There's reasons that the only locos I loan out unsupervised are ones I consider expendable.
Here's one: These locos don't take well to falling three feet to a concrete floor.
Here's another: The drawbar pins on these locos are grounded, so that an additional ground can be had from the tender. Given the plastic frames on these things, this is a necessity. 'Course, if the drawbar pin is shorted out on the track and nobody pays attention, well...
Plus the motor was knocked loose...
The rear gear plate bolsters were destroyed...
And the pilot bolster was snapped off as well.
JB Weld was employed to repair the front coupler.
The melted off pin was replaced with a screw, and an eye added to the ground wire for extra reliability.
An attempt to JB Weld the gear plate bolsters in failed, so I wound up drilling out the frame and installing 4-40 screws.
The repaired pilot. The cracked and bent casting was reinforced with ACC capillaried into the cracks.
Pickup shoes reinstalled.
Gear plate and drawbar pin screws.
JB Welded pilot bolster worked better, and the pilot was duly reinstalled.
Boiler casting reinstalled.
Chugging along cheerfully! There are still some intermittent problems with the reverse board, but it does move fine in both directions.
And here's the patient in action!
Mitch
