes for the full compliment of pipes & to accommodate the 3 piece snow ploughs.

If I'm not going to drill into the buffer beam, just don't want to for fear of stuffing it up, does that mean I'm buggered?

[Geep7]

13 hours ago, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi @JaymzHatstand,

 

Just confirming now that our warranty does not cover STDs. 
 

Play safe, everyone!

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

And there was me thinking we'd be fully protected.... 😂

[40B]

35 minutes ago, classy52 said:

How is everyone getting the white tipped pipe onto the loco buffer beam where it should be, my 31128 doesn't have enough holes for the full compliment of pipes & to accommodate the 3 piece snow ploughs.

If I'm not going to drill into the buffer beam, just don't want to for fear of stuffing it up, does that mean I'm buggered?

There’s very fine holes in the buffer beam hard to see took me at least half hour to fit them. 

[Andy7]

1 hour ago, classy52 said:

How is everyone getting the white tipped pipe onto the loco buffer beam where it should be, my 31128 doesn't have enough holes for the full compliment of pipes & to accommodate the 3 piece snow ploughs.

If I'm not going to drill into the buffer beam, just don't want to for fear of stuffing it up, does that mean I'm buggered?

I took the buffer heads off (not difficult at all) then drilled the holes above and outboard of the yellow pipes (also need holes drilling). My pics above to show the locations. 

[adb968008]

11 hours ago, atom3624 said:

Fantastic and very thorough review by adb, thank you.

I don't think the motors are the same on closer inspection - A/Scale's looks closer to the Dapol ones I think.

Al.

Dapols 73 has one that looks identical in it.

Indeed the latest Ali-Express version even comes with the same spec flywheels on it.

 

Both Hornbys and Accurascales 31’s look like this..

ive seen this motor form factor in dozens of models from several manufacturers both UK and Europe, it seems to be an industry standard one and has been around well over a decade.

 

I’m confident to believe this is in some Dapol, EFE, Kernow, Hattons, Hornby, Accurascale, Piko models, to me its the same… size, shape, build, rpm, and running characteristics.

 

( Which is why I get dubious over some claims of behaviour apparent to some manufacturers over others, Ive repaired/dismantled or otherwise gone over well over 150 locos for myself and others with this apparent motor profile inside)… for example no ones ever complained about Hornbys 87.. and well it looks familiar…

top to bottom.. Dapol 73 (extracted), Hornby 87 in its chassis, LaisDcC spare (extracted), Hattons 66 (in chassis)…

 

Only major difference ive seen is the fly wheels manufacturers use. 
 

You can buy them on Ali-Express for a few quid. I keep a stack of them as they are drop in replacements, and adaptive to other models.

 

They are also quite easy to fix, the Hattons 66 seemed to have a bad batch, where the brushes werent set correctly causing it to fail… I repaired more than 50 with this issue.. indeed Ive still a bunch of Hattons 66’s on the bench which I acquired very cheaply to repair.

 

I found the dimensions are pretty concurrent across other manufacturers too, using their own spec motor’s too… You could say drop it in say Piko, Mehano, Bachmann and Heljan too as whilst they have their own motors, its dimensionally a fit…

 

Theres two versions I see, 9800 rpm, and 13000 rpm. The latter is less common on Ali, but seems to appear whenever Hornbys super detailed HSTs do.

So its well worth having a few in your tool box, the one with flywheels included is a bit of a bargain as they are a few quid a piece on their own… 

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002670420818.html
 

(of course your Accurascale ones come with lifetime guarentee so you dont need for them, if bought new), but others often sell for £25+ on ebay or spares sites..

 

I like noodling with motors..

i’m currently sourcing replacement Realtrack Class 143 motors from Ali for knackers I have surrounding me, and a bunch of 2 shaft 3v N10 motors for a novel idea, but thats a hard one to find apparently.

 

Edited Sunday at 19:27 by adb968008

[atom3624]

Great information.  Thanks once again!!

Hornby ones generally have the dimples, and as you say, mostly no problems with their motors - apart from a few variants (anyone say B12 ..) .... 

 

Al.

Edited Sunday at 18:01 by atom3624

[Andy7]

4 hours ago, 40B said:

There’s very fine holes in the buffer beam hard to see took me at least half hour to fit them. 

31128 doesn’t have those holes btw.