A Cautionary Tale from eBay and Some Routine Servicing

It's been another steady week here in the workshop. We had two trains in and out for a standard service — all went well there. I’ve also got another one in that needed parts ordering, yet again thanks to another broken drive shaft! Seems to be the season for them at the moment.

One job this week really stood out — a new customer got in touch after buying a "running" train off eBay. He was devastated because after putting 16V through it, he thought he had broken it completely. In reality, 16V would have fried the motor if the train had been working properly — but luckily for him, the pickups were broken, so no power ever reached the motor!

This train was meant to be his pride and joy for an upcoming show in just four weeks' time. He even tried his local model shop, but they wanted to charge just to investigate the fault without guaranteeing a fix.

Thankfully, he found us and decided to send it in. We always offer free inspections, so he didn’t have to risk any more money just finding out what was wrong. As soon as it arrived, we got to work — and it didn’t take long to find the problems.

The model had broken pickups, way too much grease, and signs someone had been inside before with a soldering iron — melting some of the plastic in the process. Definitely not what you'd expect from something sold as "running"! We tested the motor separately using a battery and, thankfully, it ran perfectly.

After a full strip-down, deep clean, and proper service (with the correct amount of oil this time!), we managed to get it running smoothly. We temporarily removed the damaged pickup so we could properly test the train and give the customer peace of mind.

This was all done within two hours of arrival! The customer has chosen to go a step further and replace the bogie tower to ensure even better running in the future, so final work is on hold until parts arrive — but he was thrilled to see it running again so quickly.

It just goes to show — if you're buying second-hand trains online, especially from marketplaces like eBay, it’s always worth assuming things might not be quite as described. Thankfully, if something isn’t quite right, we’re here to help!