Simple Lima Improvement

[josh_will]

After acquiring a Lima class 26, having not had any Lima before, I gave it a quick service but was still unsurprised to see that it had big problems running through insulated frog points.

I tried to clean the wheels, the pickups and the track some more but to no avail. As the non-powered bogie is only collecting current on one side of it I experimented with a very crude brass wire pickup, connected the left hand side of the motor with some thin wire.

Now it will easily run through any track work without stalling, so I’ll work on making a permanent pickup fitting to go on the model. A cheap and easy solution to make a much-derided model work well.

[SRman]

Poor pickup arrangements spoilt many of the Lima models. Not just in having pickups on one side only of each bogie, but also in using brass wheels that tarnished while you looked at them.

In my experience, some Lima pancake motors ran very well, others ran like dogs. This seemed to be down to varying factory tolerances; if you got a good one it was very good indeed, notwithstanding the aforementioned pickup problems. If you got a bad one, it was better to replace the motor completely. Either way, doing what what you did, Josh-will, was a good idea. If you can rig extra pickups on the driven side of the power bogie (I mean the side with the gears on the wheel backs), that helps too, even with traction tyres interfering a bit. The other major improvement is to replace the brass wheels completely. Ultrascale have done excellent but expensive replacement sets in the past, but I believe Peter's Spares are looking at doing a range of suitable, and more affordable, replacements in the near future.

[Dunsignalling]

I have a Lima WR railcar fitted with Ultrascale wheels and all-wheel pickup; it runs beautifully with the standard motor.

 

That said, as suggested above, getting one that runs really well, even with the other upgrades, is a matter of luck.

 

Also, of course, my railcar never has to pull anything more than the odd parcels van or horsebox. Fitting wheels without traction tyres to a Lima loco does cut its adhesion pretty drastically. Adding extra weight helps, but doesn't recover much more than half the original haulage capacity in my experience.

 

John

[josh_will]

Thanks for the replies, I’ve made a simple brass pickup which I’ve fixed to the bogie with epoxy resin. I know this isn’t the best material but it’s all I have to hand at the moment. If this goes well then I could look at obtaining a replacement bogie and using phosphor bronze instead of brass. I could also look at fitting the pickup to the backs of the wheels instead of the rims. I’m finding this quite enjoyable, buying an engine on the cheap and finding ways to improve it.

[josh_will]

Here’s the Mk.II version, PCB strip with phosphor bronze wire.

[DCB]

The Mk 1 looks a better bet than the Mk2.  The sprung part of the wire looks too short to keep contact on a long term basis.   Are you sure the pick up on the power bogie is making contact on both axles?  Sounds to me like its only picking up on one axle.

[kevinlms]

6 hours ago, josh_will said:

Here’s the Mk.II version, PCB strip with phosphor bronze wire.

I would do as Davis has suggested and move the solder points closer to the centre, thus making then longer.

 

You are still only picking up from 6 wheels, all 4 on the dummy and 2 on the power bogie. Try glueing a piece of your copper strip on the motor bogie horizontally above the gears & soldering pick up wires to it, so they contact the wheels. It's not ideal, but better than nothing.

[SRman]

On 26/05/2019 at 20:05, josh_will said:

... I’m finding this quite enjoyable, buying an engine on the cheap and finding ways to improve it.

 

I do the same, sometimes. I buy a cheap loco with some problems reported, usually knowing how I can go about fixing the problems, or knowing I have the right spare parts to do so. Occasionally an "unknown" problem comes in, and that becomes a real challenge to fix, but there is a lot of satisfaction to be gained from doing the troubleshooting and problem-solving.

Also, the wife learns lots of new swear words at the same time! 

[josh_will]

It seems to be working well enough so I’ll probably leave it alone but I’ll take this advice on board if I do it again.

 

Regards

[RAF96]

Make it all shorter and scrape the inboard edges of the wheels rather than the outboard edges, then you could get away with a single solder anchor for the pickup wire.

[terryj]

i just use these on my lima diesels 

wire pad to pad so i pick up on each wheel and then a wire to the motor connection 

https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/pickup-wiper-12-pack/