Warped Plastic on Loco Cab


Greg@mnrr

Section Hand
Forum:

I did something really stupid...I have a gas water heater near my layout and I "have" used the top of the heater as a spot to place locos off the layout. Well, I put one loco too near the hot vent pipe, forgot about it and I warped one lower side of the loco's cab. Nice!!! Normally I place the locos well away from the vent pipe.

This loco is a great runner and has DCC installed. I am wondering if I can use a heat gun and reheat the panel and use some type of means to press the warped panel back in place??? It's the plain panel under the cab's side window.

I included a photo of the loco before the damage occurred.


Any ideas or suggestions? SOO and cows.jpg

Thanks.

Greg

P.S.: Alright give me the "Dumb Idiot Award of the Month".
 
BOO!

I'm sorry for your loss, is it lost?

If it still runs good, can you handle the look? 'no blood no foul', they say.

I believe this qualifies as a "Cautionary Tale"!
 
I seriously doubt that a heat gun would help you remove the warp. I've tried that type of action on other things (never on any of my railroad stuff). I've never been able to achieve the results I wanted. Sort of like trying to unscramble an egg.

I think the best solution, if you can't live with the loco the way it is, is to just get a replacement shell.
 
You didn't mention scale or the brand of your loco..........but if it's just the flat panel under the window, you should be able to cut the warped panel out and replace it with a new styrene panel. Looks like it's just white with the road #? If it isn't a perfect match, I'm sure the RR shops had to fix a cab from time to time due to damage, and I doubt they repainted the whole loco after the repair.
 
Dave:

The loco is an older Atlas Classic locomotive. A new shell maybe difficult to locate, but I like your idea to replace the panel with anew plastic piece.

The loco is weathered and a new panel would look like a recent repair. I plan on "patching" the loco for my Milwaukee Northern so the repairs may look like the shops at Milwaukee Northern did do the repair work.

Thanks.

Greg
 
Use the incident to make a scene: Engine crew looking at damage, foreman scratching his head, new panel nearby....
 



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