i dropped my ac4400cw in cp red as i was painting the hand rails:kiss: i busted the ditch lite pipe and the light housing that has the front hand rails i went to katos site but there no real help do i need to buy a whole body or can i just buy the ditch light housing and the glass set??
1x 922185 AC4400CW Handrail Set, CP Red, 1 ea 1x 920220 AC4400CW Glass Set (Std. Cab w/ Low Number Boards), 1 ea that will fix your engine...
i feel you pain. i got one that ran into a car. mines just a Bachmann spectrum though, really i almost did myself a favor. but shes good for the maiden voyages.
Until you get the parts, you can run it as a trailing unit with some kind of yellow tape or string across the area without the handrails. I've seen this in real life many times, as a locomotive that has clobbered an automobile works its way back to the shop for repairs.
One of my clubmates watched his Kato SD70M make an unplanned dismount from the layout and land on the floor. We were fortunate in that it disassembled itself rather than break. Once we found all the pieces I got it all back together. I had to put a little bit of a bend on one of the contact springs to get it to work right. Best of luck with the repair!
I recently dropped my Intermountain SD40T-2 when I forgot I left a plastic ruler on the tracks, and gravity did its thing as it took a 4-foot nosedive onto my floor (which fortunately is carpeted). Nonetheless it broke into about 6-7 pieces. I almost started to panic when, after putting the chassis back on the track, it would not move (the headlights would turn on though). Eventually, after gluing the body back together (it mostly disassembled but the front end broke off from the rest of the body - not unrepairable though), after pushing either the motor or one of the flyweels from side to side, it started to work again. I was *this close* to making my own "Help! I dropped my Tunnel Motor!" post!
One of my cats was mistakenly let into the train room, and proceeded to knock an AC4400 of mine onto the floor! Luckily, it was carpeted and nothing amazingly broke, it still looks and runs fine! Instant scary moment when i saw the blue on the carpet when I walked in!
I know the heartache of having accidents like this. I also recently dropped my InterMountain SP SD45T and the body is beyond repair. Since the rest of the engine was undamaged I wrote to IM requesting to purchase a decorated SP body from them but to date I haven't had a reply from them. This is one of my favorite engines and any suggestions to hasten IM would be appreciated. Cheers,
Call them, and offer to send them the damaged shell. Some manufacturers try to not flood the market with decorated shells, for one reason or another. I don't know if Intermountain is like that or not, but they may be more inclined to scrounge up the parts you need if your old shell is sitting there in several pieces.
i was sitting at my table when this happened so the drop was only 2 or 3 feet i was holding the ac by the rear fan housing upside down painting the bottom of the grab irons when the pop happened. afterwards i put red on the tracks and she worked fine:tb-ooh: just a little beat up...
The same thing happened with one of my clubmate's locos...a unique custom painted superdetailed Kato SD40-2. The thing tumbled 6 feet and evidently landed absolutely right-side-up, like a cat. The trucks completely exploded (it was one from the newer Kato "mid-production" run) but we found all the pieces. The shell was unscathed. One of the luckiest things I've seen happen in my life.
I picked one up from them recently and they only charge $18.00 usd. If they have one in stock you'll get it in a few days after you order it. It will most likely be from the lates run.
Exactly the same thing happened to my CN SD40-2 #6253 - I was unlucky enough to get one of the 1st batch with the faulty trucks; the brass pick-ups slipped down and snagged the switch, the nose dug in and the tail flipped over and it did a perfect somersault before going over the side and 4 feet down to the floor. The bodywork survived intact - thanks to the carpet :tb-biggrin: The trucks didn't. I've painted the handrails, Steps, Ditch and headlights on all my KATO locos, but I've always dismantled the shells first. However, the first time I tried to dismantle an AC44000 it took me THREE DAYS to work out how to do it without breaking it. Now I've got it down to less than 3 minutes.
"Now I've got it down to less than 3 minutes'' drop it off the work bench and it will disassemble in under 3 seconds:tb-biggrin:
