rob D2 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 I was in the Lima collectors club circa 2000, right up to the point bachmannn and Heljan started producing stuff with decent mechanisms then the bottom fell out of it for me. Some of the bodies and decoration were quite good but the crude nature of the plastic chassis and motor were amazing Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roythebus Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Lima also done a very nice looking class 86 in N gauge in 1968. I said it looked nice, to what scale I can't remember, but was out of scale for either their BR coaches and the Minitrix BR coaches! There was a also an N gauge 2-6-4T which looked awful to say the least. One of the magazines put that at the top of the review page with a very nice German 2-10-0 by one of the German firms; it really showed up the Lima product for what it was, bloody awful! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Downendian Posted January 24, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 24, 2015 As posted elsewhere on the forum I'm a big fan of Lima diesels, especially classes 31,37,40 , 47 and HST. Their tooling still cuts the mustard compared to modern stuff which is no mean achievement. The Lima Western can also be made into a half decent model using A Brassmasters kit - I have a couple of them and may well have a go. Ok the mechanisms are variable, but I've seen double motored Lima bogies ( by the Kier Hardy EM gang - if it's good enough for them it's good enough for me) , and it's an absolute doddle to put a Bachmann chassis under a 40 and Vitrains under a 37. With a bit of work even the Heljan chassis can be put under a Lima 47 with a bit of filing/milling. The unfortunate side effect of the high quality Lima tooling is they command high prices - a few years ago that was not the case, I wish I'd bought more then! Neil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 One tip I read & tried for myself - and it worked - was to add more weight to Lima diesels. Even with a single pancake motor it smoothed out the running a fair bit, & aided tractive effort as well. Agree about the body mouldings - much better than Hornby for sure. I liked the way they managed to portray the fan in a grille that was still 'solid'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandwich station Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Lima also done a very nice looking class 86 in N gauge in 1968. There was a also an N gauge 2-6-4T which looked awful to say the least. Made for Triang Wrenn, or at least sold by them as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FNM600 Posted January 24, 2015 Author Share Posted January 24, 2015 Another unmade loco was the Princess Royal. I overlooked your last reply. Sorry. Is the Princess Royal the LMS Duchess 6201 a 4-6-2 T6 (in Whyte) (2C1 T3 in UIC)? Sorry about confusion. Thank you in advance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butler Henderson Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I overlooked your last reply. Sorry. Is the Princess Royal the LMS Duchess 6201 a 4-6-2 T6 (in Whyte) (2C1 T3 in UIC)? Sorry about confusion. Thank you in advance? A 4-6-2, but not a Duchess. The Princess Royals were the first LMS 4-6-2, a class of 12 built 1933(6200 & 6201) and 1935 (6203-6212). The Duchess, or Princess Coronation, Clas followed in 1937-1948 with a number streamlined but eventaully all were non-streamlined (6220-6256 with the last built after nationalisation as 46257).Lima announced a model in 1981 but nothing more was heard of it and was presumably killed off by Hornbys 1984 model. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandwich station Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Lima announced a model in 1981 but nothing more was heard of it and was presumably killed off by Hornbys 1984 model. I'm interested in this. Is there anything online anywhere that can be looked at, an old add or some documentation about it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsp3970 Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Growing up I thought Lima was better than Hornby or Mainline models. Even today I still pick them up when I get a chance. Some of my early Lima engines are now approaching 40 years old and still run so they were built to last! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthnut Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Hia, I actually prefer the Lima 20 over the Bachmann in terms of pulling power despite only driving one bogie, maybe to do with having traction tyres. I eventually sold my only Bachmann and kept four Limas as the Bachmann would slip hopelessly with the length trains I was hauling. I've yet to stall a pair of Lima 20s! I did re-motor a couple with those Chinese micro-gear motors that can be found on a certain popular auction site too for real slow speed work. I quite like a lot of the old Lima models, yes the pancakes could be a bit coggy for sure. I have a few that are super smooth though and never fail to surprise me with their performance. Even within the same outline though I have several which behave differently and seem to have different gearing. They certainly wouldn't keep the rivet counting level of scrutiny, but as mentioned earlier, I think there's certainly room for value for money models. TTFN, Ben Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FNM600 Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 A 4-6-2, but not a Duchess. The Princess Royals were the first LMS 4-6-2, a class of 12 built 1933(6200 & 6201) and 1935 (6203-6212). The Duchess, or Princess Coronation, Clas followed in 1937-1948 with a number streamlined but eventaully all were non-streamlined (6220-6256 with the last built after nationalisation as 46257).Lima announced a model in 1981 but nothing more was heard of it and was presumably killed off by Hornbys 1984 model. Thank you for the info regarding these LMS 4-6-2 Pacifics thus making the info from Wikipedia too more understandable. Certainly if Lima ha made it would have had a trickle of sales too in its country of productiontoo judging from this post: http://www.ferramatori.it/forum/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=1983. In effect therec was the earlier LMS Pacific (Princes Royals) plus the unique turbine fitted loco. Then an even slighly more powerful version (Duchess or Princess Coronation) some of which were streamlined in origin. But the streamlining was not as permanent as on the rival LNER A4s! But as we know Lima seemed to specialize even for GB outine on boxes on wheels with mecchanics based on the ubiquitous G motor and mechanism rather than complexities of large wheels and valve gear. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Growing up I thought Lima was better than Hornby or Mainline models. Even today I still pick them up when I get a chance. Some of my early Lima engines are now approaching 40 years old and still run so they were built to last! I doubt many of today's expensive superdetail models will last as long... :-( Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roythebus Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Personally the only problem I ever had with Lima diesels were the pizza cutter wheels. the flanges were too deep to run on scale bullhead rail, hence the awful running when we used them on New Annington. someone took a bogie home during an exhibition, turned the flanges down, and that unit ran without problem for the rest of the show. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGC Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Not strictly true - the Class 20 had a can motor with cardan shaft drive - albeit to only one bogie. Rgds, Yes, and with a decent gear train, the loco can be made to run really well. The one major problem with the Class 20 is the worm and first stage gear - the worm is a two start worm and gives a reduction ratio of 7:1 which is not very good, considering most locos have minimum 14:1 and 30:1 is even better. That's why, on this thread (sorry, this is an unashamed thread intrusion, please forgive me) I am wondering if there are any modellers who want to improve the slow running of their Class 20. Phil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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