I have just started in model railway's and I have purchased a Hornby 0-6-0T J83. I think that the front and rear buffers are to high compared to the rolling stock, do you make any modification to the loco body to adjust this difference of aprox 3mm.
The Hornby J-83 in my collection is a fairly recent R.316 model. The buffer centre height measures to be 15.5mm, or 1.5mm too high to the standard cited by Gregory Procter. Part of this is the driver diameter - Hornby uses a standard chassis shared with other locomotives (including a Diesel shunter) with 19mm drivers. The prototype had 4' 6" drivers which should be 18mm on the model. I don't know about the availability of more correct drivers.
The buffer centres appear to be correctly placed relative to the footplate, so the rest of the problem seems to be that the locomotive body rides too high on the chassis. It would be difficult to lower the body straight down because there is very little clearance between the top of the lead driver and the inside of the body and underside of the footplate at the rear of the front splashers. However, comparing the model to photographs of the J-83, it appears the Hornby body sits too far forward on the chassis - the lead driver does not line up to the center of the curve of the front splasher, and the crankpin of the rear driver when all the way back is hidden behind the cab footsteps, rather than being clearly visible ahead of the footsteps. Moving the body about 1 to 2mm to the rear would correct these issues, and allow the body to the dropped 1 mm on the chassis.
This appears to be doable, but a little complicated. My model uses a snap-in arrangement to attach the body to the chassis, which would have to be abandoned. Moving the body to the rear would allow the rear buffer beam to drop down over the end of the chassis. The front of the chassis above the front coupling would need to be notched to allow the front buffer beam to move to the rear and down. A new attachment system would then need to be fabricated. One approach would be to add plastic blocks to the body above the existing coupling mounting screws, and use longer replacement screws to both attach the couplings and hold the body to the chassis.
Hope this helps. I'm a Yank, so I hope that my nomenclature, if not correct, is at least clear to you. Gary Q.
Hi Paul.
The Hornby J83 is one of the older models from Hornby that has not yet been 'revisited by the Chinese! It was always 3 to 4mm too tall and is not easy to sort out! If you are really intent on lowering the buffer height, the easiest way is to put a deeper buffer beam on with the buffers at the correct height. I know this will make the engine appear incorrect when viewed from either front or rear, but it is the only way that I have found. Over the years I have tried lowering the body on the chassis without success. This is due to the way in which the body fits onto the chassis.
There have been no details about whether or not Hornby intend to revive and improve the model.
Over to you!
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