Trev48

Hi, I am new to the group and like post war European railways . I bought these locos from good homes in US and they worked fine on 2 rail 12v DC few months ago . By the way I am in UK .Recently I tried running them again and the 141P won't show any signs of life , no lights etc and the Chapelon ran briefly and them nothing . I tried leaving the 231 on the track with the current on partially to charge up the batteries for the recommended 6-7 hours and at the end of this,under full power there was no signs of life except some sparking frpm the tender pickups , which might indicate a short somewhere ? For the 231 I have some spare NICad batteries from MTH Railking but dont know how to charge them as required before useing as I do not have and cannot obtain a RailKing 50- 1019 charger . The plug is assume US. The 141P is fitted with capacitors instead of a battery , so maybe they are faulty ? If so what to do as MTH are now in liquidation. Is there anyone in the group who had experience runninh MTh in UK would be so kind as to throw me a line with all this or failing that , are there any recommendations for model railway electronics engineers in UK ? cheers , Trevor