Lima GWR Express Parcels Railcar Resurrection (Winter fix-up project). A couple of weekends ago I picked up a boxed Lima express Parcels Railcar (No.34) from a jumble stall at a local(ish) animal charity open day, it was priced at £5.00 and labelled not working. Being as it was for a good cause I gave a tenner and brought it home. Taking the body off, which was in good shape by the way, I soon found the reason for it not running, the motor stator was missing from from the power bogie! OK simple fix add a Su-Su style CD motor and off we go, but somewhere in one of my boxes of bits is a High-Level “Low Rider” power bogie kit with a Mashima motor, so I am going to try and use that to get rid of the big lump visible through the doors. While I am at it I am also going to do a DCC conversion and add some lighting. On second thoughts perhaps I should have only paid a fiver after all as this could soon get expensive! Pictures coming soon if I can find a camera. Rob.
Sounds an interesting project Rob. The Lima 'Pancake' motors were never very good in my opinion, slow to move initially, then taking off like a racehorse when you gave it a bit more 'ooomph'.....not exactly controllable! Although I've seen a few of the various types of motor bogie, I've never actually used one, but I have an old Triang 2 car EMU that could benefit from trying one of these bogies, so I'll be watching with interest on this thread. Keith.
Hi Rob With DCC you may be able to get the original Lima Pancake to behave a bit better. South eastern Finecast do flush glazing for the Lima GWR Railcar (SE41) @ approx £2.50. Don't forget to post piccies of your progress. Paul
I agree as I have a couple of Lima motored loco's that once fettled behave OK with DCC ( Digitrax decoders and NCE controller, or Sprog/DCC++ via JMRI), but in this case most of the motor is missing! Rob
So I have the thing stripped down and the issues are: 1 No securing screws, and one of the securing towers id split, but thats ok the buffers fix the body to the chassis. 2 No only is the pancake motor stator missing, but so are the bushes and pressure springs, yet the front plate screws are present. 3 The plan to use a High-Level Kits power bogie is on hold for the moment as I will need to reduce the wheelbase by a couple of mm. The GWR Railcars has a 8' 6" rather than the more than the more modern/usual 9' wheelbase. 4 Brass wheels! I would post an image or two but I can't get it to work, they are jpg's less than the max size but once chosen nothing happens! Not even an error! As for inserting a URL I don't use picture hosting services, I don't trust them Issue one is a non issue really, the buffers will hold the body shell in place nicely, and I can sort out a nut and bolt arrangement to secure the ballast weight fixing plate in position. Issue three is the big one, and I am going to have to think about it. Can I live with the wheelbase error (probably not as it will annoy me as I know its there), or can I modify the power bogie kit? Looking in my box of bits I think I may have enough spares to rebuild the existing motor short term. If I decide not to chop up the High-Level Kit I'll retro fit a SU-SU style (CD) motor such as the ones used by Kieth. I have had success with these in the past, hence the spares. If I staying with the Lima power-train than those wheels are going to have to go, so I need to decide what I am doing fairly quickly. In the meantime I am starting on the lighting and flush glazing, I had a glazing pack from a fleabay job-lot I picked up last year.
I have relented, I work in IT and IT security and don't therefore trust social media et-al with very much. So some images: The remains of the motor. The bodyshell interior. I have now detached the cabs from the chassis, to sort out the exterior lighting. I have also rebuilt the motor using bits from my spares box and fettled and lubricated the drive chain, I didn't run! Then I found that the power bogie base plate was on back to front so both wheel sets were picking up from the same side! All now sorted. I have also made a start on the internal lighting bus as can be seen in the second image. Still thinking about what to do about using the replacement bogie kit. Rob.
Well I hope the Christmas weekend went well for you all and that the New Year will too. I didn't get much modelling done but I did get the thing running with a cobbled together motor whilst waiting for the replacement CD type motor, and I got the decoder fitted. I also made up the roof lighting board and did a test fit, plus the a start on the ballast resistor board. So all I have to do now is drill out the body for the running lights, add pick-ups to the trailing bogie, and solder up the led's and basalt resistors. (I decided to keep the High Level kits lo-rider chassis for a replacement job where I won't need to shorten it.) All the best to everyone for 2017. The Decoder Fit The Lighting Board Test Fit