Mountain wrote:...I did notice (Which I need to check) that later locos had corrosion on the copper parts like their pickups even when new. I assume they used too much flux on the solder?
Alternative theory: the pick ups and wiring were assembled from random factory floor sweepings. Many connections which would have benefitted from soldering were clip on. A bit of DIY to improve the wiring, make soldered connections, add pick ups, did much for running reliability.
Mountain wrote:..The pancake motors I actually love as they are so easy to work on...
Good in basic design - provided it gets current it will run - but manufactured to a low standard presumably on price containment grounds. Given better control of bearing tolerances and gear mountings it may be improved. Comparison to the motor bogie in the HO class 33 is instructive: same basic design, executed to a better manufacturing standard. As a result it is quieter and visibly smoother in operation.
Mountain wrote:Supply problems I was told were because the UK importer in latter years refused to supply the Lima catalogue items but concentrated on limited editions as they earned more profits from them...
This is a consequence of Lima not actually being in the OO market. The marketing rights to the OO product belonged to Riko which was the commissioning business. Only what Riko were prepared to order was manufactured. Just before Lima folded a centre motor drive model was commissioned (Class 67) to compete with the equivalent drive on Bachmann's models (and clearly imminent from Hornby) but it was all too late. Hobbyco
could have reacted to the Bachmann Peak's spectrum drive introduced back in 1992: that was a clear warning shot, and Lima had the proven mechanism designs to compete with that elsewhere in their empire...
(The same business model applies to the 'Hobbyco' class 37 and 47 models commissioned from and produced by (the ex-Lima people who started) ViTrains. Hobbyco explicitly stated that they were out to supply limited volume reliveries ad nauseam. Unfortunately for the viability of this scheme Hobbyco was facing several competent competitors well established with their potential customers, a far broader product selection than the RTR OO market had ever previously seen, and an overall quality standard that left them in fifth place out of five.)