Model Railway Forum

Yesterday I bought myself an Oxford Adams Radial at a good price at the Norwich Model Railway exhibition. I have already fitted a dcc decoder and it is running well, however i have found as supplied traction is seriously lacking. Judging from you tube others have had similar problems! I have experimented and in my usual clumsiness have managed to drop and lose the spring from the front bogie pivot. Having difficulty in finding the lost item I have tried running the loco without the spring and to my surprise have found that it actually functions better. The unsprung bogie negotiates my trackwork without difficulty and traction appears improved. The weight balance of the loco is such that support from the bogie is not essential to enable the loco to maintain a level stance. The spring had the impact of slightly lifting weight from the leading driving wheel adversely affecting traction. Without the spring the loco has no difficulty in handling 3 Maunsell coaches which is all i can reasonably accommodate in my fiddle yard.

If i continue to be unable to locate the missing spring and subsequently decide i need one is there a source of spares for Oxford locos? My initial googling has failed to show a source.

Thanks for telling us about that may well be useful to others. John