L I M A ? ? ?

[George]

Whatever happened to LIMA?? Not the steam shovel company, but the "HO" model trains.

They came from Europe, were inexpensive, ran well and had superior detailing and graphics.

George

 

[Woodie]

Lima is fine in Oz. Still running strong, however I have found their drive-trains leaves a bit to be desired. This is the vertical wound black motor they use. Terribly noisy, and squeeky, and suffers badly on conductivity when the tracks are slightly dirty. All my other engines go fine. Put the Lima engines on( I have 2) and they won't go until you give the track a good clean again.

Lima even make local Australian rolling stock from the Oz prototypes. Have they ceased trading in the US?

TOOT!

 

[George]

Woodie, the two local dealers who carried LIMA have gotten rid of them. Probably couldn't make enough profit from selling them.

Several years ago I purchased a modern DB IC trainset of theirs for only US$40! They had several sets for the same price and I purchased three others. They also had The Flying Scotsman with a light in the cab and a host of other modern european electrics. I'm sorry I didn't fill a closet with them.

You're correct about the mechanisms though. I have an FP-45 of theirs that will pull your father off the couch, and it is rather noisy.

The only place I could track them down recently was at a site in France. Lot of help that was.

George.

 

[Woodie]

All Lima has here is Australian stock, and European stock. All still available, and also those cheap boxed sets. You know, an oval of track, an engine and 3 freight cars for $80. I suppose their would not be much of a demand for Eeopean rolling stock in the US? ALl retailers in OZ stock Lima stuff.

TOOT

 

[Biggerhammer]

I presume that if they still sell down under, there'll be a hobby shop somewhere there who'll have a website or flyer. Getting a good model of the Flying Scotsman for cheaper than visiting the real thing appeals to me

Is it simply the motor on the Lima locos that drags them down? If so, it seems like a dream project to drop a 5-pole into a Lima. Naturally I speak for nearly total ignorance here, having only recently learned that Lima was not necessarily just a city in Peru, but if the rest of the model is of good quality it'd be a shame to let the sole defect bar the loco from contending.

 

[Woodie]

My supplier is "Flying Scotsman" heaven.... They have it in all brands, and price ranges. It is in quite demand here, as they bought the real one out from England a few years ago and took it all over Australia. Had races down the mainline with it, with some locally preserved steam.

TOOT!

 

[Drew1125]

I'm not sure, but it seems like I remember Lima, years ago (late 60's - early 70's), being associated somehow with AHM. If that's the case, then I'd bet the same tooling still exsists under the name Model Power.


[This message has been edited by Charlie (edited 05-11-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Charlie (edited 05-11-2001).]

 

[Sir_Prize]

Evening;
Guess you could say I'm interested in the Euro stuff. But it has to do with Bullet trains and just down right odd looking stuff. Of course it'll need to be in N scale, got no place for other scale. Well... I could run it at the club (they have an HO layout), but just more fun at home, not in anyone's way. What can I say... Just a real nice guy.

Keep your rails clean;
Ken 'Sir Prize'

 

[George]

Charlie,

I think they're totally different and unrelated. AHM went to Rivarossi, or the other way around! It got quite confusing for some years. AHM passenger cars were suddenly market as Rivarossi in the late 80's. Leading up to that, they were made first in Italy, then Yugoslavia, now in the Peoples Republic of China. Progressive cost cutting, wouldn't you say?

At some point, AHM disappeared completely, replaced by IHC (actually the same guy) and Rivarossi became a separate entity. HOWEVER, there was a decent brand of engines and rolling stock called "PEMCO", which I have been told has evolved into the IHC locomotives available presently.

In the 1980's, someone showed me a comparison between the AHM GG-1 and PEMCO GG-1 locomotives. Until that time, we thought they were one in the same, except that the PEMCO was significantly cheaper than it's AHM counterpart. The body detailing was IDENTICAL, but the weighting and placement of the mechanism inside made the balancing and weight characteristics of the two totally different.

Being on a budget, I took the PEMCO, as it seemed to pull and perform identically. You can get one today from IHC and it's the PEMCO model.

You brought up Model Power, and they seem to be in bed now with ROCO. The ROCO "HO" Baldwin Sharknose diesel is an upgraded Model Power model.

Woodie, you would be surprised about the demand for European stock in North America. European manufacturers make few models for our prototypes, yet from all the people in military service and business travellers, there's quite a demand for MARKLIN and other European manufacturers models over here. Also, nearly everything in my area in "Z" is German. A dealer I frequent in Montreal features overpriced Athearn kits, but the ROCO rolling stock of German and Austrian equipment is quite reasonable, considering the quality one gets.

I have to fess up to a consist of European passenger equipment for 2 rail operation. It was accumulated from a few trips, getting hooked, and mail ordering and hitting the shop in Montreal.

German "N" is VERY big in New York. Lots of freight cars available, but I personally only know one fellow who's into it.

Back to L I M A.

I can't even find it on the web. Helmut's trains in Virginia supposedly has it, yet they don't have anything listed on the site.

Anyone?

George.

 

[George]

Hello Folks!

Latest on a fruitless search for "What ever happened to Lima Models?".......

Helmut's Trains responded to an e-mail enquiry of mine and they said they didn't know, but they thought the outfit went out of business......

George.

 

[Woodie]

Hmmmm.... Lima is fine here. FUll page ads in Australian Model Railway Magazine, with rollingstock, track, turnouts, etc. Teh ads are placed by hobby suppliers of course, but Lima is alive and well in OZ. The ads mention nothing about Lima (the company) just models etc available under the Lima brand. I'll ask next time I'm at my supplier.

TOOT!

 

[George]

Woodie, That's most encouraging. Could you take a look and see if they have a web address please?

George.

 

[MPearson]

Lima In the USA

Try this link. It is a company in the USA they stock loads of Lima models.

http://www.tee-usa.com/index.html

 

[mav_uk]

Lima seems to be going well in Europe. My first train was a Lima TGV (Thalys colours) running on Marklin C Track (bloody noisey!). However my main problem is the fact that the lights don't seem to work properly (only work in one direction) and when you run with the engine at the rear the 'special' links between carages jump the rails everytime you come out of a corner!

Wasn't cheap though as some of you seem to be saying. It cost me 700+ NLG (about 200 GBP) for the train, and I have to send it back to the importers to get it fixed (thikning of which I'd better do it before the guarantee runs out!)

Laters guys

Stu

 

[60103]

Lima is also going well in Britain. They produce probably the most varieties of paint schemes on diesels of any manufacturer, but they insist on having the most oversize coupling of all (think of a Lionel coupling on American Flyer).

David

 

[MPearson]

David,

It's about time Lima started using the center motor and flywheel drive like the do on their continental models. Although the class 67 uses this system it is still no where near as good as their continental stuff.

I was at Alexandra palace at the weekend and was chatting to one of the traders that was at the Nuremburg fair earlier in the year. Lima told him they have no real interest in marketing continental models in the UK. I guess they don't want to compete with the likes of Roco and Fleischmann.

Never mind I will just have to import it......if only I could find a decent web site for continental lima....any idea's?

 

[60103]

MP:
I wasn't pushing Lima, just passing on that it's still around.
I have two of their diesels and the second one was a gift. I can't run them on my layout because the flanges bump on my track. If I get to the right place I'll buy some replacement wheels. (I don't think there's a place in Canada that supplies them.)

But they do have the fastest paintshop in town.