PanzerJohn

If this loco is up to the detail standard of their Britannia,which it it must be, it will be outstanding. Might even tempt me to get my wallet out.

The best was Minic Motorway where you could combine road and rail. The set where you can drive cars onto the rail transporter and then drive the train away was awesome for it's time.

There was Rugby at Twickenham on Saturday, the whole area would have been gridlocked!

The second Dean hesitates and then stalls at slow speeds. That's what mine was doing.

Got it back with a new chassis/motor fitted, performance as it should be now, still gives most of its performance range with a very small amount of control knob turning so I have to be quite delicate with power control from the start or it takes off like a dragster but I've got a Bachmann City of Truro like that too.

Safety Dance-Men without hats.

I've had nothing but trouble with twin flywheel version, on my third now and it's started stalling at low speed. I won't be buying any more Oxford tat, it's a shame as it's such a well detailed and good looking loco.

My 3rd replacement Dean has now started stalling at low speed and refusing to restart unless given a large and abruptly applied dose of power. It's going back to Oxford this time.

The weird thing is that one of the locos had complete pipework on BOTH sides!, I wonder if they have a little man at the factory with a Stanley knife cutting them down and he got that one wrong!

With coaches approaching £60 and big loco's £200 with no discounting that's me out I'm afraid. I'll just have to hover looking for bargains or minty s/hand.

Your problem may be the prob Oxford told me ref my previous post.

I had to send 3 back before I got one that runs reasonably, all 4 have had missing detail parts, the tiny hook by the the front left buffer (2),missing the rear half of the pipework that runs alongside the running board (3), l/h brake rod (1), fallen out tender buffer (1). 2 were particularly poor runners, I phoned Oxford and was told they had probs with some the early ones which was down to shorting on the chassis halves, now cured by painting the previously bare metal surfaces. I have to say that imo they are not particularly sprightly runners compared to say, a Hornby Q1. It seems to run out of puff at half power on my controller but reaches a reasonable speed pulling 3 Hornby Mk1'sl, the speed range is basically covered by a quarter turn on the controller, the remaining 3 quarters give no more rpm from the motor. I was tempted to return it but it's such a nice looking well detailed model and was only £80 that I'll keep it, but am a bit wary of any future Oxford purchases.

Are the small parts supposed to come in a small ziplock placcy bag or a heat sealed one like Hornby? ta

I've picked up 2, one Hornby wishy washy green and one in lovely blue, both under £80 (new). Great value, I'm a sucker for detailed cabs and these are the bees knees.

I emailed Hornby about this issue and they replied that they are awaiting new, presumably thicker, traction tyres.

I had around £150 as the most I would be prepared to pay, it's an amazing model but at over 200 quid it's a no go for me (sad face).

Took a gnats doo dah off the front axle slot and the little loco is as good as gold.

Check that the piston con rod isn't catching the nut on the front driving wheel on bends when the wheel is at it's most lateral movement. Sometimes you need to bend the rod out a little to clear the nut.

Got my Warley special today and yes it has " the problem".It will pull 3 staniers but takes only the lightest touch from the hand of god to stop it dead, and it wheelspins really easily on abrupt power application. Shame as it's a really nice model for the money. Solutions are, from Hornby slightly thicker traction tyres or myself is to file a couple of thou off the rear axle slot. I wil ltry and get hold of some Airfix or Dapol traction to see if they are any thicker than the current Hornby ones.

I examined one at a Toy Fair a couple of weeks,spotted a small nick/gouge on the left cylinder.Dealer not happy, although he said he'd get a refund from Hornby on returning it there were none left to replace it so he'd loose the profit on the sale. He said it was a fairly common thing with Hornby these days.

A mate picked me up the Show Special one there yesterday. Can't wait to get my hands on it, looks really nice.

I've only ever bought stuff when on sale, luckily I've got virtually everything I need/want, although a £100 unrebuilt Merchant Navy one would have been nice, just have to look for a mint s/h one as I'm not paying Hornby's rrp.

I'm very happy with mine, esp at the very reasonable £80 I paid from Cornwall.

Top class dealer.

My bargain S15 arrived within 24 hours of ordering from deepest Cornwall and is a beautiful bit of kit.I gave it a good checkover first and nothing was loose and it is proving to be a beautiful runner. The cab detailing is exquisite, at £80 you can't beat it.