Tender driven locos.

[LCDR]

Is there sufficient weight in the tender, and do the locomotive wheels turn freely?

[ColinB]

I started to sell my original tender driven Hornby locos and was surprised how well they go. I am mainly selling them as I run DCC on a large layout so I like to pick up power on all wheels loco and tender. I was just about to sell my A1/A3/A4 locos when I found out you can buy better ringfield motor plates that allow the tender to pickup on all wheels. So I am going to convert a couple an see how they go. Most of my locos are in mint condition, so if they work ok then it is a cheap loco plus there are some that Hornby don't do anymore. The reason Hornby initially put the motor in the tender was there was more room to put the motor in although on all of mine you sacrifice coal load, as it has to be piled up, because of the height of the motor. I must admit I prefer the motor in the loco but it does cause issues with the valve gear, on two of my Britannias the nylon intermediate gear has split where the valve gear has locked.

[Lyd 85B]

I still buy tender drive locos, never having had any issue with running them over my layout, which includes a large amount of pointwork. Like everything mechanical, they need to be cleaned and serviced and b2b settings maintained, but no more so than loco drive, and fitting decoders is very easy.