A little while ago my dad brought me an HO Walthers Trainline FA-1 he found at a second-hand store. It is in rough shape but runs fine. Today I was finally able to separate the shell from the frame and noticed that the place on the frame where the motor sits is cracking. Are the cracks due to rough handling or is there some other reason? Any help is appreciated.
Might have been dropped. Might be the onset of “Zinc Pest” a problem/disease/badsomething that happens to old Zamac. There is no known cure for Zinc Pest.
Was it me, I’d clean that chassis, hot soapy water, followed by a hour’s soak in supermarket vinegar, finish with a hot water rinse. Then work epoxy into the cracks as far as it can go. Let the epoxy dry good and hard, overnight or better. Avoid dropping it again. Might run happily for years, on the other hand it might not, but you won’t hurt anything.
Does anyobne know if Walthers Trainline locos are susceptible to zinc pest?
Probably not. Zinc pest was pretty much solved by the 1960’s. It was caused by some sort of impurity in the molten Zamak. I had a case in a Varney Casey Jones that I got as a Christmas gift in the middle 1950’s. The problem didn’t show up until sometime in the early 1990’s. It was just the tender floor casting, and back then I was able to get a replacement from Bowser, who had taken over the Varney line.
Ok, so most likely rough handling, thank you for the info.
The zinc pest has recently become an issue with Marklin and TRIX trains manufactured a few years ago in China. I have seen pictures of Marklin/TRIX US box cars on the Marklin Users Forum with their entire frames cracked or in some cases warped. Here is a link to a video showing the issue: