Lionel 21" Passenger Cars - Zinc Pest / Zinc Rot?

You would think after all this time removed from the days of impure castings that metallurgy would have eliminated this problem. Could it be our Asian manufacturers are cutting corners again? Considering the replacement parts are no better makes me wonder.

Jim McC. Pres. Ontario Southern Rwy.

Thank God they are plastic 

The only diecast parts are the truck sideframes and coupler head. Sounds like chicken little works at the store.

Pete

Robert D posted:

My local hobby store warned me to check my 21" Lionel passenger cars for zinc pest / zinc rot.  I have several, including sets of the Wabash Bluebird, PRR Broadway Ltd, and the Empire State Express sets, now all packed up for an out of state move.  Time to break open the packed shipping boxes.

I am wondering if anyone experienced zinc rot on these newer passenger cars?  The store showed me zinc rot in the REPLACEMENT detail panels (the ones that go under the cars), replacements shipped to them to fix zinc problems in customer cars returned for such repair. 

So even the replacement parts are defective, apparently.  Hence my question to the group.

Obvious QC problems with manufacturing in far east supplier factories.  Or, perhaps better said, no local QC.  And I'm guessing no $$ in the Lionel budget for sending over proper QC oversight from here. 

If the spare parts were produced at the same time as the production run they will most likely have the same issues.

I have almost 30 I’ll have to start checking them 

Presence of zinc rot in certain replacement parts does not mean that the trucks of these models are also defective; they could easily have been produced from different metal batches and maybe even in different factories. Anyway,  I just checked all of my 21" cars (two full sets of 7 plus another pair) and saw no signs of problems. I also have not seen any confirmed reports of the trucks on the second run of these cars (UP Excursion Train etc.), which could not have been manufactured much more than 2 years ago, already showing zinc rot symptoms. Have I missed something in the storm over JLC GG1s?

I'd like to think that the hobby store has Chicken Little syndrome but obviously receiving zinc rot affected replacement parts sets alarm bells ringing. 

I trust only about 1% of the things I read on this forum pertaining to defects or defect related issues.

Robert D posted:

The store showed me zinc rot in the REPLACEMENT detail panels (the ones that go under the cars), replacements shipped to them to fix zinc problems in customer cars returned for such repair. 

So even the replacement parts are defective, apparently.  Hence my question to the group.

Obvious QC problems with manufacturing in far east supplier factories.  Or, perhaps better said, no local QC.  And I'm guessing no $$ in the Lionel budget for sending over proper QC oversight from here. 

Considering the detail parts under the cars are ABS, I sure would love to know how they've developed zinc pest.

I'd also like to know the name of the hobby shop that's telling this to people.

I just started checking my 21" cars and indeed the underframes are plastic on the Empire State Express 2-pack.  Yet I personally saw replacement parts that looked identical to my eye, made of zinc, one showing obvious signs of zinc rot in a sealed pack of four replacement parts.  So I'll check to see if they misstated the 21" as opposed to another Lionel pass car model.

Oh, and Dave - how about offering a fix to the GG1 JLC side frame zinc rot problem that has messed up my otherwise lovely Green Single Stripe which I am now trying to fix with expoxy?

I'll report back once I confirm what they intended to state rather than what they may have mis-stated.  And, again, a replacement part I saw still packaged, was clearly made of zinc material and exhibited zinc rot.  

Uh Oh! I hide my "orange boxes" under the layout so no one knows I have any.

I'll have to go look at my 21" pass cars. So far, I haven't had any Lionel zinc pest problems on my "tank train" cars, mech reefers, stack wells, auto carriers, covered hoppers,..... etc.

Robert D posted:

I just started checking my 21" cars and indeed the underframes are plastic on the Empire State Express 2-pack.  Yet I personally saw replacement parts that looked identical to my eye, made of zinc, one showing obvious signs of zinc rot in a sealed pack of four replacement parts.  So I'll check to see if they misstated the 21" as opposed to another Lionel pass car model.

Both Lionel and MTH heavyweights made around 2005-2008 do have an issue with trucks falling apart. A few years ago MTH would replace the trucks if you sent them your broken ones. No idea what Lionel's policy is on this but I suspect given the time that has passed, all bets are off.

Pete

Are we talking about the most recent production of the 21" cars?

Guys.....I don't understand this topic.  It appears you are talking about zinc pest on plastic parts...?? Can't happen.....  I don't want another bashing thread to start based on this so RobertD....let me know what you find out and in the meantime....topic closed since it doesn't make any sense right now.