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A little more testing suggests most low speed stuttering occurs on downhill sections or when passing over summits. It suggests weak motor/ gears are the main issue but there could be a problem with the default back emf setting I guess. I also wonder if the very heavy central weight is actually counter productive at low speed causing a downhill surge that the bemf struggles to cope with?

With care it is usable but just not up to 21st century standards. It is basically a modified Lima-age chassis with all that comes with that. Unless you need sound (which I did) you may as well pick up a good Lima original for £25 instead.

Bottom line is the quality control wasn't good enough and the manufacturer admitted the product line was faulty. Refusing to accept returns or offer a credit note after a certain date may or may not be legal but it is certainly very bad customer relations. We all buy locos for future projects - you have to in these days of limited runs. And a loco is not a dog - you shouldn't have to check it each day to see if it is ill...

Basically Hornby are telling us that they sold us junk but as time has passed we can't do anything about it. Really poor customer relations. Just wish Bachmann would do a 31 and 50...

I bought one to replace a knackered Lima chassis but I can't really recommend. The chassis is very primitive (old gearing that is too tall, traction tyres - is this 1973??) and it is difficult to eliminate stuttering at slow speeds. It is cheap for a reason. I know it is aimed mainly at youngsters but poor quality stuff like this will only put them off. And if you actually want it to represent an early 60s loco? Apart from the wrong body, wrong bogies, wrong engine sound and poor performance it is great...

Two more failures since my last post including another 47. Seems Farish are replicating the prototype reliability of 47s on the Waterloo Exeter in the early 90s. It is too frustrating to be fun any more. Most of my focus is on 00 now purely due to reliability. I want to replicate an operational railway not an engineering shop.

Many thanks Dave. Great piece of work!

Does anyone know of any online source showing allocation histories for class 121 and 122s? My 1990 platform 5 shows just one 121 at Laira (all the 122s were there by then). This suggests that 122s would be more typical for West Country branches by then. Pity there are no Exeter or Plymouth destination blinds.

Have you considered an industrial railway? Trafford park at the end of its life was operated by two Gronks over lots of interesting trackage. Sometimes trains ran with one wagon top and tailed by two 08s!

I'm a recent 0 gauge convert too - but I have come from N. I haven't sold the N yet but I think it is only a matter of time. Nothing gives a better sense of 'being there' than 0. The enjoyment is partly in the new challenge. In 0 Gauge you really have to think about the detail - and I don't just mean the rolling stock. How do weeds and bushes grow around buffer stops? How does grass grow next to the track? What type of bushes grow near your chosen railway? You can't just scatter some ground foam and hope it will work. I have started small scale but with a modular approach - basically four shelves from Ikea lying end-to-end in the garage on trestles. That gives me about 14 feet of running line (well, a loop and two sidings) but it is not so wide that I have to get bogged down in a lot of building and landscaping. It isn't going to be world-beating but it will get me going...

I don't have so much experience with steam but there is one famous exhibition layout that switched to the diesel era because they got so fed up with the reliability of steam outline. This is 2016. Producing reliable locos in this scale is not nuclear science. Continental European stock is not perfect but does not seem to suffer the systemic problems associated with UK models. I would genuinely like to know why...

I'm not doing so - it is just a point of comparison. Current Farish models do seem slightly less likely to split gears than Poole models - but only slightly which is not saying much! That's based on more than twenty years of collecting and running.

Bach Farish - 37, 47, 57, 66... (although friends have also had problems with 24/5s) Old Farish - pretty much everything except my 20 and metal-geared 101s Some were like it out of storage, most after fairly regular use.

I have been collecting N gauge since 1992 until I switched scales last year. During that time around 20% of my locomotives suffered split gears. Most were out of warranty and were repaired by a friend or a good local model shop for a nominal fee. I think only one ever went back to the service department, suggesting 'returns' are no guide to the problem. In the end the failure rate was totally unacceptable and a major reason why I moved out of N gauge. Paying over £100 for a locomotive that lasts just beyond its warranty is just not acceptable. All my locos were kept in their original boxes and in plastic storage containers at normal room temperature when not in use. Some clearly split in storage. Some were always slightly sticky and split during operation. I have also been to plenty of exhibitions where you can hear the characteristic 'clicking' of a split gear on layouts... something that always prompts a conversation about poor quality and materials control. One of the problems with British N gauge is that manufacturers have never bothered to resolve systemic issues - split gears are the biggest for me, but clumsy, vastly overscale couplings that often 'droop' in their pockets are another bugbear and something that should have been resolved after about 40 years.

I'm not really a GWR man but I can certainly find use for one of these. Minerva pannier, Lionheart auto and a few Dapol wagons and you have an 'instant' O gauge (Watlington-ish?) railway for not much more than £500. A big step forward for O gauge. Personally I still prefer the early GWR types - 517s, Metro tanks, Dean goods. I still think there may be an rtr market for these - not least because they would all allow you to do an era you can't do in 00. Each to their own but I've never 'got' the 50s obsession - a period when the railways were in sharp decline and when older stock was often kept in poor condition. But each to their own...

I think J72s were used on the Easingwold railway as hired locos so they may have worked passenger there. They may have also got onto Meyer's light railways in the NE. And then there's the Derwent valley in the 70s... A Jinty will be popular - just need to think how it will fit into my plans.

Yes a 14xx would be very popular. Dean goods would be a good tender choice - operated for decades, many variations/liveries and operated overseas in two world wars. Another contractors' engine would be popular too. A Manning Wardle I or K would be my personal favourite.

Beebe's Mixed Train Daily - perhaps the best railroad book ever written. Page after page of inspiration for atmospheric layouts steeped in railroad folklore and history. Sadly my copy is literally wearing out from use. If I had to take three books to a desert island they would be the Bible, Herodotus and Beebe - and not necessarily in that order...

That's worrying as I was about to invest in some. Quality control with Dapol locos has been so bad that I now only buy from retailers who can test first. Sometimes I have had to try four before finding an acceptable runner. But you can't do that with signals.

There is an interesting picture of the EKLR loco on the Mike Morant collection site - still with faded IW&D lettering and lining. Its probably unrealistic to expect an RTR version in this livery but it would be a nice modelling challenge. http://mikemorant.smugmug.com/Trains-Railways-British-Isles/Miscellaneous/Private-and-light-railways/i-cmHDFwf/A

Thanks - you are absolutely right about the EKR Collier of course but because of her weight she was limited to the short and very heavily-laid Shepherdswell to Tilmanstone section. I don't think she operated on anything other than coal trains but I could be wrong. It would be interesting to see any pictures of her at work on the EKR if anyone has them. I think even the Triana class was quite heavy for light railway use and it was the main reason why the WSR cancelled their order. But not to worry - if I am honest I will probably buy one anyway! Good luck with it. Great to see more affordable RTR in O gauge.

I hope the model does really well but it does strike me as a slightly unusual choice. It is really too big for any 'light railway' purposes or the traditional tightly curved shunting / industrial yard schemes that are popular in 0. It would be interesting to know why this one was chosen above the smaller Kerr Stuarts 0-6-0T of similar design. I'm no expert but I know there was an 'Argentina' class with a much smaller boiler (mainly for export?) and a slightly smaller 'Triana' class that was ordered (but never delivered) for the Selsey Tramway. I'm still hoping for an RTR Manning Wardle I or K (small, beautiful engines!). I suppose I should just start building one and then Dapol or Minerva will definitely bring one out...