OH NO not yet another another small Lima Prairie.... :)

[cypherman]

Hi all,

Well over the pandemic and the lock-downs I repaired and restored 6 Lima small prairies. After that I thought I could never look another one in the buffer beam again. But as fate would have it I went to my local Model shop on Monday for a general mooch. They tend to have a quite eclectic range of stock. I ended up buying a mint boxed dinky Spectrum SPV, A Corgi Hawker Hurricane night fighter for my die-cast plane collection. But as you may well have guessed in one corner was one of the most neglected and abused Lima small prairies. It was missing just about everything.

1 No roof on the cab.

2 No buffers,

3 all the steps had been snapped off,

4 No whistles,

5 No copper chimney cap.

6 no tank air vents,

7 Handrail wires as per normal for Lima were all rusted.

8 Missing its factory fitted vacuum pipes.

9 Rear mounting point was snapped off.

10 No tank filler caps.

One strange thing though is that the brass steam dome seems to have warped backwards slightly on the left-hand side.

It was tested on the track, and it ran very badly.

But it was only £10.00.

So while I mooched I thought about. Could I do something with it that would cost me very little or nothing? I thought I could so I bought it. I had decided that what ever I used had to come from my spares boxes. I could not spend any money on it other than the initial cost

So I got it home and started.

1 Scratch built the roof and sliding vent from plasticard.

2 Scratch built the water tank filler caps,

3 Scratch built the steps again from plasticard.

4 Found a set of whistles that would fit.

5 Found a full set of buffers that are appropriate for this engine

6 Sorted out a chimney cap for the missing one

7 Gave the engine a full service, and it now runs like a dream. The dream might be somewhere on Elm Street depending on what you think of Lima engines.

8 Touched up the paintwork,

9 Fortunately the Lima prairie body is a very tight fit, so it was staying together well without the rear screw. But repaired the mounting just the same.

10 Replaced the vacuum pipes front and rear

Now I know that it still has some issues with things like the chimney cap not being 100% correct and the things I scratch built maybe not quite to scale, But i do not care. I have saved what would have probably gone in the junk/spares bin of the model shop I got it from. It lives again along with the other 6 I have..... :)

So here she is the bell of the ball

 

 

Edited May 27, 2023 by cypherman

[TrevorMc]

Looks good & great job. I'm doing similar but repainting/renumbering to black 4266 as on Severn Valley Railway. Is there a model number for the correct buffers please?

[cypherman]

Hi TrevorMc,

These should be appropriate I think. I cannot remember who made the ones I used as I said they were living in one of my spares boxes for quite some time.

https://www.petersspares.com/p/slaters-4906-gwr-collett-parallel-buffers-pk-4-oo-gauge