I am amazed at the prices some old diesels are now fetching.

[cypherman]

Hi all,

Well I have started to run out of old steam outline engines to do up so to speak. I still have 3 Triang 3mt 2-6-2 tanks on my desk to finish, All they need is to have their decals applied, but I have lost the inclination to finish them at the moment. So to fill in the gap I have stated to buy  some older BR green livery Triang, Hornby, Mainline and Lima diesels  I have been amazed at how much some Lima diesels are still selling for. The one that has amazed me the most and which I expected to be the cheapest is the Lima Class 33. Average asking prices for a good condition boxed BR green engine is about £50.00. This is about £20.00 more than I expected. The BR blue engines do not seem to command this higher price though. I have managed to buy these engines all boxed and in VNMC cheaper than the asking price of the BR green Class 33. Each of these has cost me between £30.00 to £35.00 each. Have I just been lucky in the prices for what I have bought?

Triang Class 37

Triang Class 31

Triang/Hornby Hymeck

Triang/Hornby Class 47

Mainline Class 45

Lima Class 40

Lima Deltic

Hornby Class 29

Hornby Class 25

So what is the reason for the Class 33 being so expensive?

One steam bargain I have managed to buy though is a Triang German 2-6-2 with the red chassis for £41.00. It was advertised as the Triang SNCF 2-6-2 which is not as rare as the German engine which I believe only 2000 were made. It was sold as a none runner, but the chassis is complete though looks like it has seen better days. The body is in excellent undamaged condition. The chassis is not a problem though as I have mint chassis for this engine waiting to put the body on.

Edited April 9, 2022 by cypherman

[Steamport Southport]

That's the market I'm afraid. The people being nostalgic and will pay a premium for good quality "collectables" are now the kids brought up in the late 1960s and 1970s rather that the Hornby Dublo era. They want the things that were available when they were kids that they either never had or have given away/sold/broke/etc.

 

What they call in the toy market "The Star Wars Generation".

 

 

Why's the Lima 33 going for more than the others? Probably because it's still a fairly decent model compared to some of the others. Bit of work and it scrubs up well.

 

The modellers wanting detailed models would probably ignore the Triang and Hornby stuff as there are far better models available of all those prototypes. If I was after models of things like Classes 25, 31, 37, 47 and a Hymek than I wouldn't be looking at those, I would be looking at the more recent versions from Bachmann, Hornby, Heljan, etc. even the Lima versions still stand up pretty well.

 

 

 

Jason

[Halvarras]

2 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

That's the market I'm afraid. The people being nostalgic and will pay a premium for good quality "collectables" are now the kids brought up in the late 1960s and 1970s rather that the Hornby Dublo era. They want the things that were available when they were kids that they either never had or have given away/sold/broke/etc.

 

What they call in the toy market "The Star Wars Generation".

 

Why's the Lima 33 going for more than the others? Probably because it's still a fairly decent model compared to some of the others. Bit of work and it scrubs up well.

 

The modellers wanting detailed models would probably ignore the Triang and Hornby stuff as there are far better models available of all those prototypes. If I was after models of things like Classes 25, 31, 37, 47 and a Hymek than I wouldn't be looking at those, I would be looking at the more recent versions from Bachmann, Hornby, Heljan, etc. even the Lima versions still stand up pretty well.

 

Jason

 

It appears that £35 has been the going rate for models of that era, £40 for more desirable liveries, for quite a while now. The Class 33 though does seem to buck the trend, I've noticed that even the Hornby Railroad version (green D6537) has recently been going for prices which get uncomfortably close to the earlier Heljan releases. Granted, the latter have a roof profile issue which is all but impossible to correct, unlike the Lima tooling's windscreen shape, lack of flush glazing, undersized roof fan grille and simplified underframe (the scrubbing-up Jason refers to!) but I find that Heljan flaw is only noticeable from certain angles.

