I'm continuing my unboxing of stuff to see what I keep and what I sell, also trying to clear some shelves so I can remove them in preparation for my display shelves. I got to some sealed in factory plastic RMT covered hoppers, and ran into a little problem!
The couplers are crumbling away! These have been in a climate controlled environment their whole life, that didn't stop them from rotting away!
When I looked closely, the hinges of the knuckle are actually chipped away.
These must have been on their way when they left the factory!
The good news is that the Lionel coupler knuckles, though they didn't look the same when compared to the RMT ones, worked just fine and coupled and uncoupled like they belonged there.
I have to wonder how many more I'll have to replace, all the rest of the cars made it around a few times in a 50+ car train, so the couplers are at least not totally dead.
