Back in May/June last year (2018) I initiated a discussion regarding poor power pickup I was having with a Class J2 0-6-0 Jinty (Hornby R3121X). Many respondents kindly made suggestions, and I was able to resolve some of the issues. However, two items remained unresolvable at that time, and I thought I would provide an update on them now in the forum in case other people have had similar issues. I can’t find a way to reference the previous discussion, and reading it would probably confuse anyway, so I will summarise these two and how I moved forward. The first issue could apply to any engine that has been in storage for a while, not specifically this one. The rear face of the driving wheels, and the wheel treads, were coated with a difficult-to-see but partially insulating coating. The wheels looked clean and shiny, but had a fairly high resistance (15+ ohms, and variable) reading track-to-wheel and wheel-to-pickup. I surmised that it was some kind of oxide or tarnish, but it proved difficult to remove - normal cleaning agents such as iso-propyl alcohol had no effect. Fine emery paper would eventually get through it, but left scratches where dirt could easily accumulate. In the end, I used automotive rubbing compound (cutting paste), and this was effective and left the wheels smooth and clean. I haven’t seen this suggestion anywhere else, and none of the correspondents mentioned it, but it’s worth keeping in mind for those stubborn cases. The second issue is specific to this model, and I suspect other 0-6-0 tank engines made by Hornby. The centre driving wheels are not in contact with the track even though they appear to be, and a test with a steel ruler across the treads confirmed that they are offset towards the locomotive body by almost 1 mm. Consequently they are not contributing to power pickup, even though there are pickup contacts for these wheels. This in turn causes hesitation and even outright stalling on certain track configurations containing plastic parts (frogs, etc.) - in particular the Peco code 100 long crossing SL-94 has plastic parts separated by the same amount as the spacing between the front and rear drivers on this model, resulting in a stall every time. I contacted Hornby about this, and sent the engine back to them for investigation. They returned it without modification, stating that this centre driving wheel offset is in fact design intent (without saying why). I finally concluded that the only way to get this engine to run reliably would be to equip it with some from of ‘stay-alive’ capability - essentially a big capacitor which holds enough charge to carry a temporarily-unpowered locomotive for a few seconds. I didn’t see any way that the existing decoder could be so provisioned, so I replaced it with a TCS M1-KA decoder and KA4 Keep-Alive. Space is tight inside this model, but these components are really small and can be fitted OK. This engine now runs very well, albeit at some cost to me. There is no hesitation or stalling, slow running (even with the old 3-pole motor) is excellent, and all my auto-reversers switch smoothly. And the removed Hornby decoder is slated for a second life as a remote controller for my Hornby turntable. I hope this commentary is useful. Paul.