I just received an eBay purchase of these cars. from 2 different sellers. Interestingly all cars came with their 6 wheel trucks with multiple broken pieces. I have other cars with same trucks and no problems the one seller will refund, the other I haven't heard. But my question is that this looks like a manufacturing flaw. These trucks are a heavy plastic not easily broken. What do think caused this?
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Wow, talk about Deja vu, same thing happened to me. Same exact set. A while ago, I bought the Lionel Legacy K-4 that goes with the Red Arrow Passenger cars. I wanted to complete the set so I found the Red Arrow Passenger set on eBay and bought them. They were advertised as new. When I received them, the trucks where broken to some degree on each car. I was able to return them. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I saw the same set from a different dealer, Thought I would roll the dice and try again. This set was also advertised as new. When I got them, same kind of damage to the trucks. When I took them out of the packaging, a couple of the trucks just crumbled into pieces. I agree with you, it has to be something with how they where made, or the fact that the material in the trucks became brittle over time. They were literally crumbling away when i took them out of the box.
Look familiar?
According to the Lionel website, those cars came with "Die-cast metal sprung trucks." What you have there looks like the dreaded zinc pest. The trucks will crumble due to impurities in the casting metal, and there is nothing you can do about it. It's very possible that all of the Red Arrow cars in that production run have the problem.
These trucks are very thin and have little in the way of impact resistance. If they are shipped in a box packed right side up with no padding and get tossed around in shipping it is very likely the trucks will break at thin points in the casting whether they have zinc pest or not. These trucks are less impact resistant than the plastic bodies. That is why I tell shippers to lay them on their sides in the shipping box. I had the same problem with some Weaver cars with diecast trucks when a seller put them in a box right side up with no padding and half the trucks on the bottom layer were broke. j
These trucks are not metal but plastic
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they are metal after what you said about the metal
The 2013 Signature catalog discription for these cars states: Die-cast metal sprung trucks and operating couplers. Not that Lionel's catalogs have never had an error.
They sure are very thin and delicate
They look just like mine. I understand however that they also come made out of plastic
I talked to Hennings and they have more trucks. I have Lionels 18' heavy weight cars with similar trucks which seem to be fine
Lionel should warrantee all of these cars with these defective trucks
Yea have the cars same problem with the trucks. Was a while maybe a few years ago. Called Lionel and they had the side frames for the trucks but they were out of black ones. They had silver ones in stock at the time. Said black one's were on back order. Bought silver side frames and painted them black. The number for the ones I bought was 6105545005 side frames for scale madison pass cars. Just replaced the side frames and so far so good.
I had same problem with cars, also figures were broken of their seats. These cars are not easy to put back together. I blame shipping & packaging .... Bought trucks to repair but could not get shipper to compensate so I sent back. Now I have 2 trucks to get rid of.
Too bad I couldn’t find replacement trucks. There arE other 18 “cars with those same trucks. But Hennings didn’t Think they had any. I loved the cars. I wish I could fine another set
@Bob is cool! posted:They look just like mine. I understand however that they also come made out of plastic
The right plastic could be more durable than the zinc. Certainly more impact resistant. A friend of mine ran a passenger train off his layout and the trucks on one car were both crushed. We were unable to find replacements and I glued the bits and pieced to 1/16" thick lexan then used a hand grinder to trim the clear lexan away around the edges. Certainly not an ideal repair but the cars are back on the track running. j
@rscott posted:Wow, talk about Deja vu, same thing happened to me. Same exact set. A while ago, I bought the Lionel Legacy K-4 that goes with the Red Arrow Passenger cars. I wanted to complete the set so I found the Red Arrow Passenger set on eBay and bought them. They were advertised as new. When I received them, the trucks where broken to some degree on each car. I was able to return them. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I saw the same set from a different dealer, Thought I would roll the dice and try again. This set was also advertised as new. When I got them, same kind of damage to the trucks. When I took them out of the packaging, a couple of the trucks just crumbled into pieces. I agree with you, it has to be something with how they where made, or the fact that the material in the trucks became brittle over time. They were literally crumbling away when i took them out of the box.
Look familiar?
I’m going to guess the these cars had been exposed to heat over a period of time.
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