@PRRick posted:I used to put a lot of value on die cast, now it's a liability.
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It's been pointed out elsewhere that the trucks on the Railking 19th century rolling stock pieces can be affected. I have over 150 pieces and I do have a few that have fallen apart. I contacted Midge at MTH over a year ago about buying replacement trucks but they never became available as far as I know. I also do not know of any suitable replacements, even if they need adjusting, manufactured by someone else. It's as if my only option is to try to find some inexpensive complete cars just to cannibalize them for the trucks.
As pointed out above, as well as a post I did a while back, the MTH P5a boxcab (20-5620) has this issue. There are hairline cracks all over the body. I could probably run it, but afraid it will fall apart on a hard to reach section of the layout. Like others, this really hurt the wallet. Since I have few electrics, I will not replace it. It is PS3, so the electronics will be repurposed someday.
The Williams Alco FA-1 (Not the Alco PA) locos will sometimes have zinc pest on the truck side frames and fuel tank. This seems to be most common on the Santa Fe warbonnet paint schemes.
@RoyBoy posted:The Williams Alco FA-1 (Not the Alco PA) locos will sometimes have zinc pest on the truck side frames and fuel tank. This seems to be most common on the Santa Fe warbonnet paint schemes.
The PA's have it also, as do much of the Williams/WbB products. I had to replace a couple of sideframes on one of my Williams PA's.
@rex desilets posted:With regard to quality control: Scott Mann of 3rd Rail makes regular trips to South Korea to inspect each item of a model run. If this relatively small outfit can do so, why can't Lionel or MTH do the same?
Scott Mann and the others DO occasionally travel to Asian countries to inspect. But that is not going to solve the intermittent problems (like zinc pest), UNLESS a QC person is on site all the time.
On site "quality control": In my case, I got a Lionel LionChief 2.0 Polar Express locomotive and tender. It "wobbled" like a duck down the track, so I called Customer Service, got a prepaid label to ship it back, did so, then waited several weeks for it to be returned. Problem: a bent wheel on the tender, replaced. How did this happen? Beats me-
Nobody in China RUNS every locomotive and tender like they did in New Jersey or Michigan; they MAY put on a track to see if it runs, but probably not. (If they did, then the Legacy F3 set I bought a year earlier would have shorted the track, like it did on MY track the first time I tried to run it. No way to miss a problem like this - a short in one truck on the tender- if you ran the thing at all.)
The only practical way to eliminate this stuff is to put REAL QC in place (paying more for manufacturing in China), or move it back to the States (paying more for manufacturing here) Neither is going to happen.