 

Although I'm not inclined to buy models for nostalgic reasons, the Tri-ang Hornby Hymek is an exception. Captivated by its modern looks when it first appeared in the catalogue I had to have one when it arrived in autumn 1967 (two pounds, nineteen shillings and thruppence!) - I still have it, generally fiddled with over the years culminating in a repaint into maroon in 1998. In recent weeks I have managed to obtain another in excellent condition (just missing one yellow panel label), plus a mint 2004 Chinese-produced upgrade (R2410 - D7046 in green) for a very reasonable £70 the pair. It's an interesting comparison. The latter intrigued me because of the extent of the tooling changes to this now pretty ancient model.  I'm actually very impressed with the finish on this - sprung buffers, wire handrails, separate horns fitted the right way round (Heljan please note....) - the ride height has been lowered and it runs like a Swiss watch, but the lack of flush-glazing to the cab windows lets the side down, so I'll be finishing this job 'the hard way' to see how it turns out. It still surprises me that, having gone to all this trouble, Hornby only produced three versions, two of which were weathered.....

[johnhutnick]

Isn't the Lima 33 HO scale, not OO?  If this is the case, the minority scale can add to value, as well as its use by the small number of British 1-87 modellers.

[locomad2]

7 minutes ago, johnhutnick said:

Isn't the Lima 33 HO scale, not OO?  If this is the case, the minority scale can add to value, as well as its use by the small number of British 1-87 modellers.

Yes it was HO, but I've seen on sale a OO one made later.

 

I purchased a working Class 33 HO for £2 in 1990's when HO was not popular, runs well 

[Steamport Southport]

19 minutes ago, johnhutnick said:

Isn't the Lima 33 HO scale, not OO?  If this is the case, the minority scale can add to value, as well as its use by the small number of British 1-87 modellers.

 

Not quite. Most that appeared in the UK was the OO version.

 

 

They did do a HO version, but it was replaced very quickly when they found out that British buyers wouldn't buy HO, nor the reliveried Continental rolling stock they sold. Quite rare, but be careful as they had the same numbers as the first OO versions. 

 

http://www.british-ho.com/showcase/traction-diesel/lima_cl33_1.htm

 

The Deltic suffered with the problem that it started out as a HO model but during development they changed it to OO so has some errors in the dimensions (too short) and has HO scale bogies. The Class 50 suffers with the undersized bogies as well.

 

More info on the Lima British HO range here.

 

http://www.limabritishho.co.uk/LBHO-Locomotives.htm

 

 

Jason

Edited April 10, 2022 by Steamport Southport

[DCB]

22 minutes ago, johnhutnick said:

Isn't the Lima 33 HO scale, not OO?  If this is the case, the minority scale can add to value, as well as its use by the small number of British 1-87 modellers.

Both. Early class 33 were H0 and there were H0 coaches to suit.  The later 00 class 33 is a completely different model, different bogies, chassis body, couplings, wheels everything but the motor.

 AFAIK the H0 33 and a H0 4F came first then the  Deltic  with H0 Bogies, and  00 Body following which I think everything was 00(except the class 50 again 00 on H0 bogies..

My 33 was converted to a 26 in the days before Lima made a class 26, thats how old it is.  You can make a half decent Hornby Ringfield class 47 by using  28XX/Saint/County tender drive mechanisms instead of the small wheeled Hornby original power bogie mechanism and using two of them.  I suspect the prices reflect the fact that people like me binned the Hornby diesels because they were so awful.

[griffgriff]

On 09/04/2022 at 15:24, Steamport Southport said:

That's the market I'm afraid. The people being nostalgic and will pay a premium for good quality "collectables" are now the kids brought up in the late 1960s and 1970s rather that the Hornby Dublo era. They want the things that were available when they were kids that they either never had or have given away/sold/broke/etc.

 

What they call in the toy market "The Star Wars Generation".

 

 

Why's the Lima 33 going for more than the others? Probably because it's still a fairly decent model compared to some of the others. Bit of work and it scrubs up well.

 

The modellers wanting detailed models would probably ignore the Triang and Hornby stuff as there are far better models available of all those prototypes. If I was after models of things like Classes 25, 31, 37, 47 and a Hymek than I wouldn't be looking at those, I would be looking at the more recent versions from Bachmann, Hornby, Heljan, etc. even the Lima versions still stand up pretty well.

 

 

 

Jason

I’m not sure I agree. I’ve certainly seen pretty good jobs made of these Hornby relics and the 25 is still well respected. What you say is true of most Lima offerings but the 33 was definitely not their best.

 

Griff