Bachmann Spectrum K4 Pacific - problem child?

[nathan70000]

Ordered one of these, £130 from a well-known UK retailer, like new condition and DCC sound fitted. Seemed almost too good to be true... well...

 

The loco-to-tender connection took me an entire afternoon to work out. I had to remove the tender body to slide the Y-shaped drawbar in. Bizarrely the box is square-ish and you have to take it apart again to put it back! I hastily sourced a cardboard alternative so the locomotive and tender could stay coupled. Very odd.

 

At first the loco refused to go round corners point blank. I'm not entirely sure how I fixed it, but I did. However the loco still seems to stall over points. I have checked- it has pick ups on all the driving wheels plus the tender, so it can't be losing contact- and it doesn't look like the engine is being lifted off the track in any way. The switch is a Kato Unitrack HO (one of the big ones, can't remember the radius, sorry). Faultlessly reliable and the K4 is the only engine that seems to have a problem.

 

It is very pretty so I want to keep hold of it. Anybody else got one of these and experienced similar problems? I can't find much online and I'm afraid my experiences have put me off buying the (gorgeous) streamlined one.