Water logged HO Locomotives

[Anonymous]

Recently we had alot of rain & our sump pump went out in the night. & our basement flooded about 6-8" I was in the process of going through my stock, most of my stuff is in plastic totes which survived. But I left a few cardboard boxes on the floor for the evening, So I had about 30 peices of rolling stock & 7 locomotives that got drenched & still in their boxes. The rolling stock I can manage, But I am wondering what I should do with the locomotives which are powered, Most were never used yet & a couple have a few hours on them. Is there anything I should do before I power them up to see if they work. I just want to avoid any possible damage to them. I'll turn them into dummy units if they don't work. " LESSONS LEARNED "......................

[Anonymous]

Were they DCC ready?

[Anonymous]

No, But I am in the process of rebuilding my layout & am going to slowly phase them into DCC. I have a large fleet & only 7 got waterlogged.

[cacole]

The best course of action would be to take them out of their boxes and let them thoroughly dry before attempting to run them. If they are diesels, take the shells off; if steam, see if you can remove the boiler. After everything has thoroughly dried out, lubricate them before operation. If you have an air compressor, blow as much water as you can out of the mechanisms. A can of compressed air like those used to blow dirt out of computers can be used for this, too. Above all, don't try to run anything until it has had at least a week to dry.

[Don Gibson]

WATER wont hurt the plastic or brass parts. Decals ???
Motors and bearings need to be dried, cleaned with Alchohol, and re-lubed. Gears should be immersed in Alchohol (absorbs watter), to get residue off, and re lubed with Teflon Grease. Everything then should be fine.

Boxes won't be re-salvagable

[Anonymous]

The biggest thing here is : Do NOT run them until they are COMPLETELY dry. Water and electronic's don't mix, but a lot of time water doesn't ruin electronics unless they're powered. (ie. Keyboards can be cleaned in the dishwasher as long as they are completely dry before plugging them back in).
As for the decals, paint, etc, if they do get ruined, just think of this as a good time to brush up on your customization and airbrushing skills.

[lupo]

WOW, that must be quite a bummer!
TIP: rinse the locomotives very well with demineralised water with a very small drop detergent, to wash out all contamination wich could have sneaked in with the flood water,
normal water could be chlorated ( wich is conductive and can shortcircuit the electronics ) maybe Electronicshop might have a save cleaning fluid to wash out all ressidue
do not try to run them after just letting them dry,

good luck !

[nfmisso]

Ken;

As mentioned above a very {b]thorough[/b] cleaning followed by relubrication of the mechanisms is required.

Per Don's suggest above, use alcohol, specifically 70% Isopropyl Alcohol. You will be using a pint or so per locomotive, so get it in bulk. It may adversely affect the paint, so....

An tooth brush is a very useful tool here, get several, and use them in stages - dirty, clean, cleaner, cleanest, then move them down one level for the next locomotive, tossing the dirtiest, and using a new one for the cleanest.

You will need to get any muck out of the commutator.

You will need appropriate hobby lubricants; light oil for the motor bearings, and possibly wheel bearings, depending on style of bearing (Bowser - oil, Mantua -grease, etc). For gears, some wheel bearings, u-joints, etc, grease. Pick one good brand of hobby lubricants, and stick with that one.

Good Luck.

[Anonymous]

As mentioned before, stripping and cleaning the models, followed by drying in a warm place - I tend to use our airing cupboard or the central heating boiler as drying locations - just make sure you don't get the models too hot - melting is a seerious nuisance!

Water doesn't actually damage electrics, it's the shorts it causes that do the damage. A friend of mine put a Sony Playstation memory card through the washing machine once by mistake, after a thorough drying it was fine. As mentioned above, don't put any power through the locos until they are completely dried.

[newhavenguy]

Let them dry out completely before you run them. Take the shells off and let them dry. A hair dryer will work, but as mentioned the loco drive has to be re lubed. I had the same thing happen to me last month with a sump pump going out.[:(] I only got about 2 inches of water. It took 2 weeks for the basement to dry out. Found out that plastic totes are the way to go for storage in a basement. [:D] I let my cars dry out for a week before repacking them. I too had some in cardboard boxes. No more. My Layout is in the building phase 25' x 35' double decker. SO most of my stuff is stored also.

[Anonymous]

Hey thank you everybody for the many tips. I'm going to set aside Sunday for the tinkering on the units. These 7 units were part of my pride fleet " SOO LINE " SD-40s & GP-38s. I have the shells all taken off & am letting them air dry , But now the clean up work begins, So I thought I'd ask because I have never had this happen before. Thank you again for your time everybody.

[newhavenguy]

No problem. Let us know how things turn out.

[Anonymous]

I had the same thing happen to me once. My parents basment flooded and I had a large stash of stuff under the layout. About 12 locos got drenched. I let them air out for a good week, (Just to make absolutly sure) and they still run fine. The only real damage if you can call it that is the Metal Handrails on the Athearn Units rusted up. But hey thats "realistic" wheathering is it not? [8D]