Hello,

Long time no post - but the modelling's continued when time and health permit.

Time to right a long-term wrong.. that being the general ill-feeling towards Lima products - which (and it pains me to admit) I have also been party to in the past.

Lima diesels are now well into bargain territory; with little searching, it is possible to obtain a near-mint example of most Lima diesels - limited editions possibly excepted - for £30-£35. In most cases, what you get is a robust, reliable locomotive with a more-than-reasonable level of fidelity and detail, especially when the age of the tooling is taken into account.

Ah, that motor - the reviled Lima pancake. OK, it's not the smoothest performer off the blocks and most locomotives are geared for a just-subsonic top speed, but it's reliable. Cleaning off the gunk and original lubricants, then replacing them with minute quantities of Tamiya ceramic grease on the geartrain and a modern loco oil on the motor and axle bearings, makes a useful difference - and a couple of hours' running-in on the rolling road in each direction (I use 15min periods before reversal, to even-up the initial bedding-in) has resulted in some really rather good runners.

DCC conversion? Easy. Either hardwire a decoder in, or fit a spare Hornby decoder socket assembly (which has 8 solder pads provided, ready to go) - there's loads of room, but you may need to modify the glazing unit a bit to clear the decoder. No biggie; a decent excuse to fit either South Eastern Finecast vac-form glazing, Shawplan Laserglaze (SO good!) or homemade flush glazing - however, only masochists will attempt the latter on the 117 DMU... By the way, extra phosphor-bronze pickups on as many wheels as you can - the middle driven wheel is difficult, but all others are a walk in the park - are also worthwhile for smooth slow running and provide extra opportunity for homebrewed fettling. An hour's-worth of fettling CVs results in a loco that will happily crawl around at walking pace and accelerate/decelerate smoothly - particularly if extra pickups have been fitted.

For those - like me - with Code 75 trackwork, the nearly-drop-in Ultrascale wheelset conversion kits are a reasonably-priced improvement; however, note that this (of course, and thankfully) deletes traction tyres so you may wish to add extra ballast - but put it in the correct end, i.e. around and near the motor bogie.

Then the fun bit - detailing. Identify what's there but shouldn't be and remove it; identify what should be there and make/fit it. There are plenty of etched-brass detailing parts out there, and it's a decent way to build your modelling skillset before tackling expensive modern locos. Carving off the moulded handrails and fitting suitably-fine wire replacements is cheap and very satisfying as a first step.

My own recommendations? The 31's a peach, I consider the body to be better than Hornby's SD version. The 47 polishes up very nicely, but needs work on the underframe. The 40 is worth a look, even if the body/nose sides are a little deep and the windscreens need the Shawplan windscreen surround panel and some careful filing. The 37's generally good (once the Shawplan windscreen panel has been fitted) but if modelling a 37/4, avoid the early models which - for some reason lost in the mists - were all based on the RSH bodyshell tooling with divided cantrail grilles, which none of the 37/4s carried - also, all of the bodyside grilles are undersized, but this isn't glaringly obvious if the rest of the loco looks good - and can be replaced if desired.

Anyway... my Lima diesel-related catharsis is complete, and I'm proud to be adding a few of these underrated niceties to my fleet. Give 'em a bash; you might enjoy going old-skool for a project or two. I am!