34theletterbetweenB&D

I am in complete agreement with the above, but would add the 'artistic vision' element and the layout builder's interests and capability. Every now and again a layout appears which is chronically boring and sprawling due to realistic but operationally limited track layout: but is actually positively enchanting in operation because those that constructed it composed a scene that was attractive and so interesting, that the 'defect' of the track layout is simply not noticed. This is where the potential layout constructor has to 'know thyself'.

It's all moot until the mechanism you need is on sale and available for examination: the construction may be such a pig as to be very off-putting! Plenty of folk have taken a mechanism which physically fits in a body shell and within cosmetic bogie frames that doesn't happen to have the correct wheel arrangement: seen BoBo mechs inisde CoCo bogie framess and CoCo mechs inside BoBo bogie frames. As scale size reduces, and especially if the bogie frames have deep sides, this compromise is often not readily noticed: what is seen is a running model in operation.

Back to basics. If the track supply was short circuited, the motor would not have run = no need to be concerned about a short circuit in the tender, the wiring in there was peculiarly bodged by a past owner but on the evidence, functional. Smoke from the loco chimney, acrid smell and heating of the motor. That needs to be looked into, but the photo of the mechanism reveals no evident damage. I have had several locos emit smoke and an acrid smell these past five years, source has been capacitors incinerating themselves. Low cost components, which have no real function nowadays, nothing to worry about. Bach's 3 pole motors of this type do get warm when running, but never (yet!) too hot to touch; that's in my experience over 22 years, with multiple examples drawn from well over 20 different types of their range. Does the motor turn easily, if not apply a little light oil to the worm and turn over by hand until it moves easily. (The colour of the worm suggests congealed grease to me.) Then give it another try with the body off, monitoring all the time at low speed.

Very nearly so in my case: finally had the time and space to build an extensive model railway, but the RTR OO simply wasn't good enough in all of accuracy, mechanism capability and range of subject choice, to make a UK main line subject feasible; so the planned alternative was a North American based fictional mash up in HO. Then Bachmann popped up with competent RTR OO of 'the everyday items' essential for such a project. That was what I needed for my UK subject project, because just for a start no way was I going to build 200 x 16T minerals, the single most numerous essential item.

It's difficult without actually observing it in reality and having a lot of tinker time to see what alters or prevents the creaking sound beyond 'only when going forward'. However, having had some thinking time this: "quieter on the rolling road", offers some information, essentially that the sound is likely to be coming from a wheelset and the parts directly attached or in contact with that wheelset. At this stage my inclination would be to put the model on a continuous circuit and run it for several hours; essentially 'as long as it takes for the sound to go away'.

... on hobby purchases, curiosity drives a lot of my 'wants'. When superior RTR OO started to appear from China in the late 1990s, I bought samples of everything as it became available, simply to get a feel for what was being produced. Even now I will buy the first vaguely useful item from new entrants to assess. Somewhat frustrated at present that there are half a dozen new entrants to RTR OO that haven't produced anything in the way of traction in particular that meets that 'vaguely useful' criterion...

No front coupler! That knocks a tenner off the value in the perception of 'Mr Economy Purchaser' in my experience. I have one spare somewhere if that will help?

More a familiar friend as it's a perfect time machine, every time I view it. The skinny schoolboy at the South end of WGC up platform could as well be me.

This is true, and the further proof is that RTR OO increasingly comes with a speaker installed. But what my question was aimed at is whether the significantly increased profit from 'DCC fitted or sound over DCC ready has seen any brand cease offering the latter.

No trouble there, You have the last of the GNR 0-6-0T designs in the J50, you can have a Stirling rebuild of one of the outside frame 0-6-0s bought by Sturrock as freight power from Hawthorns, Kirtsons, Sharp Stewart, etc. from the mid 1850s; Stirling remodeled these as neat ouside frame open cab saddletanks, clear ancestors in appearance of the final GNR 0-6-0ST from Ivatt, the LNER J52 'Humpy'.

