Reply to "flaking paint/ splitting loco case"

I would agree with Owen.  You say it seems to be "hung up on some of the internals", but that may be all that is preserving the integrity of the locomotive.  Try to take it apart and it really is most likely this will disintegrate in your hands.  The Dorfan castings are notorious, there really is not much you can do about it.  Hard to accept, but that little loco is probably the best it will ever be right now; the more you try to do to it, the worse it will get.  Sad but true.  The Dorfan alloy was a noble experiment, but it failed, and along with it the Dorfan company.  Sic transit gloria mundi.