RRDOC posted:Great idea!
I had bought a Lionel Freedom train set (used but little or no run time). All the diaphragms were not only mangled, but most were torn. I was able to buy replacements from Lionel.
The styrofoam packaging with this set (and probably a lot of others) does not have cutouts to store the cars with the diaphragms installed. You can force them in, but they will be mangled or torn. I plan to modify the packaging if I need to store them.
Bob
Bob I think some of the tears occur just by being in the squished position a long time. Some areas end up under compression and others in tension if the tension extends to an edge eventually a tear develops. One of those in my photos had a small 1/4" tear so I put a drop of CA. in it. CA seems to hold the stuff quite well. It went through the boiling water with no problems. I also store the diaphragms on the foam cores I used to straighten them and I used a box cutter to hollow out a place in the foam box the cars come in to make a safe squish proof place to store them. j