That's my standard recourse to deal with 'droopy and falls out' tendencies of Hornby's coupler mounts, having long ago standardised on Bachmann's items. I regularly laugh at complaints that their coupler spares are unavailable: none of the other brands even bother AFAICS...

I would associate a creak with vibration of a thin metal section, most likely the coupling rods, excited by a very slight bind on a crankpin or rod joint. Try applying a dab of light oil to one crankpin or rod joint in sequence, with a test run between each application. If that kills the creak, then the last location oiled indicates the rod section on which there is slight tightness. Of course, if you have already oiled around, then maybe a pick up wiper excited on the wheelback, try powdered graphite for 'killing' this to find the source. I am rather envious as steam locos genuinely creaked at low speed, especially on tight curves. I'd like my Hornby J50s to creak...

My railway thinking is primarily conditioned by exposure to the ECML, not that noted for cattle traffic.

It won't have had any effect. The cause is contamination by metals that should not be present within the alloy - particularly lead - introduced to the melt before it is used to make castings. This inevitably triggers a slow change* in the crystalline structure of the casting, which ultimately leads to disintegration of the casting. (Lead in direct contact with an uncontaminated mazak casting causes no problems.) *When I did my reading on this subject it was a surprise that the change in the crystalline structure is promoted by low temperatures: a model with castings known or suspected to be liable to mazak rot, should be kept in warm conditions to slow the disintegration,

Definitely, and could be curved on both land and rail sides arranged along a loop with - as already mentioned - point work included, probably due to space restrictions at the pre-existing stations where they were placed. This on main lines, because I surmise provision had to be made for stops for watering and vetinary inspections as required in law, for through traffic inconveniently at those locations with little or no regular use for loading or off-loading livestock on any great scale. All long time ago swept away as live cattle movement declined rapidly due to refrigeration and road transport post WWI. (The above surmise arose from puzzlement of myself and others by some C19th track diagrams back in my youth, but when some photos from the period were obtained cattle wagons were seen standing on the 'what's all that stuff?' loops and sidings, and understanding dawned. Is there a historically reliable survey of the railway movement of livestock? Due having spent all my life in nearly wholly arable districts my ignorance on such matters may be considered boundless; the few cattle wagons I saw on BR were cleaned out and labelled for vegetable transport from East Anglia to the Great Wen.) So disappointing! Given the branding on the cattle car I was expecting steers go in, canned meat comes out. 😎

Unfortunate timing with Hattons closing, as s/h purchase is the most likely solution. My 1971 purchase (from Victors, sigh) is catalogue number 1254 (from memory, packaging long lost) motor in the cab, largely pressed steel mechanism rolling chassis, no trouble with any mazak rot; in case that helps in the search for a good one. And its 'Rivarossi' to ensure your searches pick up everything available. ATBWI.

Far from ideal IMO, a very visible location for physical handling, and totally unsuited to subjects light at the smokebox end such as 0-4-4T and 0-4-2T. Options: Steam locos have bunkers. A lift out thin 'coal' moulding and a void underneath with the decoder socket would do the job. Further refinements on this scheme are possible. Tank locos often have side tanks. Usually ample space there for decoder stowage which has been seen a few times. New entrant Pi ices the cake with a vertically mounted decoder socket in the side tank, neat, compact and easily accessed, as they also made body removal simple and clearly documented - these two screws - and the body freely lifts off: this their maiden attempt in RTR OO! Nomination for the AY Design Progess award. As for D+E, lift out panels utilising panel joints of the subject, or the undersides, offer so much scope as to clearly be too boring to consider - Nah, we'll stick with our established take the entire body off scheme.

