I long for the days of tough trucks on locos that don’t break when handling.
Whenever I have to place a loco on the track, I fear damaging highly detailed trucks with fragile parts. My latest fatality is a broken stirrup on an Intermountain loco.
As careful as I am, parts get damaged. It may be a question of where I put my fingers to guide the trucks onto the rails. Where do you hold the truck to avoid damage?
Is this a common problem with others?
Rich
Use a re-railer , I believe that Rix Products make them. Just lay the re-railer over the track, sit the loco on it and slide the loco down it onto the track the flanges will sit as they should do with no need to touch the trucks Regards Colin Cambridge U.K.
That re-railer seems like a good idea. I usually pick the loco up by the fuel tank, and carefully try to guide the trucks into position as I set it down, then make final adjustments, one truck at time. Some times, with the trucks straight, I can set it down with all wheels ending up where they belong. My most frequent damaged parts are the fine brake line piping, end hand rails, and roof and window shade details getting it into and out of the box. Especially the Kato’s, getting them in and out of the styrofoam packaging.
Mike.
Hmm, now that is an interesting idea. Never considered that device. Does anyone know how long the Rix Rail-It is?
Rich
Just for my own curiosity, I looked them up. 12" long, and only about $3. !
My first Athearn SD45 also requires a bit of TLC. I hold it by the body (away from any railings) and gently lower the trucks on to the rails. Whenever the handrails are loose, I quickly glue them back.
Don’t get me wrong: I LOVE the loco’s level of detail and reliability!
Rerailer or not, you still have to pick the loco up. It can be hard when the trucks AND the body have fragile detail parts all over. It used to be the standard was to pick a loco up by the trucks, to keep fingerprints off the paint and to keep from damaging body detail. Now it’s, find a spot with nothing to break. Use gloves or tissue paper so your fingers don;t contact the paint. And there are some lift up cradles out there you can set over the rails, drive the locoon, and the lift by the handles, never touching the loco. Kind of expensive to have enough for a whole fleet, but you could power the storage/display tracks so you can run the loco off the cradle and load up the next loco to transport back to the layout.
–Randy
Using a rerailer is essential,I just wish they made one long enough for Articulateds trying to line up say sixteen drivers and then lead and trailing trucks can be quite a chore,then the tender on top of that lol.
Can’t imagine them not extending them to include our biggest engines.
ya I know they were originally intended for freight cars, lol
Exactly. Before I handle a locomotive, I wash my hands with soap and water to ensure that no body oil transfers to the paint job.
Rich
Yes, I try to have clean hands when handling trains too. I used to have some fellow friends who put on latex gloves for handling their trains, particularly brass models.
As for picking up loco’s, as pointed out above, you can pick up by the fuel tank - thats my suggestion and what I do these days since many have parts on the trucks.
BTW, KATO also makes a re-railer ramp you can use to put rolling stock on the track - might be similar to the RIX rerailer. I bought one of the KATO ones.
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Kato-HO-2502-Rerailer-With-UniJoiner-Remover-p/kat-2502.htm
Another option would be the Peco “loco lift” cartridge, or a home-brewed equivalent.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/552-43
If I understand the concept correctly you’d need a special dedicated track to run the locomotive onto the cartridge. It appears to have more stability than using a Rix rerailer in terms of carrying the engine around.
This is a real problem however. Even fuel tanks have added detail or after market parts. There is now so much delicate stuff on our locomotives these days, from the trucks to the railings to the sides to the roofs and cabs, that they have become nearly untouchable. Maybe Irv Athearn knew best those many decades ago (he said, jokingly).
Dave Nelson
Yep, that is exactly the problem. The high degree of detail does make them nearly untouchable.
Rich
So what have been doing the last few hours between post ? Adding MORE detail parts to a couple of loco projects…[:-^] Including sun shades, antennas, snow plows, hoses, etc, etc. Oh well…!
Mike.
That reminds me of some old issues of Model Railroader magazine where there were times that it was strongly implied that real modelers don’t touch their trains anymore than absolutely necessary. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I recall one cartoon that was to illlustrate a expert modeler tip:
In the cartoon there was “mr. experienced model RRer” with his train cap and bib overalls, and mr. noob. In the scene illustrated, mr. noob was about to pick up his prized steam engine which was at a stub end track to lift and move it. “mr. experienced” suddenly yelled out, “What are you doing!!!”, as if he was about to do something unthinkable and un-prototypical. Mr. noob acted all embarrassed and said this is the only way I can turn my steam engine. Then Mr. experienced proceeded to show mr. noob how he could redesign this part of his layout so he could accomplish the move without having to (horrors!) touch his steam engine!
I think that cartoon demonstrated the philosophy that apparently was true among some prototypical operators that you should never touch or pick up your engines on the layout (unless to fix them or something).
Mike, was your reply meant to be humorous or sarcastic?
Rich