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Any call for old Lima coaches?


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Hi all,

 

I've acquired a few old, unboxed Lima coaches (Mk1, Mk2 and one Mk3), a Lima 47 and four old Hornby TTAs. The conditions aren't great, with most having rusty and broken buffers, couplings, and in some cases, wheels. The 47's innards look pretty bad too. Most of the bodies of these vehicles have scrapes, worn transfers, marks etc, but are still generally solid. I was wondering if there would be any call for them in their current condition, or whether I should 'scrap' them all and harvest what spares I can from them, before binning the remains. 

 

Please contact me if anyone wants to know what I have, or if you think they may have a use to you, please get in touch.

 

Thanks.

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I wonder if one of the garden railway bunnies might like them. Those who like scale length trains viewed from a distance. Sort of broad-brush railway modelling.

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You could also use them as the basis for conversions using brass side overlays (e.g. Comet sides), at least for the mark 1s. They have quite robust body shells which form a good strong base for the add-on bits, even after cutting to clear new window layouts. The thin brass sides allow much nearer-to flush-glazing.

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The main problem with these is the thickness of the body sides; they were standard issue on exhibition layouts for many years.  They ran well, Lima were good at plastic mouldings, and the finish was not too shabby, an improvement on Triang Hornby.  I used to try to hide the overscale thickness, nearly a foot if scaled up, with matt black paint, but it was still horribly obvious from anything but a broadside on view.  The other problem, as with all Lima stock, was the very oversized couplings and the ridiculous amount of space between vehicles, but this was dealt with on mine by fitting Bill Bedford ones.

 

They are excellent body donors for Comet sides, as SRman rightly says, and can be worked up into a good model if you can be bothered with flush glazing, but with such a range of very good BR coaches available from the current RTR manufacturers, why bother. 

Edited by The Johnster
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They are excellent body donors for Comet sides, as SRman rightly says, and can be worked up into a good model if you can be bothered with flush glazing, but with such a range of very good BR coaches available from the current RTR manufacturers, why bother. 

 

Price!

 

Mike.

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I have a lovely 4 year old boy who is a little heavy handed and loves his layout. I am loath to replace his getting unreliable loco with anything too decent so would be interested in the 47. They are pretty robust.

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Price!

 

Mike.

 

Well, yes.  You have to cost the Comet conversion and the other work necessary (buffers, wheels, couplings etc), and your time/effort and deduct it from the cost of good quality current RTR which needs no work.  If it is vehicle covered by Comet but not current RTR then the whole equation becomes different, and a cheap donor vehicle more attractive.  There is also the 'look' of a different manufacturer's vehicle standing out in a fixed rake to consider.  

 

This can only be decided by the individual modeller, but my experience suggests that schemes that look like a cheap solution when you buy the bits turn out to be less of a bargain than you first thought! 

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Hi all,

 

I've acquired a few old, unboxed Lima coaches (Mk1, Mk2 and one Mk3), a Lima 47 and four old Hornby TTAs. The conditions aren't great, with most having rusty and broken buffers, couplings, and in some cases, wheels. The 47's innards look pretty bad too. Most of the bodies of these vehicles have scrapes, worn transfers, marks etc, but are still generally solid. I was wondering if there would be any call for them in their current condition, or whether I should 'scrap' them all and harvest what spares I can from them, before binning the remains. 

 

Please contact me if anyone wants to know what I have, or if you think they may have a use to you, please get in touch.

 

Thanks.

I presume they are OO gauge?

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Well, yes.  You have to cost the Comet conversion and the other work necessary (buffers, wheels, couplings etc), and your time/effort and deduct it from the cost of good quality current RTR which needs no work.  If it is vehicle covered by Comet but not current RTR then the whole equation becomes different, and a cheap donor vehicle more attractive.  There is also the 'look' of a different manufacturer's vehicle standing out in a fixed rake to consider.  

 

This can only be decided by the individual modeller, but my experience suggests that schemes that look like a cheap solution when you buy the bits turn out to be less of a bargain than you first thought! 

 

Sorry, but I take issue with that bit.

 

Mike.

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I presume they are OO gauge?

Yes they are.

 

Several people have contacted me about these, and it probably means all vehicles are now accounted for, or will be, so unfortunately, for now at least, I can't take any more enquiries about them I'm afraid. I'm surprised, even in their current condition, that there's plenty of demand for them, something to bear in mind if I ever obtain any more. 

As expected looking at the state of it, the 47 is a complete non-runner, but I don't know how easy it would be to get it going again.

 

Oh by the way, I also have a box for a Lima class 50 (originally 50007) as well. If anyone wants this, please let me know, and you can probably have it (if you'd be willing to cover postage cost though please)

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Well, yes.  You have to cost the Comet conversion and the other work necessary (buffers, wheels, couplings etc), and your time/effort and deduct it from the cost of good quality current RTR which needs no work.  If it is vehicle covered by Comet but not current RTR then the whole equation becomes different, and a cheap donor vehicle more attractive.  There is also the 'look' of a different manufacturer's vehicle standing out in a fixed rake to consider.  

 

This can only be decided by the individual modeller, but my experience suggests that schemes that look like a cheap solution when you buy the bits turn out to be less of a bargain than you first thought! 

