1. The brake rods aren’t needed to prevent excessive side-to-side play on the axles. Neither are washers, as the driving gear on each axle runs in a slot that limts the amount of play.

2. Once a wheel has been disturbed on its axle, the quartering doesn’t stay put without glue. I know you found this too. I’m going to try using a tiny spot of epxoy on the end of each axle, with a little notch in the wheel centre to provide a key, rather than pull the wheels off again.

3. I’ve eased the back to back a fraction and Stepney is now running through my tightest turnouts without jumping off.

4. You said on the phone that your Terrier ran very badly when the the front pickups weren’t making good contact and I found the same with mine. I made up three ‘tweezers’ out of thin brass sheet to pinch the pickups in while the wheel set was dropped in and they sort of worked, although it still took some poking about with a pin the get the front pickups in the right place. Getting some current throught the front wheels transformed the slow running.

5. The three driving gears protrude so far below the chassis that they will foul anything between the rails that is not below rail level. In my case the culprit was a sleeper crossing that I’d set level with the rail tops, fine for my other locos but Stepney wouldn’t go over it.

Anyway, runing nicely now considering lack of DCC and how light the loco is. Let’s hope it stays that way.

1. I’ve snipped the brake rods off because they were fouling the crankpins and looked too visually clunky to me anyway. The two front crankpins were also just clipping the steps but taking a tiny slither of plastic off the front edge of each step fixed that. Nothing else is rubbing on anything.

2. The quartering was a tiny bit out, easy to correct by feel. Now runs very freely with the motor disengaged but I’m not convinced it will stay put without some glue.

3. Have checked the back-to-back and it’s fine.

4. I’m also having a lot of trouble with the pickups which in my case are nowhere near at least two of the wheels. In addition they seem to be within a gnat’s of touching the underside of the metal motor body and causing a short. Does your motor have anything underneath it to provide some insulation? Maybe poor pickup is making the loco lose power through the turnouts and jump off when it makes contact again. Any genius ideas on sorting those pickups out would be apreciated.

Cute little things though, aren’t they!