The Class 31 was the first main line diesel to be modelled at the Margate factory and was released in 1962. Although this model remained for 15 years, not many versions of it were released. Despite the fact that high sales in the first year were followed by low sales in subsequent years, the idea of producing subsequent models with different numbers and livery variations had not caught on.
Hornby dropped the Class 31 in 1977 and attention shifted to the new Airfix model. The Lima model did not arrive until 1989. Finally, with Bachmann working their way through the diesel classes, Hornby released this super-detailed Class 31 in 2005 and this further hiked up the standards of detail.
The model is of 31165 in BR ex-works Corporate blue livery. It has twin bogie drive with a 5-pole skew-wound motor. It has pickups on all wheels and is 'DCC ready'. It is an interesting thought that Hornby should now have the tooling for four differently produced Class 31 models - Tri-ang, Airfix, Lima and the current Hornby one.
Model Railway Express
Run by model railway enthusiasts, Modelfair is an online shop specialising in new, pre-owned and collectable model railways. http://www.modelfair.com for friendly and reliable service.
For Hornby and spares for Hornby, Electrotren, Lima (HO), Jouef and Rivarossi visit www.hornbyspares.co.uk
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