I much prefer using otherwise forgotten/scrap models to produce the loco/coach/wagon that I want to recreate.  Im a modeller first and foremost, rather than a box opener.

 

Newest isnt always best!

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  The old Lima coaches brush up quite well and can be quite a joy to work with. Also there are no Bachmann Mark 2 B/C coaches so unless you build the Southern Pride coaches or chop up the Bachmann Mark 2 they are the only option. If you have modelling friends  they may well just give you them or you can pick them up for a few quid at toy fairs. I'm working on a rake of 9 Mark 2 C and sold off the B4 bogies for as much as a tenner a pair on ebay and replaced them with Replica at £1.99 a pair. These coaches work out at less than £3 a coach but I already had wheels.

 

post-910-0-84517100-1528226762.jpg

 

 

post-910-0-99038000-1528226912.jpg

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  The old Lima coaches brush up quite well and can be quite a joy to work with. Also there are no Bachmann Mark 2 B/C coaches so unless you build the Southern Pride coaches or chop up the Bachmann Mark 2 they are the only option. If you have modelling friends  they may well just give you them or you can pick them up for a few quid at toy fairs. 

Or frequently about eight to ten quid, but those sellers are the one's you hear complaining to each other, "No-one's buying today".

 

These coaches look great and their provenance is un-recognisable - well done, I should get on with doing similar to my own collection at some point.

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I much prefer using otherwise forgotten/scrap models to produce the loco/coach/wagon that I want to recreate.  Im a modeller first and foremost, rather than a box opener.

 

Newest isnt always best!

 

Agreed, but in this case newer will provide you with sides of much more realistic thickness and brake blocks in line with the wheels.  But I have to confess to the joy of working up old and inferior models to achieve something usable on the layout.  Despite my current reliance on boxes which I open, I used to do a lot more for myself in the old days, and even now, nothing makes it from the box to the layout without at least a coat of weathering mix to tone it down, and a painting of the interior in the case of a coach!

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It transpires that these coaches etc (not the 47 or 50 box) are now available again, although I have took the bogies off three of them for my further use. As we've established to my surprise that there may be a call for such things, even as rusty etc as they are, I'll leave it to those who may be interested in them to contact me.

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  • 2 years later...
On 05/06/2018 at 21:40, Andrew F said:

  The old Lima coaches brush up quite well and can be quite a joy to work with. Also there are no Bachmann Mark 2 B/C coaches so unless you build the Southern Pride coaches or chop up the Bachmann Mark 2 they are the only option. If you have modelling friends  they may well just give you them or you can pick them up for a few quid at toy fairs. I'm working on a rake of 9 Mark 2 C and sold off the B4 bogies for as much as a tenner a pair on ebay and replaced them with Replica at £1.99 a pair. These coaches work out at less than £3 a coach but I already had wheels.

 

post-910-0-84517100-1528226762.jpg

 

 

post-910-0-99038000-1528226912.jpg

These look great. I'm currently doing the same conversion of an Irish mk2c. May I ask how you did the toilet windows on these?

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Hi all,

You could also give them to a charity shop for them to sell. or if you know of any children who have a train set and are not too bothered about rivet counting they could have them as well. The possibilities are endless.

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Yep, I think I used what was already there; cut out the top ventilators  and then carefully saw down each side of the vertical frame (give yourself a mm or two from the frame for filling etc later) from the top of the coach to half way down the window. Then two small horizontal cuts that then removes the top half of the window. Chop that removed bit down to size and glue back in position with maybe styrene slithers/shims to fill the saw cuts. Placticard to fill the top gap between the window and the roof line. The vents were just 0.010 round microstrip I think. Glazing just hand cut acetate fixed in with glue/glaze or canopy glue (that works best for fixing in the SE Fincast glazing too).

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2 hours ago, Andrew F said:

Yep, I think I used what was already there; cut out the top ventilators  and then carefully saw down each side of the vertical frame (give yourself a mm or two from the frame for filling etc later) from the top of the coach to half way down the window. Then two small horizontal cuts that then removes the top half of the window. Chop that removed bit down to size and glue back in position with maybe styrene slithers/shims to fill the saw cuts. Placticard to fill the top gap between the window and the roof line. The vents were just 0.010 round microstrip I think. Glazing just hand cut acetate fixed in with glue/glaze or canopy glue (that works best for fixing in the SE Fincast glazing too).

Thanks a lot. I cut out the entire window and made cut n shut window frames from a scrap Lima mk2d shell but I think I'll give your way a go.

 

Did you use flushglaze for the rest of the glazing?

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2 hours ago, murphaph said:

Thanks a lot. I cut out the entire window and made cut n shut window frames from a scrap Lima mk2d shell but I think I'll give your way a go.

 

Did you use flushglaze for the rest of the glazing?

 

Yes, SE Finecast flushglazing. You have to remove some of the plastic from the inner edge of the window apertures (scalpel/needle files) to make the glazing push into the frame without force. ;quite a faff  but very necessary as the glazing looks terrible and distorted if it's forced into the frames. 

  Also best to paint the thickness of the plastic out of the aperture with brown/grey paint.

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