Introduced: circa 1969
As pictured above, there have been a couple of different versions of this model. The initial release (the one with the European-style trucks) used the chassis/mechanism from one of Lima's early Italian prototype passenger diesels (the one Con-Cor imported in New Haven livery in the mid-1960's) -
Sometime later on (I'm not sure when), the model received a new chassis and new, more prototypical trucks (same basic mechanism design, though) -
Regardless of which version you're talking about, what we have here is another stunning flop from Lima - and featuring that wonder of wonders, the Lima "pancake" motor. Crummy looks, light weight and a motor that barely works leads to one heck of a bad locomotive. Tack on single truck pickup (the forward truck), single truck traction tire drive (the rear truck), a shell that barely mounts to the chassis, truck-mounted Rapido couplers and non-directional lighting and we might just have a bad locomotive for the ages here. It almost brings tears to my eyes, thinking of the poor kids who got one of these lemons as part of an AHM trainset.
Dummy versions of this locomotive were also produced, which seems pretty redundant to me. As far as I'm concerned, they're all dummies...
This model had various importers- The earliest versions came in AHM packaging, later versions came in PMI packaging, and the last versions came in Lima packaging. Lima's entire line of North American models was discontinued circa 1992 when Lima was purchased by Rivarossi (although this particular model may have been retired well before that).
Grade: F