Class 31 buffers

[ColinB]

Does anyone know if class 31 buffers will fit the latest class 50 loco? You can still get the class 31 buffers but not the class 50 ones. So if these fit, I can use them. I probably can get anything to fit if I try, but I don't want to damage the model.

[96RAF]

Different Hornby 31s have different buffers (models that is) so its a case of looking at the relevant part numbers and maybe asking someone like Peters Spares or New Modellers Shop if they could pull both the 31 and 50 and make a comparison for you. They can be very helpful like that if not busy.

[Going Spare]

From what I remember, the sprung mechanism is the same although the shape of the head and the style of buffer mounting may well be different (a step plate on the top of the class 50 perhaps?), but the latter may not concern you as you are probably needing just the metal components.

[ColinB]

Thanks Going Spare. I checked the shape and they look about the same. My main concern was the hole that they fit in. I have some Bachmann ones that look the same but the hole is slightly bigger and I didn't want to drill the body to take the bigger mounting bush. If not I will wait, it looks like Hornby are expecting to get new ones in.

As for the comment about them all having different part numbers, that is true but from what I have found from experience and members on this site and others, is that Hornby quite often use the same part across different models. So often the part is the same but just has a different part number, most manufacturers do the same, it reduces development time and production costs. 

The step plate is part of the ladder and just clues on top of the buffer. I know as one of mine fell off.

[96RAF]

Hence why I said to ask one of the suppliers to run a physical check for you.

 

Motors are another example of same part, different part number, but unless you can get hands on its all guess work.

[Going Spare]

Not entirely true.  There is usually a reason for a change of pack number.  While the diameter of the shank may well stay the same, shapes will almost certainly differ between loco classes and sometimes even within classes (20 and 73, as examples).  Commonality must still have cost benefits for Hornby but modellers' expectations are far higher now than in the "it's close enough" days, so I am sure they do not routinely create new pack numbers when the contents would be exactly the same as something that has gone before (assuming the people involved have the experience and knowledge or access to the information upon which to base their decision).

[ColinB]

I ordered a set to do my own comparison. I will let you know. 

[96RAF]

(assuming the people involved have the experience and knowledge or access to the information upon which to base their decision).

 

And therein lies your problem. There does not appear to be a cohesive database of previous usage,, coupled with, in the example of motors, the item becoming obsolete for whatever reason.

[Going Spare]

The database was certainly maintained until the end of UK production but nowadays, development is in the UK, production arranged through intermediaries in Hong Kong, final assembly in China using parts made by subcontractors, and documentation/records maintained in the UK - a far less simple process, hampered on occasion by language/interpretation and the Chinese making running changes to specifications unbeknown to others in the chain. 

[ColinB]

It is out there, it is just in peoples heads. It is a bit like going into a Ford Dealer and if you are lucky there is a Storeman that knows exactly what part fits which car and what other parts you can use.

Coming back to Hornby even though they are assembled in China, they are designed in the UK, so each designer knows which parts go to make up the completed model and I assume that they make up the parts lists. I even found that people like parts suppliers don't always know, like when I asked for help on a A4, 5 pole ringfield motor gear retainer.  After 3 mails I got the answer "I didn't know you could do that", but certain people do know. As was the case with the Fowler Tank drive gears, someone on another site had compared the gears and found that they used the same part on the A3 loco. 

[96RAF]

Doing a like for like on parts is easy enough if you have the various bits to hand. Doing it remotely by buy this or that - hit and hope - is more risky, hence why folk end up with a gash box full of bits that will come in handy one day.

 

I just wish I still had my slot car gash box from the 70s, there were some fine motors and gear trains in there.

[ColinB]

Either way I am going to have some spares. I only need one. The class 50's secondhand, go for stupid money, this one had a missing buffer so I got it a lot cheaper.