K-line MKT 6319 tanker car need help????

[cr6479]

K-line MKT 6319 tankercar weld broke.Should i weld the truck back together or let my hobbie guys fix it.

[dougdagrump]

Why not get some new trucks and replace them? Easy fix and best way to go.

[brianel027]

cr6479, what you describe can be a drawback to the older K-Line die-cast trucks. Our fellow member Lionelsoni has talked about this I think... how the K-Line trucks had zinc in them I think. At any rate, I have lots of older K-Line stuff, and this hasn't happened to me much, but it has happened once or twice. I once got some parts from K-Line including some die-cast trucks, which looked like they had been stored in a very damp basement. A couple of them came apart right away with little provocation.

It is very difficult to actually repair the trucks, though I suppose not impossible. It might be easier to get replacement trucks. The newer Timken style K-Line truck used on the Train-19 cars is by-far the very best truck made by K-Line and should mount to your car with no trouble. You could use a Lionel truck, but you would need to find a new screw long enough to go through the tank car frame, while still being the right diameter to go into the Lionel truck. An Industrial Rail truck could be used too, but again modifications would have to be made to the tank car frame.

Lionel, who now has exclusive rights to the K-Line tooling, is not making K-Line parts available to the public. I understand several large Lionel dealers have made dibs for the parts, but I have heard nothing on a decision. Fortunately, K-Line trucks are still readily available and it might be more economic to buy another K-Line car with die-cast trucks and use those. You could buy a box car, and then use that body to make somekind of MOW shed for your layout.

Here's a link for a parts dealer who stocked K-Line parts: He does have die-cast trucks listed on his website (K-5001) for $5.50 each. Scroll down to K-Line parts... you have 2 choices: numerical and by category. He also has some other tank car parts listed.

http://mikestrainsandhobbies.com/parts.html

[lionelsoni]

The problem that Brianel describes is in the metal itself, which is zinc contaminated with a little lead.  The entire casting falls apart with time; so there is no point in trying to fix a break, which would be very hard to do with zinc anyway.  Some batches of zinc are infected with this "zinc pest" and some are not.  I have taken advantage of this to put together working trucks from the good sideframes and transoms of broken trucks.  But it is still necessary to introduce some new trucks.  I have found that my broken K-Line trucks are very close knockoffs of some Lionel trucks and used those for replacements without any trouble.

[thor]

Just an idea, if I had an irreplaceable casting and depending on how critical dimensions and clearances were. I'd try dipping it in epoxy to coat it thoroughly in a thin coat because the stuff is so strong it would probably hold the shape even if the metal disintegrated, however you have to use the right kind and you have to keep it away from UV which makes epoxy disintegrate.

The kind of epoxy I'd use is a two parter made by Gougeon Bros and sold at boat places, its the best by far and comes with a variety of fillers, accelerators, retarders and so on. I use it a lot and have mended all sorts of things with it. However one caveat, epoxy bonds so strongly it contaminates the metal such that a 'proper' repair cannot be done afterwards. I repaired a gold ring with it and was informed by the jeweller that it couldn't be soldered(?) now because the epoxy had contaminated the metal. 

[cr6479]

MKT 6319 tanker car is finally fixed.