Noisy Prairie Engine

I have been given an Airfix Black Prairie tank engine. The model has good slow and fast control, but it makes a lot of noise when it runs.

Were these Airfix Prairie engines always this noisy??? My Airfix 4F is very quiet.

Is it a sign of age?

Is there anything I can do about it? Although I been involved with model railways for a while I have no experience of servicing or repairing engines.

"You could replace the motor with something quieter".

What would be the easiest way of doing this? Is there anything from
Hornby I could use as a replacement?

In the meantime, I'll try a bit of soundproofing!!!

Wouldn't bother replacing it with a Hornby motor, the modern can ones they fit are limited life motors and are non servicable. You would be better servicing and lubricating the motor bearings, valve gear and putting in some sound deading material. The praire was always a little noisy and the motor suffers from the same problem as the old X.04, the back motor bearing gets noisy when dry, lubrication to the back bearing will cure some of the noise.

I had a couple of these when I was modelling 00 gauge (now living in a flat so downgraded to N Gauge) and they were always a bit on the noisy side as were some other Airfix loco's I had but they were always well reliable runners!