I never thought this would happen to me

A most unfortunate situation, hopefully your Indiana connection will partner a solution with you. Apparently, the "pest" like the "virus" knows no geographical restrictions, good luck.

I'd think about making a high heat silicone mold of the new frames. You could cast the next yourself from plastic or metal. It would be cool little project imo , even if you don't ever have to cast them, the molds are there.

Sorry about your unfortunate situation. I've been there as well. Since its only a Williams By Bachman, match the paint of the old side frames and spray away. There is minimum collector value and if the paint is done correctly, no one but you would know.

You posted:

"Living "down-under" in Australia, I thought I would be immune to the dreaded "Zinc Pest", but here I am crying about it."

Perhaps my sense of humor is just on the fritz, but why would the Southern Hemisphere make any difference? 

Sympathies, regardless. 

Sorry to hear Buco...I spent some time in Australia....great country...love all things Aussie...joe

Paint is your friend.  John 

Sadly, zinc pest, unfortunately, is found on all continents except perhaps Antartica!

Thanks guys for your sympathies.

Adriatic: Good suggestion to make a cast of the replacement side frames.....I will definitely look at doing something like that......not beyond my skill sets.

prrhorseshoecurve & rattler21:  Yeh, thought of doing that as well, getting some matching dark blue paint and making them look as close as possible to the originals. Like you said, it doesn't really matter as the loco is not really a "collectors item".

D500: It was my attempt to ease my own pain. We here in Australia are so far away and isolated from the rest of the world it takes some time for things to catch-up with us. Maybe that's why our Corona Virus rate is so low?????

Joe: We love America!!!  Been there about six or seven times now.....usually spend 3mths at a time (longest we can stay on a tourists visa). Hire a car in LA and just head-off on a road trip. Been to all 50 States and love everyone of them.....they are all different. Americans are so friendly to us Aussies, and boy have we seen some sights!!!! Coming back in 2022 so LOOK OUT!!!!

Peter.....(Buco) on the fabulous Gold Coast in sunny Queensland, Australia.

While i profess I dunno much about this stuff...perhaps copies of parts made by an Aussie with a 3D printer could be an answer? Sorry to read about this zinc pest ruining your engine.

The good news is, the sideframes should be pretty easy to paint the correct color.  Consider yourself lucky, many folks are stuck with the Lionel JLC GG-1 with the disintegrating sideframes, and there is no replacement available right now!  And, that's only one example, this has happened to a number of products.  I had to round up trucks for a set of K-Line passenger cars that self-destructed.

Guys ,

so far I don't see any zinc pest that I can see on the layout here.

Besides moisture etc., what is the real cause for the beginning of the zinc pest ?  Is it some type of ' rust ' ? 🤔   

The real cause is impurities in the zinc casting at manufacture.  It can likely be hastened by environmental factors, but a "good" casting won't develop zinc pest even in poor storage conditions.

Back at Christmas time I attended a party and got to talking to a guy who was a metallurgist and I asked him about zinc castings decomposing.  He said that it is very hard to mine zinc without some lead getting in it and the most common reason that the castings decompose is they were not cooked long enough to diffuse the lead uniformly thoroughly through the casting. If not cooked long enough the lead forms boundry layer strings and makes the casting more susceptible to internal electrolysis. He went into a lot more detail that I cannot remember but this is the jest of  his answer.           j

"Internal electrolysis"? Never would have thought of that!

It seems like the American toy train manufacturers solved that problem decades ago.  Am I wrong, but it seems to be relegated these days to Chinese manufacturing?  Do I have that right?

Alan

The expert cited above mentioned several possible contributors to the problem of zinc pest: lead impurities in the mined zinc ore, inadequate or lack of uniform heating of the alloy mix, formation of boundary layer strings, and the resulting internal electrolysis. The end result is crazing and then eventual disentigration of the casting. Postwar Lionel and Gilbert Flyer apparently were successful in overcoming these issues in their time. Sadly, the problem seems to have resufaced mainly with the Chinese manufacturers, for one reason or another.

If it's not a viral plague it's a zinc plague.

Alan

It really comes down to a couple of root problems -- metallurgy and manufacturing processes. Perfectionism among mid-20th century manufacturing engineers pretty much did put the problem to rest in that era. There simply wasn't any reason not to do zinc casting right. It was a technology used in many product areas at the time, and not strictly toys and models.

Today, zinc castings aren't quite as common in consumer goods now that we have a wider choice of engineered materials -- zinc casting is just one particular specialty among many. And with the constant drive to reduce costs and maximize profits, there's plenty of incentive to shave corners. A little cheaper raw material supply. A little faster manufacturing so that the contractor can take on more business in the same time period. So the zinc batches may have more impurities and the casting process may be sped-up -- both of which lead to higher risks of zinc pest.

Commodity consumer products aren't expected to last more than a few years anyway. The tendency of us hobbyists to keep products made with zinc castings for a decade or more is an aberration to modern commodity manufacturing.

Maybe worst of all, even bad batches take quite a while before the flaws literally come to the surface. In five to ten years, the people who made the decisions to cut corners or who would hold the decision makers to be accountable have, in all likelihood, moved on. Between reorganizations in the Far Eastern manufacturing sector and the comings and goings of managers and key players in the train manufacturers, there are few who can take responsibility or be assigned responsibility to fix the problem and keep it fixed into the future. It's too easy for someone, somewhere, to cut corners because no one will find out until it's much to late to do anything about it.

Hey redjimmy1955:  Took your advice and located a guy about 100km from me who does 3D printing.

He is certain he can reproduce the side frames in high impact plastic, once he gets a hold of the replacement frames to scan. Things are on the up and up now, and I'll let you know how it turns out. Just have to wait a couple of months for the postal service to eventually get the new side frames to me. Thank you again Mr Corona Virus!!!!

Peter on the fabulous Gold Coast in sunny Queensland, Australia.

I'm at a loss as to why you don't just paint the replacement sideframes the proper color and be done with the issue?  You'll doubtless have to paint the replacements anyway, what do you hope to accomplish by making them out of plastic?

gunrunnerjohn: I am a retired forensic structural engineer that has spent the best part of his working life investigating failures in all sorts of different structures all over Australia. Call me cautious, but I have no faith in the replacement side frames being "Zinc Pest Free", if they were manufactured at the same time as the ones on my loco.

When we design a repair specification, as structural engineers, we like to "over-engineer" the solution so it doesn't come back to bite us in the ar.e!!!

I am hedging my bets with the replacement frames......if they prove to be OK in the long run, I then have a spare set, should anything go wrong in the future.

Just me being over cautious, and being prepared.....just like a good Boy Scout!!!!

Peter in sunny Queensland, Australia.

If you're that paranoid about these small parts, what about spares for all the other zinc castings in your trains?   I think that may be bordering on being an obsessive Boy Scout!

I have some badly PESTED side frames that I intend on 3D laser printing in resin. Not high on my ever expanding list of things to do before I turn 80.