Hope not Al. I sent it back to Gaugemaster today. Hoping to get it changed for a (Farish) B1, as they are great locos. I have one in early BR black already but the LNER one looks too good to resist.
It is such a shame about the Brit. My friend has a similar situation except his was like mine straight away. His came from an Ebay seller who luckily had another one. His new one hasn't really been run yet, just tested.
To say I am p'd off about this is an understatement. I should never have trusted the reviews. Talking of reviews, in Model Rail they reviewed both B1s side by side and their review sample of the Dapol one was even faulty.
I would encourage everyone who has a Brit to run it a lot before their guarantee runs out.