Grrr! Split gears

I've been test-running some of my British N-gauge locomotive fleet that had been in storage for a couple of years while I'd been living up in Manchester. The results are not happy; more than half the locomotives tested no longer work! The culprit seems to be the notorious problem with later Graham Farish locos; split gears.

Fortunately replacement wheelsets are available, but it still means I'll have to spend a lot of time identifying the axles with cracked gears, and dismantling and reassembling the locomotives. And to me, servicing locomotives is not Happy Fun Modelling Time, but Tedious Chore Time.

And we're talking lots of locos here; like many railway modellers I've got a fleet many times in excess the number I'd need to operate any conceivable layout I might build in the forseeable future. I worked out the stock requirements for my never-completed Par-St Blazey line, and it came out at thirteen locomotives (including one DMU and a class 08 shunter as the yard pilot). My total fleet is in three figures!

A few of my more recent British-purchases have been from CJM, with detailed Farish bodyshells on Chris' own flywheel drive mechanisms; the difference in performance between these and the standard Farish mech is phenomenal! I'm now planning on replacing the Farish mechanisms with these CJM flywheel drives on as many locomotives as I can afford over the next year.