Rusty,
Yes, and here's how close I live to it...
Volphin,
No need to apologize, model trains are model trains, no matter the scale, I got your drift. Just replace the cups and see if the noise disappears. And if you don't need the gears, don't bother. It's very rare any of them ever crack. I have a number of AM offerings, and the RS-3 is the only one I've had gear problems with. Probably a bad batch of gears. Then again, I've had it on my layout for years, and I've probably not lubricated it enough. In any case, hold off on ordering any gears until you have inspected them. By the way, there are three idler gears per truck and are easily inspected by rotating the flywheel by hand. Besides the three idler gears, there's one on each axle too. You'll see them when you take off the truck side frames.
