SamLeCount

Not really as lon as the remote is pointed in the general area of where the ir reciver is it seems to work

Having tried a modification identical to this i found that the if the locomotive enconters any resistance then the motor lifts of the jumper plates causing the gears to skip which is why I went for this approach in the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wufXpxX4NDU&feature=youtu.be

Having encountered this issue it seems to only be a problem with 9 volt tracks as the track joins on 9v interfer with the large wheels on the nose. This isnt an issue with the entirely plastic track as the joins between track peices are much smoother. I fixed the issue by removing the red rubber bands on the unpowered large wheels which eliminates the problem.