I do exactly as Dominion suggests above for wagons and there is no trouble with slightly overheight Kadee coupler tails magnetically uncoupling using Kadee's permanent magnet and electromagnet uncouplers. And were there any trouble, slightly straightening the trip pin would sort it. No adhesive, but some measurement is required, method/bodge. Assess where Kadee coupler head needs to be positioned ahead of the NEM pocket mounting for the item it is being fitted on, to identify a Bachmann cranked tension lock that provides a 'platform' at correct height of sufficient length, which may be modified to take a pivotting Kadee coupler head. Cut off all the tension lock parts, thin the resulting 'platform' so that it fits snugly in the horizontal slot in the rear of the Kadee coupler head, adjust length as required, drill hole in the platform to take the hinge pin, and assemble. (Typically I drop and lose the Kadee pin, so usually it's a piece of 'Florists' soft iron wire as a substitute pin.) Those I did for an original Bach class 40 on my layout have put in over fifteen years trouble free service, and a few others I finagled for friends at much the same time have generated no failure reports.

Should have phrased the question better! Has any brand offering DCC fitted / sound models ceased offering a DCC ready option ?

Undoubtedly the case, increasing functionality on offer to tempt the punters to pay more. Has any brand offering UK subject models tried going to market with no DCC ready option? That would be a natural development. That would be me, the gorriler of 3B; and any contemporaries of like mind. Though it is not for maintenance as such, and there is method in my madness. I want to inspect the model's mechanism design and general construction with a view to detecting any weakness, making improvements and alterations to suit my operation, and in some cases assessing it for redeployment into a different body. The 'have it apart inspection' only commences once the infant mortality test running is successfully completed, typically within three days of the item being in my possession. Since 2004 I have not had a single mechanical failure on a new RTR OO purchase that would require a replacement part, and the two items requiring spares for repair of faults found within a week of purchase were obtained without any diffculty, one each from Bach and Hornby via the retailer, (long retired) but that's information now 20 years out of date due to lack of mechanical failures to 'test the system 'since. What remains weak in RTR OO in my experience are the electrical arrangements. That's where most of my 'improvements and alterations' now occur on the mechanism as designed and assembled. Here my experience is expanded by frequent purchases of s/h 'non and unreliable runners' mostly from a large, famed, and now departed trader. Not once was there any fault in the mechanical side, all of the trouble was electrical continuity in what looked like the original arrangements, unaltered by previous owners. It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Credit where due, my last half dozen new RTR OO purchases spread over four brands, were adequate as supplied in this respect, four (steam tender locos) have been altered by choice to better accord with my ideas, and two (tank locos) are unviolated. This is a significant improvement over the situation just ten years ago.

I cannot be the only one that has attempted what is drawn and/or described, only to conclude that it is at least in part the product of imagination, in proposing unnecessary or damaging actions, while ignoring those that are essential. As for total absence of any instruction or diagram, my interpretation is one of two alternative messages: Really, best not, even though it is the only way to access the decoder socket and mechanism. We are so delighted with the elegant body attachment that you will be too - once you work it out. But topping my Grrr list is the use of some randomly selected number of subtly different screw types, which must therefore be carefully laid out to ensure they are reinserted correctly. However, overall there has been a trend to improvement over the 25 years since good RTR OO became the norm.

"We are aware some users may be experiencing slow performance. We are monitoring and investigating this." This is very generous. The NHS can't tell me where my personal oomph in third gear has gone, so alternative opinions are most welcome. (It needed two goes to successfully kick a football back over the nearby primary school prison style fence yesterday, in case that helps the diagnosis.)

I would 'apply to source' if that is practical: may yield all sorts of useful stuff.

If you suspect it had little to no prior operation and you have as yet not given it much track time; I would suggest a couple of hours running, alternating direction every quarter hour or thereabouts, may satisfactorily 'quiet' the mechanism by distributing the factory lubricant in the gear train. The mechanism design is inherently quiet running, if some noise reduction isn't apparent within the first hour, then would be the time to look inside. Not to discourage you from taking the top off for a look inside - and it will be necessary for decoder fitting if that's on the to do list - but my fumble fingers always knock off a piece of underframe detail; fortunately repair is simple.

It's the G5 I have, and apart from an 'eccentric' pivot arrangement for the bogie (very easily altered to a simple pivot on the bogie centre) it's a lovely piece altogether: and performs!