Opinion
Inside track with Ben Ando
Ben Ando is the founder of Revolution Trains and a regular contributor to Model Rail.
"Why should a new model need running in? Isn’t it tested at the factory?"
A sayoungster in the late 1970s, I recall that every locomotive review I read in Model Railway Constructor or Railway Modeller ended with the familiar phrase that ‘the performance of this model will improve with running in.’
I never really gave it much thought.
Birthdays and Christmases would come and, if I was lucky and received a new locomotive, it would immediately be taken upstairs, put on the ‘layout’ (a roughly laid twin‐track oval with no scenery bar a lonely Hornby platform and scratchbuilt balsawood goods shed!) and the controller turned straight to maximum until the smell of ozone filled the air.