zappa

That's really useful to know LT&SR_NSE. I was still running-in (forward, at length!) when I posted last night, but when I came to run-in in reverse found it sounded noticeably smoother. Like a bag of nails again forty mins later back on forward! I shall dismantle and investigate when I get a moment... (For the record, while the noise was nasty and the running nothing like as silky as a 20-year old Merchant Navy, I should add that it wasn't juddering at any speed.)

Same problem. I bought this (LMS, Princess Elizabeth) a few months ago (UK); just got around to running it in today. This was noticeably noisy from the start - like something pre-2000. After an hour of gentle running-in (only forwards so far), the lawn-mower/cement-mixer sounds have softened somewhat, and a very brief fling at speed did not sound too offensive (though not great). But back to slower/running-in speeds, there is an industrial/grumbling sound that I have not found in any other loco made in the last twenty years...