Buying from E-Bay
 

Rather foolishly I broke my own rule and bought a second hand Hornby 3 car DMU from E-Bay. It needs a 'push' to start it most times and runs very erratically at low speeds when it does finally go. The wheel tyres look as though they could do with a clean, but I don't know how to do this . Ideas please

meths, cotton buds, wet and dry......the list is endless.
try cotton buds soaked in meths, elbow greese and depending how caked in crap they are, it should come off.
last resort, wet and dry but very lightly though

It makes the cleaning operation easier if you can get the wheels rotating at the same time as you apply the meths soaked cotton bud.
Some homemade jump-leads connected to your controller and touched onto one of the other wheel sets should do the trick.

or even better, a 9v battery and away you go !

Yes, I forgot about using a 9v batery........... I have obviously been modelling N-gauge for too long where the 9v battery terminals are not as convenient.:(