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Lima and Hornby coach compatability


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Hi

I am new to model rail and have purchased second hand lima MK3 coaches for my to run with my Heljan class 87 and new Hornby MK3 DVT and restaurant - buffet coach and have found that the Lima coaches appear to sit approx 1mm higher than the Hornby.Upon investigation i have found that the Lima sits high on its bogie. Can anybody advise which make is correct to scale.

Thanks

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The prototype dimension is 3' 5½" from railhead to buffer centre line. There is an allowance on this for wear, but for our purposes 14mm will do. Historically, Hornby have been using a 'Fisherman's ruler' and set their buffers at 16mm or thereabouts.

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Look at the roof lines before adjusting buffer height - Lima tended to use bigger diameter wheels than necessary, which lifted the coach body higher than it should have been. If the roof lines don't match up on adjacent coaches of the different brands, rewheel the Limas with either Bachmann coach wheelsets (should be a direct drop in replacement) or Jackson/Maygib/Romford/whatever brand suits - although if rewheeling with anything but Bachmann you may have to specify a 26mm axle length to suit the Lima bogies

 

Best

Matthew

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Look at the roof lines before adjusting buffer height - Lima tended to use bigger diameter wheels than necessary, which lifted the coach body higher than it should have been. If the roof lines don't match up on adjacent coaches of the different brands, rewheel the Limas with either Bachmann coach wheelsets (should be a direct drop in replacement) or Jackson/Maygib/Romford/whatever brand suits - although if rewheeling with anything but Bachmann you may have to specify a 26mm axle length to suit the Lima bogies

 

Best

Matthew

 

Are you sure? All the Lima I've met has 11.5mm dia. wheels (of dubious profile, but seem to run OK*) The axles are 24.5mm long as well. I've long since fitted Hornby bogies to my Lima Mk 3s (for compatibility and seeing I've got more Hornby coaches...), so I can't check. Mk 3 wheels are 3' dia., so 11.5mm is fine.

 

* The metal ones. - some of the earlier metal wheels have a dodgy plastic bush which makes the wheel eccentric.The blackened ones are OK. The plastic wheels are well - plastic.dry.gif

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Are you sure? All the Lima I've met has 11.5mm dia. wheels (of dubious profile, but seem to run OK*) The axles are 24.5mm long as well. I've long since fitted Hornby bogies to mine, so I can't check. Mk 3 wheels are 3' dia., so 11.5mm is fine.

Indeed most coaches have undersize wheels (ie the mk1 range on original bogies) but the mk3 has the correct diameter with the bodies raised out of the way for excess clearance for very tight curves..

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Thanks Guys .I replaced all my coaching stock with new wheels as I have gone for Peco code 75 .I checked the roof lines of my MK2 Hornby and lima and found the roof curve profile at the peek is about a 1mm higher on the Lima's but every thing else matches.

My Mk3 wheels are the same diameter as the Hornby new mk3 DVT and buffet but the coaches of the Lima match when manually lined up and the bogies are 1mm lower than the Hornby.

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When was Hornby's fisherman's ruler replaced with a B.S. one? It must have caused a headache, with old and new models on sale together.

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When was Hornby's fisherman's ruler replaced with a B.S. one? It must have caused a headache, with old and new models on sale together.

 

Still ongoing! :blink:

For example, I was in Modelzone the other day. The Dean Single on display had her tender buffers 2mm higher than the clerestory coaches she was coupled to. :(

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