This OO scale model is over 30 years old and belongs to the Poole & District Model Railway Society. It is allocated to the clubroom OO layout (16.5mm gauge code 100 rails) It runs on code 100 or code 80 rails set to 16.5mm gauge (standard track) but will not run on 16.5mm gauge track with code 75 rails (finescale track) this is due to the overscale wheel flanges striking the railchairs, the flanges (and cast wheels) are too wide and foul on the checkrails of finescale pointwork and crossings. This limits the route availability of the loco to standard track only. All wheels, motion and drive train components are heavily worn with the motor loosing its strength but 34111 can still manage an 11 (heavy) coach train round approx 8ft radius curves without slipping although she does sound like a locomotive, growling and clanking her way round the clubroom layout at about a scale 50 MPH. I have stripped, cleaned and rebuilt her paying carefull attention to lubrication, using a very small amount of machine grease on contact faces of moving parts tightened up some of the drive mechanism and outside valve motion gear and lubricated the motor bearings. The armature has been skimmed, removing any irregularities in the surfaces that contact the motor brushes. I then carefully cleaned the fine gaps between armature segments with a small stiff brush and a low pressure airline (airbrush compressor 25psi-ish) The brush springs were tweaked so they are both the same length, exerting close to equal pressure on the armature as on stripping the motor I found one was exerting so much pressure it was producing an audible click at each armature segment gap, this has made a huge difference in the level of noise produced by the motor, gear train and motion components.

Image 1-1 to 1-3: Battle of Britain 4-6-2 locomotive, 34111 Poole.

Image 2-1: front end view.

Image 2-2: left side view.

Image 2-3: right side view.