The Dreaded Zinc Pest strikes again!

No big deal run them and forget about it. Nick

I assure you that I did run them, but I want to replace the affected parts. It is a big deal and should not still be happening in this day and age. These were not free!

Eric Hofberg

rockstars1989 posted:

No big deal run them and forget about it. Nick

Would you want the cars you have be falling apart because of zinc pest? I don't think so. Your caviller attitude adds nothing to the discussion.

Dave 

david1 posted:

rockstars1989 posted:

No big deal run them and forget about it. Nick

Would you want the cars you have be falling apart because of zinc pest? I don't think so. Your caviller attitude adds nothing to the discussion.

Dave 

The cars are not falling apart. Lets hear what you have to offer to the so called discussion on solving this problem. Nick

Eric, to offer a solution, could the structure portion of the under car detail be made from strip and sheet styrene?...and then maybe some brass detail parts from somewhere like North West Shortline? .....I’m not saying this is excusable under any circumstances, but given the age of the cars, I don’t think your gonna see any help from the L folks....so rather than join in the frey upstairs, I’d rather offer some sort of solution....I’d start by carefully removing the best one that won’t crumble, then construct the base structure, then add brass detail parts, heck, take it further and add the hoses, and hard lines as separate detail parts made from thin solid strand copper wire......build it better than they did....Pat

Sorry to hear about the zinc pest.  That set did look nice running.  It's one you don't see running very often and was a treat to see.

On a positive note, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to your open house.  It was great to talk to those I know as well as having the opportunity to meet new hobbyists.   Thanks again for your hospitality!

-Greg

Greg it was a pleasure to see you! I regret that I didn't have more time to talk, but as you saw I had my hands full. 

Hopefully I'll soon replacement parts for my passenger cars. 

Eric

we offer under body details for passenger cars made of pewter so there will be "no zinc rot" with these items.

I sold my MTH Railking K-4 that had never been out of the box. The buyer wanted me to test it. I removed the tender from the original untouched packing, and discovered as I removed the shell, the screw mounting holes broke off, the paint was cracking and the tender shell was bent. Additionally it was clear the screw holes in tge sheet metal chassis never lined up with the cast shell.

The tenders on that particular RailKing locomotive are well-known for zinc rot.  I believe MTH used to have a supply of replacement tender shells in stock to replace the bad ones.  It would be worth a call to Midge at MTH to find out if they still have some.

 Have the zinc pest problems multiplied since the manufacturers went to China? I'm starting to think that die-cast is on the way out given the advances in 3D metal printing. Incentives to keep die-cast quality high might slowly disappear.

So what to do in the meantime? I'm starting to think I should take casting impressions of things like sideframes. I'd be able to cast a resin replica later, should the need arise.

Imagine all those poor owners of those Die-cast ES44ac's Lionel made....

Some better start making casting molds so we can cast it all in Brass.

It is not only unfortunate, but really INEXCUSABLE, for these impure zinc alloys to exist, given today's body of metallurgical knowledge and techniques. I suspect a combination of poor or non-existant quality controls or cost cutting by using inferior materials are the culprits here!

Wow, that K-4 is heartbreaking. I would be SO disappointed to see that if it were mine... and after that emotion passed, I'd be ANGRY. Angry as can heck.

Andre

With this topic back in play, I wish to add an update to my original post. Fortunately, I was able to obtain replacements for the damaged underbody detail casting on my Lionel passenger cars from Lionel. At $10 apiece it did not break the bank and I did buy extras. It is becoming increasing difficult to obtain replacement parts for modern generation trains and I was lucky to find these parts still available.

Now if Mike Wolf would just re-introduce the P5a Boxcab and run off some spare body shells.......

Eric Hofberg

chug posted:

With this topic back in play, I wish to add an update to my original post. Fortunately, I was able to obtain replacements for the damaged underbody detail casting on my Lionel passenger cars from Lionel. At $10 apiece it did not break the bank and I did buy extras. It is becoming increasing difficult to obtain replacement parts for modern generation trains and I was lucky to find these parts still available.

Now if Mike Wolf would just re-introduce the P5a Boxcab and run off some spare body shells.......

Eric Hofberg

I have one of those affected p5a's from MTH as well. I hope the plan from MTH is to just never make these models again. I have been on "The list" at MTH for quite a while. Would be nice to hear from MTH about this. After all they did promise to replace these shells.

Laming, thanks for your empathy, but getting mad is not really going to help this situation.  I just hope that this is not something I find lurking in more of my collection.  I foolishly collected the MTH Premier Steam Locomotives when they first came out, so I have already lost a LOT of money or should i saw will lose a lot when I sell them, but is was sort of disheartening to make up my mind to start liquidating many of my Proto 1 locomotives as it is cost prohibitive to convert a  Rail King product to Proto 2 or 3, and then to find out after I had one sold, I could not deliver it.

Some years ago me and my wife bought her father a world war troop train.He never took it out of the boxes,So when he passed away we brought it home and we started to unbox them to put on shelves.One car was severily deformed and 2 other cars the trucks fell apart in my hands all from the Zinc rot crap .Owe well at least we have the memory when he first seen them in a magazine and he wanted them.Plus he loved trains and had a big collection.add on he got me into O Scale trains.So yeah it was disappointment but we got over it. so yeah it will take me along time to find  doner cars to fix.  

Miles, I find the Rail King PS-2 or -3 locomotives to be of a comparative amazing value.  For about the same cost of buying a PS up grade package and paying for it to be installed, one can purchase the complete engine with PS working.  Sweet!

Have not had the zinc pest visit as yet but keeping a watchful eye out for it.  Trucks and underbody features I could deal with, the tender shells,, not that is a deal breaker,