Looking for some help, I think the zinc pest has struck.

JD, That is definitely zinc pest. You may be able to salvage some usable parts from the trucks, but otherwise they are pretty much done for. You can gather all the pieces and start a junk yard scene. As for replacements, contact the Atlas service department. They can tell you what the trucks are and if they have replacements. Have the catalog number of the car handy; it speeds things up. Now I have to go check mine...

Chris

LVHR

I had the exact same problem with the Atlas Sargento Car.  - I did contract work for Sargento years ago and really thought the owners and employees were great people (which is why I wanted the car). - Atlas O replaced the trucks for me with no charge.  By the way I've heard the "zinc pest" term before, I am clueless to what people are referring to. Seems to me these are powdered metal parts which must be pressed to their final shape under the proper compaction pressure and then run through a furnace to burn off the lubricant while fusing the powder metal together. If not done quite right the powder never bonds together properly and the part will simply crumble.  I've seen this happen with other parts when working at powder metal shops. Given what I saw with my Sargento trucks, it looks to me like the same issue.  Atlas would know when they have a problem.  The parts are put on a belt and run through a continuous belt furnace. If there is a problem, you will have hundreds if not thousands of bad parts, not just one.  Poor quality control by the shop. 

Thanks Chris, hope yours is ok. I had to have that car because I live 7 miles away from Plymouth WI. The cheese capitol of the world!

The actual car passed through Berea Ohio earlier this summer.  The Sargento painted over but still the same paint scheme.

I had been looking for an Atlas one. I think I will stop the search. 

The atlas 100 ton roller bearing with the long coupler are the correct trucks

Sorry to read about the zinc pest on the car. How long did you have the car before you noticed the problem. I wonder if the deterioration happens over a long period of time or does it show up within a couple of years of manufacture.

Various Atlas O Die-Cast trucks made during that time period have all started to crumble in the past year. 

Andrew

What time period are we talking about here, I have a couple of earlier Atlas-O cars but have no clue as to when they were made.  I hate to hear about this pest you guys talk about, nearly every bit of my trains are still packed away in boxes, I guess I better start checking them out as I begin to unpack the moving boxes.

@ScoutingDad posted:

I had the exact same problem with the Atlas Sargento Car.  - I did contract work for Sargento years ago and really thought the owners and employees were great people (which is why I wanted the car). - Atlas O replaced the trucks for me with no charge.  By the way I've heard the "zinc pest" term before, I am clueless to what people are referring to. Seems to me these are powdered metal parts which must be pressed to their final shape under the proper compaction pressure and then run through a furnace to burn off the lubricant while fusing the powder metal together. If not done quite right the powder never bonds together properly and the part will simply crumble.  I've seen this happen with other parts when working at powder metal shops. Given what I saw with my Sargento trucks, it looks to me like the same issue.  Atlas would know when they have a problem.  The parts are put on a belt and run through a continuous belt furnace. If there is a problem, you will have hundreds if not thousands of bad parts, not just one.  Poor quality control by the shop. 

Zinc is a mixture of metals that are raised to melting point and then poured into a mold.  There are various places on the site where you can look up the problem.  My latest has been the Lionel 6-51000 Hiawatha.  You can see the metal beginning to breakdown under the paint.  There are also several of the same model on ebay if considering buying one.  Buyer beware.

Not sure how old the car is, my guess is 7 to 10 years old. It’s a fantastic looking car. Very well done, just bummed about the trucks.

Other trucks can usually be adapted - some need no changes - if you cannot find drop-in replacements.

With Hi-Rail/3RS/2RO cars such as Atlas makes, avoid the high-bolster trucks (i.e. - those with PW Lionel proportions).Weaver trucks - made both in plastic and metal, and in both plain- and roller-bearing types - are always a good place to start if you cannot find any drop-ins, though the add-on coupler design can yield a bit of the "high-water" look without a little car bolster adjustment. Atlas and Lionel have used the same manufacturers I do believe; some of the trucks look interchangeable. 

MTH made low-bolster trucks.

Atlas sells replacement trucks. Pick up a pair and replace them. Done.

That's a nice car and it's too bad about the trucks. The proper truck replacement for this Evans RBL car is actually the 70 (not 100) ton roller bearing truck. According to Atlas the item number for the three-rail version is #66034. It looks like you'll need to transfer the longer-shank coupler to the mounting cross member on the new truck, but that's easy to do.

Good luck,

RM

There is one of those cars up for auction currently:

Stout Auction

I'm a big believer in taking your trains out of their boxes and running them.

I bought four cars from that run and one, the cancer car, just got new trucks a couple weeks ago. I’m shocked Atlas replaced trucks for one of the previous posters. I talked to Bill S. at York a couple years ago when I first discovered the breakdown of the trucks and I might as well have been talking to one of my Arttista figures!

@Bill DeBrooke posted:

Zinc is a mixture of metals that are raised to melting point and then poured into a mold.  There are various places on the site where you can look up the problem.  My latest has been the Lionel 6-51000 Hiawatha.  You can see the metal beginning to breakdown under the paint.  There are also several of the same model on ebay if considering buying one.  Buyer beware.

From past commentary on the Forum, at least as I recall it, most people with some knowledge of the process said the issue is poor quality control on the casting process by the Chinese that occurs from time to time, with impurities being allowed into the metal and/or improper mixtures of the component metals.

I had a problem a number of years ago with some of the Atlas O FrontRunner cars I had, with the trucks crumbling from zinc rot. There have been many reports of pest problems with that 51000 Hiawatha set over the years. Some of them are OK, but there have been a high number of problems reported.

New trucks ordered, Atlas confirmed #66034 is the correct set. 

@Bill DeBrooke posted:

Zinc is a mixture of metals that are raised to melting point and then poured into a mold.  There are various places on the site where you can look up the problem.  My latest has been the Lionel 6-51000 Hiawatha.  You can see the metal beginning to breakdown under the paint.  There are also several of the same model on ebay if considering buying one.  Buyer beware.

Actually, Zinc is an element, atomic number 30

Quite an interesting topic. According to Wikipedia zinc pest was a problem with zinc alloys and particularly with lead impurities. 99.99% pure zinc when used in die casting eliminated the problem. Supposedly after 1960 zinc pest no longer occurs - at least in modern countries. Turns out I also have a problem with an MTH Airco Tank Car.  Cannot find my Sargento Reefer truck photos - those trucks turned to dust - not little pieces like these. 

I checked about a dozen Atlas O refrigerator cars today. No problems evident on trucks or couplers. Cars five or more years old and run frequently.

MELGAR

For the record, this is the 1st time I have encountered this problem.

I dug mine out and checked. First time it has been out of the box since the factory. The wheels didn't roll very well, but applying moderate pressure did not break the trucks. These may be in the early stages, as I think I can see some crazing of the metal. But since the trucks are not visibly damaged not much I can do. I'll put it back in the box and wait a year.

JD, unfortunately, this problem is a lot more common than it should be. It's across all brands, as almost everything is made in China. There have been numerous posts on this Forum about the problem. There is little we can do except not buy the stuff. Right now, I cringe every time I see a new diecast engine being offered, Chinese quality control is non-existent. Many pieces ARE fine, and have no issues. But if you are the unlucky recipient of a problem child, good luck to you. You will need it. The problem is batch based. If an entire run comes from a bad batch of metal, then everyone suffers. With any luck, the importer orders a second run. And you pray that one is from good material. MTH was known for making good with certain engines and tenders. But now that they are going out of business, there is no back up if this pest hits one of their pieces.

Chris

LVHR

Hi Chris, the thing that alerted me to the problem was squeaking wheels. When I checked them, they hardly rolled, then I saw the brass bushing out of place and started to push them back into place and it turned into a crumbler. If yours are rolling poorly, you can bet the axles are moving out of alignment. Like I said, I’m glad that this was my first experience with it. Hopefully the rest of my rolling stock holds together. And if not, I’ll fix those too.

I've been purchasing some Railking 19th century rolling stock lately.  Some of it is from the early 2000's, and I've read here that this issue also raised it's ugly head on some of those pieces.  No problems so far, but every time I take a car out and inspect it I expect the worst.

I know a lot of us have items that we've never removed from their boxes or even opened.  I wonder how may of these items have this issue, or are DOA.  I've bought enough used pieces, but that's one caveat we should consider when buying a NIB product from years ago.  It's almost better when buying a used item for it to have a little mileage on it! 

@Nation Wide Lines posted:

Actually, Zinc is an element, atomic number 30

Excuse me, zinc alloy then

@breezinup posted:

From past commentary on the Forum, at least as I recall it, most people with some knowledge of the process said the issue is poor quality control on the casting process by the Chinese that occurs from time to time, with impurities being allowed into the metal and/or improper mixtures of the component metals.

I had a problem a number of years ago with some of the Atlas O FrontRunner cars I had, with the trucks crumbling from zinc rot. There have been many reports of pest problems with that 51000 Hiawatha set over the years. Some of them are OK, but there have been a high number of problems reported.

If memory serves, the 51000 Hiawatha was made in Korea.  I just received my new Hiawatha shell from MTH the other day.

It comes down to cost cutting in the Chinese factories, combined with poor QC on the shop floor.  Lionel learned this lesson early on.  Tight quality control in their diecasting shop is what gave us models that to this day, are mostly zinc pest free after the scale 700e hudsons.  Cant remember ever seeing any of the other late prewar diecast engines have it, even the OO Hudsons(their frame warping is a design flaw in how the boiler is retained at the front).  Good luck to future collectors dealing with not only failed electronics in todays models, but zinc pest running rampent thru several brands.  AD

I've rescued a few of my Atlas and MTH trucks with JB-weld. If a truck looks suspicious, I put a thin coating of JB-weld on the back of the truck and then paint the truck with an enamel paint.