well i knew beforehand about the cracked gear problem and the easy fix.got a great deal on two proto gp30's.guess what....every axle in both loco's had the gear's cracked.sent an e-mail to customer service at walther's and received an e-mail the next day saying the gear's would be replace.sure enough i received the gear's along with the wheel's four day's later.loco's run great now.larry t at walther's and other's are to be commended IMO for this excellent service.i know sometime's it's hard to get customer service but walther's sure came through for me.:thumb: terry....