Published on Wednesday 28 October 2015 by Model Rail Magazine

I have now had the opportunity to fully investigate the performance of the O2 on my layout, as reported in the Model Rail review, and to fettle the sample locomotive to overcome the issues of binding and derailment that I experienced and which have been reported by one or two others on this thread.

I can now confirm that the issue was out-of-gauge driving wheelsets, the back-to-backs being .7mm and .5mm over, respectively.

These were easily rectified with the loco upside down in a cradle, a 14.5mm 'block-type' gauge placed between the wheels and nothing more than firm finger and thumb pressure to bring them up tight against the block.

The derailment issue had disrupted the original running-in, so I started from scratch, running the model forward and reverse for somewhat longer than the recommended 30 minutes. With the derailment issue cured, the running was also improved and after an evening of running the little engine was working very nicely indeed and had not derailed once.

I added a Hornby two-coach push-pull set and operated at realistic scale speeds and the performance was most satisfying. This model has an innovative mechanical design, with gear-drive to both axles and there is a little bit of gear 'growl' which would not be evident with a conventional drive system, but it is not intrusive and could well be silenced by a little extra lubricant.

I concluded my tests by reversing the whole train end-for-end and propelling the Hornby coaches at all speeds from realistic to ridiculous round the curves on which the original derailments had occurred and through the reverse curve over the turnout at the station throat. It did not derail or stall (its an Electrofrog code 83 point). In short, the sample O2 is a good little performer now that the gauging issue is resolved. I'll be forking out to buy it, and I'm ordering a second one, in the Isle of Wight guise. (CJL)

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