Plastic Equivalent of Zinc Pest?

That looks like a separate piece on the bottom of the plastic floor, it may actually be diecast.

Its zinc pest. I've seen it before on PS1 underframes. The issue is that it usually swells the metal parts, and then you can start breaking or deforming the plastic.  The solution is to find a cheap PS-1 for parts and chassis swap the shell. Lionel doesnt have that part available via service. If you can find a boxcar for <$30 then you get the underframe and end up with a spare pair of trucks for "Free".

Thanks guys.  I got my kid and grandkid here for the day, so I'll look at it when the commotion dies down.

I double checked, and all the white crack lines are on plastic pieces.  The only metal on it I could find, besides the obvious screws and trucks were the canisters underneath and the tubing that connects them, pretty nice actually.  All the pieces with the white lines were plastic.

Anyway, when I tried to take the frame and car body apart (4 screws held them together), several of the braces, with the white lines, broke.  The car body, when put over the frame, is extremely tight.  Too tight.  You have to work hard to get the outside of the body over the frame.  I suspect the white lines, cracks actually, came from the stress of the body pushing on the braces over the years.  I super glued the braces back into place, and it's okay now.

Thanks for your ideas.

I've never seen plastic crack that way on a car before.

@texgeekboy posted:

I recently posted that I got a NIB Lionel 27210 PRR PS-1 boxcar from an auction on eBay.  After I turned it over I found white lines (shallow cracks really) in all the plastic stuff underneath. The car body looks okay. According to the Lionel store this car may have last been manufactured in 2005.  It may have been improperly stored, but I’ll never know. Has anyone seen this?  Will it cause problems in the long run?  Thanks in advance for any info.

Unless you see the opening in the cracks, this looks like it’s the plastic finish cracked. Also it looks as if the car is warped? Excessive heat?

Yeah, the opening in the cracks is minuscule, perhaps not even an opening.  So it could be just the finish was cracked.  The body isn't a perfect fit onto the frame, the body had be manipulated to fit over the frame which probably caused the warping.  Looking at the left screw on the top part of the picture, the braces just to the left of it were extremely snug fitting on both sides of the body.  I have no idea if there was excessive heat in its shelf life.

Since the body is so tight over the frame, the stress on the plastic parts over 15+ years could be causing those crack lines.

@texgeekboy posted:

Yeah, the opening in the cracks is minuscule, perhaps not even an opening.  So it could be just the finish was cracked.  The body isn't a perfect fit onto the frame, the body had be manipulated to fit over the frame which probably caused the warping.  Looking at the left screw on the top part of the picture, the braces just to the left of it were extremely snug fitting on both sides of the body.  I have no idea if there was excessive heat in its shelf life.

Since the body is so tight over the frame, the stress on the plastic parts over 15+ years could be causing those crack lines.

Yup, I have seen this with trains stored in an attic

Plastics generally hold up well.

  But most plastics do not like heat and I have several cars stored in a hot attic become brittle.  Of course, high heat will melt most plastics.

Most plastics do not like to be mechanically stressed and will develop cracks.

Clear plastics do not have pigments in them, like a kaolin clay as a filler that is added for coloring.  Clear plastics are susceptible to ultraviolet rays from the sun as they lack fillers, added with color, to shield the plastic from UV  The UV rays also kill clear finished wood paints even with poly urethane being best, lasting only five years,

Take a look in your neighbor hood at all the destroyed stylish clear acrylic basket ball back boards that failed in about 10 years of sun.  My polyester white pigment fiber glass back board is over 30 years old, in the east and west sun. and is still good.

Just a few things to do to help plastic train gear, keep them away from heat, sun and mechanical stress.

Charlie