late Friday night I got home after five twelve hour shifts filled with diesel roar, brake squeal, cab chatter, tower announcements, gps upload/download etc etc. sitting on my kitchen table was a box from Mariostrains.com It was my new WBB Missouri Pacific BL2. took it out of the box, lubed the axles and gears. put it on the track pulling ten weaver freight cars and let it run for the next three hours. the sound of steel wheels on tinplate track was sheer heaven! for people like myself who work in the real world of transportation all the model bells and whistles are a real pain. I just want a loco that will work out of the box and work for the next twenty years with a lube job. WBB does that well. that is why I have 26 WBB locos.

I have 18 Williams/wbb units. the value for money is the best. I only have one mth loco to buy(only because it is only made by mth) then it is back to wbb for the rest. I also have a large collection of Bachman Branchline British outline equipment. It to is great value for money. Bachman products are like my Mack truck. Runs for a lifetime!

can't help you with US stores. I have used Hattons.com/uk for over 20yr. with no problems. the prices are good. the Bachmann Branchline products are like the Spectrum here. they just run and run.

I have fourteen williams/wbb units. also eight Bachmann 'oo' scale british outline locos. all run great. any chance of wbb puting a british outline diesel body on a wbb chassis?  that combo would blow lionel and mth out of the water!

I have the 4-6-4 semi-scale hudson and the 2-8-4 berkshire. I run both of them on O27 curves and had the same problem with slowing down after a while. I disconnected the tender sound system (just unscrew the contact rollers) and the problem went away. they have over 700 hours run time on them now and still run great. hope this helps.

I will also jump on the wiring dual motors in series bandwagon. I already do it even although it voids the warranty. the improved running makes it worthwhile.

I use some old tri-ang 12.5 ich radius track for my home layout. James and Gordon with their coaches have no problem. Been running them for over two years. Tough as the Williams we have at work.