Retro modeller

[belstone]

Rummaging through my scrapbox I found a relic of the good old days - a BR horsebox, with a printed colour card body on a Lima continental wagon chassis.  I don't remember who produced these card kits, but there were quite a few, mainly private owner wagons. 

That set me thinking about some of the other stuff I can vaguely remember from British N gauge in the 1970s:

• Ian Kirk plastic coach and wagon kits
• Anbrico whitemetal body kit for a Class 50
• Graham Farish points with massive clearance between the check rails
• ABS body kit for a Class 03 to fit a Minitrix tank engine chassis.  In fact, whitemetal body kits in general.
• Farish couplings with that stupid plastic U bend in the shank so they never sat level and kept uncoupling themselves
• Farish J69 tank engine with lots of plastic gears between the motor and the wheels.  All of which would strip their teeth after about ten minutes running.
• Wondering why Peco never made any more locos apart from the Jubilee.

Feel free to add to the list.

[gc4946]

Highfield made printed colour card body sides, mainly wagons but also some ex-North Eastern Rly carriages. I believe they also produced white metal body kits for a NER O Class 0-4-4T (LNER G5) and long-boilered NER 0-6-0 freight loco.
Peco retailed a Fairburn 2-6-4T and Hymek white metal body kits to fit onto Arnold chassis.
Ian Kirk actually made a Gresley non-corridor 3rd and a Thompson corridor third, as well as a part body moulding for a B1 to modify a Peco Jubilee, and several wagon kits.
Also, Wrenn/Lima brought out Mk1s, bogie Freightliner container wagon, class 86 electric loco, class 31, class 55 Deltic, a reliveried German BR212 (like a shortened version of the class 17 Claytons), 4 wheeled diesel shunter, LMS 4F, a crude representation of BR Standard 4 2-6-4T on a Swedish Railways chassis, mainly to 1: 160 scale but the Deltic looked vastly overscale.

[EtchedPixels]

I've got a few oddities here - like a Langley class 25 - long discontinued, and the P&D Marsh 56 (ditto), both of which though less detailed are far more accurate shape than the Farish one. Some of the stuff was quite clever - like the ECM kit for the HST using Warship chassis

Jackson Evans, Leading Etch, Cav'n'dish, Precursor, Graham Hughes, Mike Howarth (although he's still doing some oddments), plus various other lines that ended up under Marsh or BH Enterprises like DJH and bits of MTK stuff. Others like ABS seem to have sadly vanished with the retirement of the producer.

Alan

[belstone]

Lima was a big part of my childhood.  My father was a keen scratchbuilder and the King of Plastikard.  Among other things he constructed a prototype HST (about a month after the real one appeared), an LNER tram loco and for my seventh birthday, a Southern Region 4-VEP electric unit.  All fabulous to look at, but powered by the motor bogie from hell.  I had a Class 31 (in a strange shade of blue with small yellow ends), the "Class 17" which didn't fool me even at that age, and for some reason lots of Aral tank wagons.

When Lima got their act together they were very good.  If someone were to dig out the tooling for the CCT parcels van and put it back in production it would not look out of place against the latest BachFarish offerings.  But I think they only had one accurate ruler in the factory, and they kept losing it.

[gc4946]

Do you still have your dad's scratchbuilt models (or, if not, any photos of them) ?

PS - Lima's GWR horsebox was also a good model in its day and their GWR bogie Siphon van would still pass muster today once correct GWR bogies are fitted.

[EtchedPixels]

The trick with the Lima siphon is to buy a cheap Dapol siphon, turn the Dapol siphon body into a grounded store of some kind and put the Dapol chassis on the Lima one. It fits a treat and then runs beautifully.

It's also possible to update it to the correct 1970s arrangements for rail blue ones if desired.

Alan

[Adam1701D]

Anyone remember the Jamie Micro Traction kit for a GWR Large prairie. It was largely plastic, with a brass chassis and rather crude. My father bought one out of curiosity but we could never get it to do anything.

I believe that there may have been an LNER N2 kit from the same stable.

[Michael Shillabeer]

ABS made a range of loco driving wheels and gears

Lima's catalogue promising a King

Michael

[Mike W]

The trick with the Lima siphon is to buy a cheap Dapol siphon, turn the Dapol siphon body into a grounded store of some kind and put the Dapol chassis on the Lima one. It fits a treat and then runs beautifully.

It's also possible to update it to the correct 1970s arrangements for rail blue ones if desired.

Alan

Funny that Alan, that's exactly what I'm doing, hence my order to you from this morning!

[belstone]

Anyone remember the Jamie Micro Traction kit for a GWR Large prairie. It was largely plastic, with a brass chassis and rather crude. My father bought one out of curiosity but we could never get it to do anything.

I believe that there may have been an LNER N2 kit from the same stable.

And possibly a V1/V3?  My dad had one, certainly a plastic body kit and crude, on a Farish Hall chassis with valve gear from I can't remember where.

I have dug out a few old photos (although sadly not of the HST or 4-VEP) - will scan them and put them up when I get the chance.

[BramptonBranch]

What exactly was the Lima 0-4-0 supposed to be?

[port perran]

Does this topic win the prize for the longest gap between posts at 5 years and 2 months?

[njee20]

I linked to it yesterday in a related thread (after this one came up on Google) so not wholly surprising!

[xm607]

Ian Kirk also did plastic kits for the LNER B1 and V1/3, the B1 used the Peco Jubilee chassis and the V1/3 the Minitrix 2-6-2 tank, MTK was supposed to do a class 20 to fit an Atlas SW1200 diesel switcher chassis. The class 20 was one of the first diesel bodies that I made in plastic and cast them in resin glue produced from a rubber mold, they also used the Atlas chassis.

[ntpntpntp]

What exactly was the Lima 0-4-0 supposed to be?

A generic Plymouth-style diesel that they painted and sold in many versions for different markets.