A strange title to this post but as I hinted yesterday I now have first hand experience of what is termed as mazak rot. Many die cast parts to models are made out of this alloy. Unfortunately, unless the manufacturing process removes all the contaminates they do, over time, start a crystallization process which makes the casting swell and become brittle. There is a more technical description on Wikipedia - click here.
In the case of the Duchess of Sutherland the keeper plate which keeps the wheels in the chassis has this rot. It caused it to swell, bend and when I tried to straighten it, shattered into several pieces! Oh dear as I said or possible words to that effect!
A spare part would be a good way to solve the problem but an internet search revealed spare keeper plates are as rare as rocking horse droppings and as I don't have a 3D printer or the skills to CAD a new part that option is out - for the moment anyway. So out came the Gorilla Super Glue and I glued the parts together. It doesn't look pretty and wont last but it is hidden away and allows me to see if the loco runs fully.
Whilst I let the glue harden I cleaned up the wheel rims, the axles and the chassis mounting points and lubricated them.
Whilst I was at it I also checked and adjusted the back to back measurements on the wheels.
With the 'repaired' keeper plate back in place the body was reattached and the tender added and the loco tested. After a somewhat stuttering and sticky start it actually ran reasonably well.
The tender mounting point to the loco needs adjustment but I was impressed enough to think it is worth spending a bit of time and money to try to deal with the keeper plate problem. I may well end up making one from sheet brass or similar if there are no spares out there. Stay tuned on that one.
On My Last Great Project the first baseboard support has had four of its six legs added and things appear to fit together and line up - so far anyway!
As my wood butchery skills are questionable I have added these adjusters to each leg which means I stand some sort of chance on getting things level when these are installed in the Man Cave. Unlike the Duchess I hope that I won't be dealing with any wood rot on these in the future!
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