It is hard to tell whether it is the slider or the motor that is louder.

Check the slider to make sure it is straight and even.

You can test the motor by connecting wire leads directly to the wheels and slider while the model rests on some kind of cradle.

Regards

Mike C

I agree with Rudi and I find that my older locos which aren't run in some time need just a tiny drop of oil on the external armature shaft at the center of the covers or shields to quiet them up. The gearing warms up with running and the oil on them gets more viscous.

I'm with FastEddie here - it doesn't sound too bad to me. I don't use C track - (in fact I've never even seen any) does it tend to amplify the noise at all?

Weren't the older locos made with gears that were stamped out rather than machine cut? I'm sure I read that somewhere. If this is the case then it would have been a bit of a lottery whether you got a quiet one or not. This looks like an early V200 so maybe it's one of those.

Run it round with the body off. That is the only way that you can really tell how much noise the mechanism is making since the bodies do tend to resonate or amplify it. Some locos are worse than others in this repect.