Flashbang

Hi While I haven't read four pages of text or looked at the supplied hyper-links, I do know that Tender drive locos were a thing of the past! Manly from the 1980 to early 2000 period. Modern locos are in the main loco drive. There are a few exceptions where cheaper costs are required. But most are now loco drive. Tender drive locos are always Ringfield motor powered, earlier models had the rather poorer three pole motors fitted while more recent ones had the better five pole Ringfield motor. Older three pole Ringfield motors are notoriously poor performers. They often fail to start or just don't run well unless near full rail volts are supplied to them. Skidding or non turning of the locos driving wheels was a common visible defect of this type of propulsion! Conversion to DCC is possible for all types but the criteria is the loco/motor combination MUST perform faultlessly before conversion.

Hi It reads as though your dc controllers internal over-load cutout is operating with the load of the loco plus the three lit carriages. If by removing the carriages and just running the loco it runs ok, then everything is ok with the loco. You could consider upgrading the dc controller. The Hornby HM2000 controller is a good buy as too are some from other manufactures which were not permitted to refer to on this forum. If you go DCC you will need to not only obtain a DCC console, but also suitable decoders for each loco and fit them yourself or take the locos to a model shop and pay for them to be fitted. The good news is that Pullman carriages will work on either system - dc or DCC without any alterations

Hi Assume you're not trying to give the decoder an address number its not capable of accepting? e.g. early Hornby decoder and some others including the two function from B*****nn can only accept two digit address numbers. If your trying a two digit address and it still wont accept, try lightly holding down on the loco during the programming sequence. This is probably easier to do with someone else helping you. The only other thing is to try a decoder reset. See the decoder manual for the value required Hornby basic R8249 uses CV8 enter value of 8.