Ok…bout a month ago at work the subject of trains came up…my boss had a boatload of ho stuff that he did not want any more so i bought it. Got a ton of track, a bunch of rolling stock .like 17 assted. things and 4 engines…one bachman, one ahm and one tyco and a lima…all of the names Ive heard of xecpt lima. Whats the skinny on Lima…the only marks on the engine is LIMA and ITALY…any Ideas ???thanx J.W.
One word…JUNK. Ok,thats more like three
Patrick
their european stuff is pretty good.
Lima was an European modelmaker. It is now owned by Hornby of the UK and information on current activity can be found at: http://www.hornby.com/hornbyinternational/Products_DE.aspx
Of course the name originally comes from the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima Ohio which made steam locomotives from about 1869 until 1945, it survived through a series of mergers and after building a few diesel loco’s closed in 1956. They were famous originally for building over 2700 Shay design locomotives and eventually for the 2-8-4 'Super Loco" of the 1920’s - when the railways needed top find more speed for big heavy freight operations.
Despite what dragonriversteel has to say, the product, at least all the Lima I have seen, is far from junk, but I am not aware that they made much, if any, American prototype models.
Of course, I stand to be corrected!
John
Geesh! And I though Lima only built 1:1 scale… [:D]
In British models, I would rate Lima about the same as Tyco. I’m not sure about their American style products.
As pointed out above, Lima was a Italian manufacturer of model railroads.
They produced items for almost every European country. They also produced items for Australia, South Africa and Japan as well as the US. For the American market they made a number of steam locomotives. For example, A NYC mikado and some small Alco switchers. On the diesel front they made the ALCO 420 in the following road names AT&SF,B&O,UP, CP(Canada)
An EMD FP 45 was also available in AT&SF, BN and CN livery. Freight cars were also made.
Lima produced items for a number of American manufacturers, but as I do not have complete details about this side of their production I can not give any names.
Concerning the quality of Lima, as commented on above it was far from junk. I have a number of Lima locomotives both European and US. The majority are over 20 years old and still function well enough. As stated elsewhere on this thread Lima has been taken over by the British Co. Hornby. They have moved production of Lima , Jouef and other makes to China. Hornby’s British models are much improved since the middle of the 90’s. They hope the same will apply to Lima.
William
Most the Lima gear I’ve seen is pretty aveage, its major market was the toy train set area…great for kit bashing practice…
I agree with BR60103! I had 2 VR, S class diseals(victorian rail, an aussie railroad), and they could stand almost anything! heaps tougher than the lifelikes, and same detail, although they where 15 years older! only thing to wear out was the metal pick ups! DD
ps, the beans are good too[C=:-)][C=:-)][dinner][dinner]
Lima’s HO models were more geared towards the toy train market.
IMHO, their rolling stock was comparable to the Bachmann line and is a step below Athearn Blue Box. Molded on details, etc. However, with some detailing, metal wheels, and Kadee couplers, they can be made to look more realistic.
I know nothing about their HO steamers, but I’ve seen the Lima FP45. The Athearn version is a much better unit appearance and performance wise. Again, we have to keep in mind that these were more geared towards the toy train market.
I have two old Lima locomotives that are poorly made and barely run because only the rear truck is powered by a truck-mounted pancake motor. The front truck has plastic wheels on one side, as does the rear truck. They also have deep wheel flanges that won’t go through an Atlas turnout frog. They’re decorated for the Penn Central, which gives you some idea of their age – from the 1970’s.
For use as a paperweight is about all you can do with one.
Frankly, I’m amazed Lima lasted as long as they did. For years they kept supplying the UK market with some truly terrible models and made no effort to improve the quality even while putting prices up (the price for Lima diesels by the end of production was frequently more than for Bachmann ones - in US models this would be like Tyco locos being priced at the same level as Proto 2k). The final loco they offered (the EWS Class 67) was a step in the right direction with a proper can motor, flywheels, etc but was let down by many examples being delivered non-running (the motor used to come loose in transit - an easy fix but you shouldn’t have to fix new locos) and by the traction tyres (you need to spend another £20 on finescale wheelsets to sort this out).
The weird part is, I’ve seen photos of the mechanism from some of their more recent European HO models and they don’t look too shabby. For some reason they felt that they could continue pushing out decrepit pancake drive units in the UK market (people bought them as there was nothing else available). Thanks to Bachmann and more recently Hornby getting into the finescale diesel market we now enjoy the same standard of models as the US does!
when Lima advertised the class 67 it had a load of features on the advert that were not on the model!!
the bodel shell wasnt all that bad. it needed some detailing. brake pipes etc…
they had the really annoying habit of using yellow plastic and leaving the yellow fronts on brittish models bare plastic.
also many of their colours were down right wrong! take the EWS red for example! it was brown on the lima model!
many of the scotrail colours were also dubious.
but many of the models were actually quite good. they had a much better range of Mk 3 coaches that hornby have got.
their brittish steam locos were crap.
their continental ranges were much better than the brittish stuff.
the lima continental stuff was gradually being updated and the newer TGV’s were very nice.
but the prices, especially towards the end of lima were a work of fiction. it will be very interesting to see how hornby price the new hornby stuff. the last time i saw lima marketing the TGV duplex it was £185!! hornby cant possibly claim that it is worth as much as their new A3 and 3 teak coaches!! it will be interesting to see what happens.
I am supprised that the continental stock has not really been marketed in england yet. i am yet to see a single advert.
Peter
Peter, Hattons are listing some of the Jouef models as “on order” - think it’s just the 72000 class electric at the moment though. I didn’t realise about the missing bits on the 67 but it doesn’t surprise me - like I said, it was a step in the right direction but still nowhere near perfect. At one time I was considering buying one and doing some remedial work (Ultrascale wheelsets, etc) but I think a Bachmann 66 is higher on the list now - for the same money you get a loco that runs well straight from the box!
One reason why Lima lasted so long was that they had little competition at one end of the market, another is that they provided rolling stock in the liveries not often covered by other manufacturers. In Europe the major suppliers, Maerklin, Fleischmann and the three Austrian manufacturers, Liliput, Roco and Kleinbahn provided mostly for their home markets and the German market. Now and again they made items for other countries. Piko made items for the eastern European market and a few for the west.
Roco later provided many examples of locomotives, coaches and freight wagons in various railway company liveries.
Jouef mostly made for the French market, with a few items for lands they shared boarders with. I liked their TGV (the high quality one not the train set one) better than the Lima example. In Spain the Electrotren models were more for the top end of the marked.
At the time Lima entered the British marked there was not all that much competition.
The entrance of Bachmann into the British marked caused Hornby and others to improve their quality. In the end Lima became overpriced with little quality improvements.
The Lima train sets provided an introduction to the hobby at an afordable price for many people. The Lima models in my possession may not be the best but they still run even after twenty years.
i just looked up the hattons site. there are plenty of sites showing WHAT they are going to be making including hornby international’s but i cant find one showing what they will cost. i would also like to know what the boxes will be like.
not a reliable site anyway!
Peter