Bachmann has had issues also. The one that comes to mind is the 4-4-0s. The tender wheel assembly would swell and lock up the tender wheels. Zemac again.
I posted about the seven Atlas SD-35's because, one would not expect that Atlas was in the frame rot club. I have not found any other Atlas locomotives older or newer with damage, yet! However, I think anything made in that 2009 time period maybe suspect. I haven't been very active with the trains lately, but I have recently got back into them. The SD-35 damage was first noticed several years ago, but other life events took over. I first noticed that the front truck was falling out of a low hood B&O SD-35, then saw cracks in the frame. Doug, I thought I might use your Rivarossi fix with super glue, like I did before, but it crumbled when it came out of the body shell. The damage seemed to be worse when I checked the other SD-35's a few days ago, but time is not your friend with Zinc Pest. I know it's disheartening and I wish all well.
Yes, there is a limit to how far the damage can get before you can't repair it anymore. I have mentioned before about my old Rivarossi 0-8-0 and how I fixed it years ago and it has been running great for all these years but I took it out recently and it was having trouble so I fear something has happened. I haven't looked into it, yet. Doug
It really is a shame about this whole situation. I am very fortunate that I only have 5 IM F units and they don't look like that mess. What are you going to do with the recovered shells and mechanisms without frames? That's a lot of spare parts..... Side note: I have close to 100 blue box KATO locos from the very early days and although I don't run them; NONE of the frames have issues. I have some Aurora Postage Stamp and MRC locos and they too never suffered the same fate as those IM frames. If you sell the parts; you will probably have a larger inventory than IM..... Brian
IM made some of the nicest cars like release after release of the ATSF refers and the grain cars etc. I do not know what they are doing with cars now, but I am sure that part of the business has taken a hit too. I was buying a lot more of the cars than the locomotives.
I acquired many of their cars in kit form starting back in the 90's since they were at the time the nicest to be had. Fortunately all the ballast was my own so don't have to worry about rot with those but I still have as many assembled cars with their reefers being some of my favorite too. Fortunately as time has progressed many others have stepped up their game to the point that most of my intermountain purchases naturally waned due to competitors like Trainworx, BLMA (now atlas), Rapido and now have ceased altogether. P.S. if you like an earlier era of reefers Rapido is coming out with Santa Fe mechanical reefers and those things look very nice.
I checked my Atlas/Rivarossi 0-8-0 and the frame is fine. The problem was worn brushes. So now,all four of them are operable again. Doug
Face it.......model railroaders are impossible to please. We complain that we want more detail in our models, so the manufacturers add detail, but that means the cost goes up........so we complain about the cost.....which makes the manufacturers produce fewer cars because they can't afford to sell them for what we want to pay..........so we complain about not having enough choices.......and on it goes. I seriously doubt any manufacturer has ever sold us "bad" products on purpose. Did Bachmann know their white gears were going to fail........eventually they figured it out, but I doubt they knew it in the beginning. There is no test that I'm aware of for the Zamac issue.......I've never seen anyone even explain what is happening.....so the manufacturers just have to sort of cross their fingers and send the product out the door. A simple fix would be to go back to the plastic frames with lead weights and wired trucks/motors......I can hear the screams already.........but the zamac issue would be gone.
I agree and their cylindrical grain hoppers may still be the best looking cars in my entire fleet. Simply stunning cars!
The Zamac situation is an exception to the "manufacturer could never know in advance" claim because it is a known problem and a manufacturer using Zamac castings really should be obligated to make it clear to their Zamac supplier that they will hold them responsible for failures of that alloy (it's not really an alloy, more like an amalgam) and expect them to replace anything made from that amalgam that swells, cracks, or falls apart. Doug
Going back to the issue........can someone explain what is ACTUALLY happening to these frames...........Is it a chemical reaction, a breakdown of the material ( caused by what)?, absorbing moisture, what?????
NARC cylindrical hoppers ruined me for the IM. Ride height being one of the big differences but other finer details as well. The Micro Trains logo and verbiage on the bottom sill of this particular limited run car are on the actual prototype too lol.
Zamac is a so-called alloy of zinc, aluminum, magnesium, and copper but it really isn't a true alloy in that the metals don't molecularly combine but stay separate in the mixture. The more impurities (mainly lead) in the zinc, the more the corrosion of the impurities affects the surrounding metal causing the swelling, cracking, and crumbling. If the impurities are kept to a very low percentage, Zamac can last indefinitely. Generally, the deterioration is progressive and irreversible and the casting will eventually be lost. I have saved a few of my early Atlas castings, however, by filling all the cracks with super glue (ACC)_ and filing the casting back to its original size as much as possible. These are mainly 0-8-0s,4-6-2s, 2-8-2s, and E8s. Frames I resurrected years ago are still usable. There were some from the 0-6-0s that were too far gone, crumbling into almost powder. Doug
I wish I could remember......but it was from someone on the forum. I'D like to get some more ........I put 2 on an NW2, and the one on the SW, and I have one left. In the bag, there's a note that says "if you have any questions, contact me"......but no contact info.
