Hi chaps,
just how inaccurate is the Lima Class 31?
Best regards
John
Very :)
Oh well, I've got one now, so I guess I can always pull it apart a break it!!!
Quote from: Jaguar68 on January 28, 2018, 08:56:39 PM
just how inaccurate is the Lima Class 31?
Lima models are not highly rated. The mechanisms are very basic, and tend to be noisy and unreliable. If you don't mind a "vintage" model, then Minitrix make much better investments. Silly prices are often asked for these on eBay, but you can pick them up a lot more cheaply at model railway shows, say £30-40. The later Minitrix 47s are probably the best of the bunch.
Still, I regularly see Farish 'Warships' going for £50, and these are beautifully made locos built to current standards. Hard to imagine any Minitrix diesel, let alone Lima, being worth that sort of money. So spend your cash wisely!
Hattons has a particularly good secondhand website in my humble opinion. New stuff every day, and even if the prices aren't absolutely rock bottom, they're still pretty decent, and you can always return stuff that doesn't work, which isn't always the case with things bought at shows or on eBay.
Cheers, NeMo
I think I need to be a little more disciplined with my rolling stock. The best loco I have at the moment is a Farish by Bachmann Class 33, 33002 Seaking, in Dutch.
Best regards
John
The Lima 31 is a little overscale, though not as bad as the Lima 55 Deltic which is massively oversize. The size difference is particularly noticeable against Lima's own british coaches which if anything seem to be to 1:160 scale instead of british 1:148. I remember buying a 31 from W&H in the 70s.
The original motor bogie mechanism can only best be described as "cheap and cheerful". The loco suffers from only being driven on the one bogie, with all the pickups on the other bogie which is quite highly sprung. you need to keep the pickup wheels very clean to maintain any hope of decent running through insulfrog points.
In the last gasps of Lima British N production in the early 90s the 31 (and also the class 86) was revised with a can motor, though still driving just the one bogie. This is I think a better, smoother running model but still a little wobbly if the traction tyres aren't perfect, and still hindered by pickups on one bogie only. I've only recently acquired examples of the can-motored 31 and 86, purely in the interests of having them in my collection. I had been vaguely aware of the 31 as it was proposed in the 1991 catalogue (though it was supposed be both bogies driven), but I wasn't aware of the 86 until it was mentioned on this forum. As a European N modeller I view these alongside similar early upgrades to Lima's continental models, on the way to further improvements resulting in models that I consider still good enough to run at shows.
Thanks for the replies chaps. I'm not too worried about running the 31's with coaching stock, as I'm looking to repaint it in one of the Railfreight logos. Hopefully, it won't look too bad :confused1:
Has anyone every converted a Lima Class 31 to 2mm finescale, and if so what were they smoking?
I ask because this thread is in the 2mm section ;)
Not anymore ;)
Just for the record, here's mine:
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4306/35637346120_ed6a88bbc4_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/Wi9Hq5)
Lima Class 31 D5518 (https://flic.kr/p/Wi9Hq5) by Rail Squid (https://www.flickr.com/photos/129145651@N06/), on Flickr
Easily the worst runner I own, I've got a 1960s-era East German Piko locomotive which is better designed and more reliable. I think it might benefit from more weight to improve traction, as the only substantial weight is provided by the diecast metal chassis.
What the Lima 31s are very good for is donating the boiler steps and filler to put into the older Farish bodies. At least, till Farish brought out the revised 31s and negated all the work!
It's a pity really, the shell is really quite finely detailed. I now only have 2 31's as I have just discovered that one of them has had a catastrophic fire at some point!!!
I hope to be doing a restoration thread at some point in the near future 😊
Way back in the 1980s I recall Bernard Taylor - of this parish merrily slicing and dicing the body into a 2mm model - Quite possibly the basis of the resin kit that was available. The chassis with kit was a white metal casting and with a donor to transplant bogies and motor a good model made.
At worst the Lima model makes a siding filler given original chassis is beyond poor..
Robert
I agree totally on the detail on the Lima bodies. If they hadn't made such a ghastly hash of the proportions, in my opinion, the detail would stand comparison of most models of today. I keep looking at the ones I have to see if there is anything else that can be transplanted.
Hi Cut of cabs on roof join keeping handtails intact , slit vertically and remove a mm from each side and rejoin make good door and roof vent. Then taking a 1990s vintage 31 remove cabs and put on lima cut downs - hepresto a skinhead 31...
A great way to make a differing version until just a year or so ago... and guess what is in my part done bin!! I will finish it one day honest - well I keep telling myself. This "mod" however extreme makes up for how the early farish model was rushed to market part finished- so near but so far.
At a show when 31 was brand new I compared it with the Bernard/ CJM version on the stand. the CJM was slightly - 6mm shorter which made me think it was a 2mm not N model and the Farish crowd were liking the simple blue livery - that came out next ! but were a bit sheepish on the bland end details.
Quote from: Jaguar68 on January 28, 2018, 10:08:55 PM
Thanks for the replies chaps. I'm not too worried about running the 31's with coaching stock, as I'm looking to repaint it in one of the Railfreight logos. Hopefully, it won't look too bad :confused1:
Here are a couple I converted years ago
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/91/2947-280420192002.jpeg)
Mike
The Lima 31 is a very typical model of the times - excellent moulding but overscale to fit the 1960s Ringfield motor.
The 4F and Deltic were also similarly afflicted. Until the TPM kit and Farish 31s came along, you just had to make the best of it. There were articles in the N Gauge Journal on how to cut and shut the body to closer to scale but this was too scary for me to try...
That ghastly ringfield motor was definitely Lima's Achilles' heel.
Why they didn't go with a can motor like the German manufacturers, I will never know!
@PGN (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=4604) they did in the end, before becoming Minibahn and then part of the Rivarossi group.
I have can motor 31, 86 and also a few Continental Lima models. I saw a can motor Deltic on ebay not so long ago.
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/93/5885-120520201912.jpeg)
Still suffers from drive on one bogie only, and pickups on one bogie.
The ringfield motor bogie would have been better if built to a higher quality. Ibertren used a very similar design for one of their Spanish multiple units, but it's better made. Let's not forget the likes of Fleischmann and Marklin used ringfield motors in HO for decades and they were very good. The Hornby ringfield was ok I suppose.
Has to say that the image of the 86 can motor made me think straight away to the first can in the Farish 94xx , holden Tank, Hall and BOB / MN of the early 1970s .
Perhaps some clever soul at Lima saw it and hoped it was a solution to their poor motor - well it was good if left well alone, a good one was good, the rest left a lot to be desired or just did not work.
Quote from: robert shrives on February 20, 2021, 07:00:57 PM
Perhaps some clever soul at Lima saw [the Grafar can motor] and hoped it was a solution to their poor motor
Same motor as used in some Arnold locos so that's more likely what they saw, and I also have one branded as ECM somewhere. It was the only bit of those old Grafar locos that was any good and worth salvaging.
And yet...it was fastest thing on twelve wheels. :D
Certainly faster than any scalextric I ever had. It never melted either unlike that BR liveried 211/212 they released.
I demotored mine and gave it to my great nephew along with some other old lima and farish stuff to push round a little scenic loop we made for him.
I too shared the same issues with both 31 and 55 . I sold the deltic at an exhibition part exchange plus old bits i disliked for a farish. Agree with comments about moulding , the poor
ringfield motor and pick ups one bogie. Still have the 31 albeit a non runner placed in a shed scene