That’s the post. I now own, and historically have owned, very little Williams product. I have not heard of this being a problem, but I’m considering buying mint unopened passenger cars, (not WBB), and would certainly consider known instances of zinc rot to be a red flag. Thanks for your comments.
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I have a Williams Virginian Trainmaster from the early to mid 90's which had zinc rot on the truck side frames. Also a Santa Fe Alco AA set, same era, same rot location... truck side frames. However, I have no experience with the passenger cars of this era showing signs of truck side frame deterioration. Perhaps others can add further knowledge on this.
This was before 3D printing so my fix was jigsaw puzzling them back together with JB Weld. The repairs have held right up to the present day. In spite of this I would recommend the Williams ( pre Bachmann era) engines as a solid value.
John
Thank you, John.
I have experienced some zinc rot in the 1990's vintage Williams as well. One was on a Train Master side frame and the other was in the couplers of a set of "Madison" cars.
Thanks, Jonathan. Hope you’re feeling better.
Oh boy... looks like I better check my 90's era Williams Jersey Central Trainmaster & Virginian rectifier. Gee, its always something.
Hey Mark:
I had a bad experience with Zinc Pest in one of my Williams diesel locos.
Here is the link to the topic I posted on the OGR Forum some time ago:
https://ogrforum.com/...1#155434571656004611
Can't speak about any problems with their passenger cars, but I just received six Williams cars in a factory sealed box from a Cabin Fever Auction late last year, and everything appears in good shape, for their age.
Good luck with the purchase Mark......and I'll see you in May!!!!
Peter.....Buco Australia.
I've got a semi scale GG1 with zinc rot on all of the side frames. I'll have to check the trucks too, but I think they're OK thus far.
I have experienced zinc rot with one MPC engine and a couple Kline tankers. The Williams and WBB are fine. This includes one Williams passenger set from the 80’s and one WBB from 2010’sh.
I have also experienced zinc rot on the Williams 90's era TrainMasters (Southern Pacific and Santa Fe).
idea-thinker
Thanx to all respondents. Notch 6 (Derek) started this catalog of zinc pest failures.
I had some Wms heavyweight passenger cars from the 90's that had some pested truck sideframes; not all of them, at least while I owned them. I sold them (full disclosure, and I had done some epoxy repairs) and that's the last I heard of them.
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:Thanks, Jonathan. Hope you’re feeling better.
Improving. Thanks for asking!
I will say that the vast majority of Williams I have owned over the years has not experienced zinc rot. While I have since sold most of it off, Williams has rarely let me down in general. I guess I just don't want to overstate the extent that zinc rot occurs in Williams products. The passenger car set I had with coupler issues had colored window inserts which I recall was only offered in 1989. My other Williams set, a custom run CNJ one has never had issues and I still have that set. I still have probably a dozen Williams locomotives here and there excluding the brass steam locomotives and outside of the one issue with the Train Master, I have not experienced issues.
Good to know about Williams. I had had zero experience with zinc pest with any manufacturer, until a few years ago when 3 or 4 out of 10 Railking HiCube boxcars, bought before Sandy, had truck sides, bolsters and coupler shanks disintegrate upon opening their boxes for the first time.
@D500 posted:I had some Wms heavyweight passenger cars from the 90's that had pested truck side frames; not all of them, at least while I owned them. I sold them (full disclosure, and I had done some epoxy repairs) and that's the last I heard of them.
Uh-oh... I forgot about my Williams "Luxury Lines" Madison cars. Time to check them out also.
Abour a year ago I won a Williams P40 dummy still sealed from Stout auctions. When I got it the truck frame rotted and broke off. Fortunately at that time WBB had some in their spare parts.
I had several Williams by Williams with zinc rot, mostly the glossy finished equipment. I never had any problems with Williams by Bachmann having zinc rot.
Most all my Williams is post 2000 Golden Memories pre Bachmann and zero issues with them.
Pete
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