Hi

Is the Lima Class 4F (with tender drive) a decent model?
- reliability in running
- is it a decent detailled model and true to the original

Reason: I am considering buying one... to drive some tiny peco-vans

Get it for the motor alone.

Lima N Gauge is basically useless unless you do major conversions or just collect them because they were all we had at one point! 

Definitely not to scale, too large, lacking in detail, they were pretty dreadful when new.

Somewhat overscale, very basic model, tender drive is one of Lima's less worse mechanisms, but that's not saying much.

OK, sounds as if it should stay below the 2 to 3 pound limit... else I will forget it.
Thanks

They say you learn summat every day - I didn't even know Lima had made one

Just get up, Mick? 

Quote from: Bealman on August 08, 2018, 10:47:51 AM
Get it for the motor alone.

Are you OK, George? This is a Lima motor we're talking about here.

Quote from: Newportnobby on August 08, 2018, 11:27:07 AM
They say you learn summat every day - I didn't even know Lima had made one

Here you go, with a Poole-era Farish coach in tow:



and for lolz a Lima Mk1:

Stop it, you're scaring me

oh memories. My first n gauge loco in black as part of the freight train set.

Elmo

To quote a political slogan from a while back, that counts as "back to basics"

My 2nd purchase back in 1976! A truly awful loco that was oversized and looked even worse next to the Lima N gauge coaches which were undersized. Mine would either drive around my first layout at a scale 200 mph or wouldn't budge at all.

I had two back in the day, a red one and a black one. They were truly dreadful in every respect. Comparatively cheap at I think £5.99 at the time, but my Peco Jubilee at over four times the price was way more than four times as good!

Roy

The Lima power block was a very basic and cheaply made mechanism, following similar designs used by Hornby and Fleischmann (amongst others) in their OO tender drives and diesel bogie blocks.  it might have been better if made with higher quality moldings and materials.   Really can't recommend one these days other than for "historic" curiosity.

Youtube videos only ever seem to show them being belted round the track at full tilt!

Actually, having read my own post again, it does sound like I'm putting praise on the motor. What I meant was that it was the best bit as the model itself was awful.

It doesn't look too bad in Squiddy's photos, though!