Oiling and running in... UK vs Japan

[railsquid]

In a nutshell the Japanese owned N scale manufacturers make a far superior model than Dapol or GF, I had many Japanese made locos between 2005 & 2007 and never had a single problem, that includes trams.

I guess the manufacturers model their respective countries' prototype reliability faithfully...

MicroAce, Kato, Tomix and Modemo trains and trams give years of trouble free service, even so I still love our British steam locos and have resided to the fact that I can expect trouble from time to time.

OT, but I must admit the Farish 5MT I just acquired has awakened slumbering "want!" reflexes for prettily coloured kettles. (Japanese steamers just don't do it for me; if I want a black tube with a silly number of driving wheels and square smoke deflectors I'd buy German, regardless of any technical advantage).

Now let me pop off to see if my Dapol HST (which looks to be a nice runner so far) has finished its post-oiling running-in...

[railsquid]

Now let me pop off to see if my Dapol HST (which looks to be a nice runner so far) has finished its post-oiling running-in...

Well, it's OK as long as it's on the flat, but it really doesn't like my gradient even with a good run-up at full speed. OK, it isn't the kindest of gradients (and temporary, pending modification), but is perfectly manageable for any half-decent loco and three decently running coaches. I get much better results by replacing the Dapol HST power car with my SquidMobile single DMU car (the one in my avatar) from (IIRC) MicroAce, which is 2nd hand of uncertain origin and which sounds like it could do with a bit of preventative maintenance. (It doesn't help that the Dapol power car has no traction tyres, and the dummy power car runs very stiffly - it has the same bogies as the power car complete with gears on the axles - presumably for the pickup for the lights).