hello everyone,

thanks to all your help, i had chosen the 37863 shunter loco which i ordered from munich germany and it arrived today.

beautifully packed to ensure safe transport, i setup a little circuit using my newly acquired track and my central station.

i plugged the track into the programming socket, just as a precaution to make sure all was well before running the loco.


i seem to have found a way to make 3 hours disappear playing with this amazing little loco.

it has front and rear telex couplers and the fun iv had shunting my 8 wagons around has been amazing!.


front and rear lights, and variuos very convincing sound effects too!

i am most impressed and want to thank you all that helped make this choice of loco - im delighted with it.


a quick question - should i run it in gently?

at 1st, it was a little spluttery and hesitant. so i got a cotton bud and a little vodka and cleaned just the rail surfaces and dried them off.

the buds were quite blackened by time i cleaned all the rails.

the loco worked much smoother after that.

There are different opinions about running in new locos, but I've always felt they work better when properly run in.

My preferred method is to run the loco at half speed for about 20 minutes in each direction, after which I lubricate lightly according to the instruction manual, followed by another running session of at least 10 minutes each way.

If at any point the loco starts screeching or making grinding noises it's best to stop and relubricate, but on the whole too little oil is better than too much.