Just wondering, if my Athearn locomotive (with those very thin handrails) is left next to a Air Conditioning duct that produces warm 80F air, will the handrails eventually warp? I may have to move my test track.
I wouldn’t worry. About the only thing 80F will warp is an ice cube.
when I first read the subject, thought your rail were distorting from the heat. Actually most deformed Delrin can usually be brought back close to it’s molded shap from heat. I wouldn’t worry about 80 degrees, Many garages or attics will see temps far greater that that w/o ruining a product.
And remember the weeks that model spent in a container on the ocean, on a dock, and then on an intermodal train coming from the west coast. I suspect the interior temperatures of those containers gets pretty high.
Dave Nelson
I don’t know if it had anything to do with heat, but I recently ordered an Athearn Genesis GP38-2 high-hood from someone on eBay listed as “New” and here’s how it arrived:
http://sdrv.ms/1gdMOCv (Link is to photos on SkyDrive)
It was shipped by USPS and there was no visible damage to packaging to account for the deformation fo the railings.
I worked with the seller to get a full refund - and ordered again - this time from a well-known retailer (we’re talking full-page ads in MR major) and recieved the package this afternoon via UPS (sorry, no photos of that one yet for comparison).
I opened the package and the railings were bent so far back that they touched the hood on each end!
Seems odd that I’d have the problem weeks apart with two separate vendors… I’m going to try to deal with this via Athearn - though so far their response has been along the lines of sending it back to them for repairs at my expense… I could swallow that if it were something I did - but if I’m paying for Genesis units in new condition, I’d like them in new condition - not accurate models of a loco that hit a dump-truck at a grade crossing. 
Anyway, maybe this is common and I shouldn’t be irritated by it. Maybe there’s a simple fix to spruce up a new model. Anyway, I’d be curious in hearing the community’s experiences before I talk to Athearn about taking care of the damage.
Mark,
I have four P2k GP7’s that had deformed hand rails and I fixed them myself. I used a pair of needle nose pliers, the modeler’s kind, small fine nose tip, with no teeth on the jaw’s and grab the railing where it is bent and bend it back the other way, a little further, then what you think it needs to be. Do that a couple of times, until it stays, where you want it. I have not broke any by doing it that way, they are more robust than they appear. They are made out of the same material that the gear cover plates are made of on the trucks, Very durable. I managed to bend them myself, by putting them in the pakageing wrong. Try it on a scrap piece, if you have one and you will see what I mean.
Frank [:)]
Warm temperatures? What are those???
Mine seem a little too far bent for that - the railings on both ends were actually wedged under grab-irons as you can see in some of my photos: http://sdrv.ms/LSq7p9
Part of one of the windows was stuck to the roof, and one of the walkway light details was badly bent - though I was able with long-nose pliers (fine un-textured jaws) to bend it back. I figure the prototype probably had bent fixtures by now… but not railings.
It just seems odd to me that I bought one on eBay and another at a major online hobby shop in the New York area that I’d had good luck with before, only to recieve two units with the same issue.
From now on I’ll assume I’m buying Athern Genesis units “Ready to Repair”.
Hate to tell you this, but I have fixed some worse than the ones you show that were also slimmer than those, with two pair of needle nose pliers. The ones that cant be fixed are the grab irons. I don’t know what the store policy is, where you bought them, but if I could not look at the product, it would never have left the store, not by me anyway. Buying on line, that’s another story, one that I try to avoid, but sometimes you don’t have a choice.
Frank
Yep, I’m sure I could fix it myself… if I wanted to do that I would have bought a kit. 
Not like I don’t have enough un-finished Model Railroading tasks on my plate.
I might try pressing the bent handrails under a heavy book for a few days or something. Who knows, maybe a few days of not being wedged under grab-irons might straighten them out considerably.