Pick up a Sandwich.
I have a Hornby A3 Sandwich which has never run very well. It has been in the “must have a proper look at” box for some time. And then I had another Hornby Sandwich to repair because - yes - it wasn’t running very well. It was quick to establish the problem was between the wheels and motor and a bit of dismantling showed it was the shape of the brass pickups. They were bent (in manufacture) in such a way that they all were putting their pressure on the insulated parts of the driving wheels rather than the metal rims. So all power had been coming via the tender - and not very reliably. Rather worryingly one of the wires from the tender showed signs of over-heating suggesting it was not really up to the job of supplying the 250mA or so for the motor. I find this very surprising but can’t think of another explanation. Anyway all is now well and Sandwich is running as she should. Now to have a look at my own Sandwich !

H0n3
After having to give up on a trio of H0n3 locos some months ago because of time we were a little wary of taking another one on. On top of that the customer wanted a sound decoder installing. I took it on on the understanding that we may not be able to do it. However it has proved straightforward - it even had a circuit board for the decoder connections. As usual the hardest part was getting the body off - and back on again !!