I spotted some Lima (supposedly N-Gauge) Southern Region Mk1 coaches with what look like continental HO scale couplings in N-Gauge instead of the usual Rapido/Elsie: are they really British N-Gauge 1/148 or are they HO 1/87?
I do have some other Lima N-gauge Mk1s with rapido couplings: impossible to tell the size or compare lengths from just the photos.

Lima's earliest European N gauge models in the late 60s did indeed use the HO style loop coupling before they adopted the standard Rapido hook.  I don't recall ever seeing any of the Mk1 coaches with them though. 

Also, Lima initially offered a range of British models in HO and those had the HO couplings - are you sure it wasn't HO coaches that you saw?

Can you post a link to the photos?  The general "chunkiness" of the models should help judge the scale - things like pizza cutter wheels, thick bogie frames, deeply inset windows are more prominent in N than the HO models.

[edit]
The 1967 Wrenn Micromodel catalogue page appears to show the British coaches with the loop couplings, but the images look like doctored HO rather than the N tooling

https://lima-n-scale-catalogs-1965.webnode.cz/#!

Lima British HO models:
http://www.limabritishho.co.uk/

Quote from: ntpntpntp on July 05, 2025, 04:22:08 PMLima British HO models:
http://www.limabritishho.co.uk/

I have some Lima British HO stuff: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjKY9ikP

Quote from: ntpntpntp on July 05, 2025, 02:04:30 PMLima's earliest European N gauge models in the late 60s did indeed use the HO style loop coupling before they adopted the standard Rapido hook.  I don't recall ever seeing any of the Mk1 coaches with them though. 

Also, Lima initially offered a range of British models in HO and those had the HO couplings - are you sure it wasn't HO coaches that you saw?

Can you post a link to the photos?  The general "chunkiness" of the models should help judge the scale - things like pizza cutter wheels, thick bogie frames, deeply inset windows are more prominent in N than the HO models.

[edit]
The 1967 Wrenn Micromodel catalogue page appears to show the British coaches with the loop couplings, but the images look like doctored HO rather than the N tooling

https://lima-n-scale-catalogs-1965.webnode.cz/#!

I mis-remembered them being SR Mk1: they were actually continental CIWL Pullmans ... spotted on eBay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/157010403142
So, as you say, tout à fait possible!