JLC GG1 Truck Deterioration

[webenda]

Deleted repeat of previous post.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The alloy I chose has some lead in it, but it melts in boiling water.



https://www.rotometals.com/

Some? Stuff in the photo is 32% lead. But no cadmium, Interesting....

[webenda]

Some? Stuff in the photo is 32% lead. But no cadmium, Interesting....

Lead is cheap. Here is a list of low-melting-point alloys, some of which contain no lead.
https://www.rotometals.com/low-melt-fusible-alloys/

[up148]

Amazing, I didn't know low-point-melting alloys got that low.....117 F is absolutely amazing. How hard is the ingot or whatever you cast. Should be easy to file and sand, but what about not bending?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Some? Stuff in the photo is 32% lead. But no cadmium, Interesting....

Lead is cheap. Here is a list of low-melting-point alloys, some of which contain no lead.
https://www.rotometals.com/low-melt-fusible-alloys/

I'm aware of the costs of lead -- bought a few tons in my prior incarnation,

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Amazing, I didn't know low-point-melting alloys got that low.....117 F is absolutely amazing. How hard is the ingot or whatever you cast. Should be easy to file and sand, but what about not bending?

Good questions - hardness and machining. Still not liking lead chips and all in the air.......

[bob turner]

You guys forgot to read the first few posts.

My interest in this particular locomotive is because I have a set of lost wax brass trucks ready to go (Wolfer/Mashburn). Once I find a body with distressed trucks, my plan is to figure out how to mount the Wolfers without disturbing the Lionel paint or casting. Pretty sure I can do that, but in order to publish, I will need to actually do it once.

Then, back when this problem originally surfaced, I proposed a solution using brass lost wax castings from Bob Stevenson. Bob was on board, a guy lent me a good set of Lionel trucks for copying in no-shrink rubber (dentists use it - nobody wants undersize teeth), and Bob thought he could make good brass replacements for around a couple hundred a ship set. Some assembly required.

As it turned out, Hennings produced satisfactory sets in urethane, and the Lionel folks were more or less happy.

I still remain interested, but not enough to spend big bucks for a Lionel body with zinc pest trucks. Some day, a body will drop into my possession, and I will describe how to make it into a beautiful 2-rail model - Wolfer trucks can still be had from Stevenson, and they are slightly more accurate than the crumbling Lionel parts.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

You guys forgot to read the first few posts.

No. Thread drift happens.

Your problem solving seems to be one already solved for the masses....

I'd think though that you could find a painted shell to play with though; maybe not....

[webenda]

Back when I was allowed to post on OGR I tried to help the Lionel truck problem - they are all crumbling, and no direct replacements were ever available. Hennings did some in urethane, from molds taken from the original. That, apparently, was a very short production run.

I proposed a lost-wax version of the Lionel truck...

Rubber molds and low-temperature metal alloys address one of the problems you mentioned, Bob. No Hennings needed; anyone can try to make repros from a good left and right side frame.

There is a GG1 shell with peeling paint on eBay today (should you want one to paint.)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/286659227143?_ ... qgZg&pfm=0

[bob turner]

That's the point. The Hennings solution is not currently available. They did a number of sets, but not nearly enough to cover the entire production run of JLC GG1s.

I personally do not need another GG1 - but would add one if the price was right. I personally would not like a model with Cerro Bend trucks - just like I do not do plastic models. Irrational, but then this entire hobby is just one click the other side of rational, so I am in good company.

The JLC GG1 was a full scale model, with reasonably accurate running gear. I just happen to have saved some photos.

[bob turner]

I think this will work:

[bob turner]

It did. Top is Lionel, bottom is the Wolfer truck. Same here - the bare brass is Wolfer:

[bob turner]

Couple more:

[bob turner]

For an in-depth discussion, go here:

https://ogrforum.com/topic/lionel-gg1-l ... ***?page=1

Took me a while to find it - they won't let me use the search function. But nice of them to host the images, so I do not have to bother Shutterfly.

[webenda]

For an in-depth discussion, go here:

That was a long read (6/21/19 @ 10:22 PM to 5/17/24 @ 8:50 AM), but interesting. Thank you for posting the link, Bob.