Zincpest............... The real 701 was killed in 2021 is my new model going the same way in 2024

[DickyC]

Now, This has been an interesting short journey so far. As motioned in my post last week looking for documentation (HERE) I purchased at auction a rather unusual loco, A Kiss Modellbahn Rhb 701 after admiring them at the Llangollen show on several stands. This loco was of particular interest to me as im a member of the Swiss Railway Society and had "with sadness" read of its demise at the junkyard in 2021, the beast had fallen.... was my model about to fall too ? (really interesting project on this loco and its sisters at the link below image.)


CREDIT and History of the 701

I like to strip down anything I buy and get to its workings, I managed to get the Massoth XPS decoder working and discovered some short circuits, which was a know problem due to the metal axels so the stripdown started.... It was during this process I noticed "odd" buckling and the paint flaking on the chassis/body plate and something just didnt seam right so more came off than expected.

Well it was at this point I noticed hairline cracks in the articulated joints in the middle.. I didnt like this so "handled with care" but on further inspection I realised this was fatal so after a quick blow to the sides it came apart to reveal some awful looking metal corrosion. DEAD LOCO !



Was this the end of my £500 ! this is a lot more than any loco I had purchased before so was a little despondent, so took to the Tinternet and found this long thread....

Defective base plate Kiss Ge 6/6 II

Now im sure the wise and wonderful of this forum will say, "arh yes I know about this from 2014" but I only bought my first loco in 2020 after admiring my fathers LGB for 10 years and using his spares on my own little circular layout so didnt keep up with the going on, let along only really discovering KISS this year.. After reading the 33 pages of this thread (im a catholic so should have stayed away from any loco with 6/6 and 33 occurring with them so much !)I discovered no answer, Kiss had started to develop a new baseplate but this never came about and then Kiss split and disappeared. From this I leaned about Zink failure in Diecasts and this particular series from Kiss suffered big problems, It was estimated that it had occurred on 150 locos that had been sold.. The thread ended with no answer... more googling took place and discovered this Zinkpest und Kunststoffschwund Kiss Topline which offered more hope but also pointed out problems with other locos and with the axels.

But, maybe some light... this helped my discover LGB.ch where I am currently ordering a new bepoke Baseplate ! that has been created by Heiner ! The gearbox's looks great as do the plastic elements, fittings and paintwork etc so this is worth saving but so begins a project of "restoration" I was not expecting to undertake...... Watch this forum space as they say, It all fails it must just become a nice "shelf" loco.

 

[PhilP]

I posted a VW Drasine, several weeks ago, which the chassis was changing shape and slowly disintegrating.
So you are not alone.

PhilP

 

[rhaetianfan]

Interesting post, DickyC, and sad seeing 701 in the process of being broken up.

I have a couple of KISS locos, a Gem4/4 and a Ge4/4 I. Compared to LGB they are a bit fragile, although well detailed. The Ge4/4 I suffered a damaged snowplough/front skirt some time ago but when I emailed KISS and asked about a replacement they told me that they didn't do spare parts. It shouldn't be too difficult to 3D print a new one, when I can persuade my son to do so.

In terms of zinc deterioration, I haven't suffered it on any of my G Scale locos but several OO gauge UK diesel models by Hornby and Heljan from the early 2000s suffered badly. One class 47 expanded so much that the whole body split:



The front one just split down the front corner seam. Fairly spectacular failures, from locos kept in a display cabinet!

M

 

[DickyC]

Interesting post, DickyC, and sad seeing 701 in the process of being broken up.

I have a couple of KISS locos, a Gem4/4 and a Ge4/4 I. Compared to LGB they are a bit fragile, although well detailed. The Ge4/4 I suffered a damaged snowplough/front skirt some time ago but when I emailed KISS and asked about a replacement they told me that they didn't do spare parts. It shouldn't be too difficult to 3D print a new one, when I can persuade my son to do so.

In terms of zinc deterioration, I haven't suffered it on any of my G Scale locos but several OO gauge UK diesel models by Hornby and Heljan from the early 2000s suffered badly. One class 47 expanded so much that the whole body split:
M

very interesting, yes it seams to be a problem with impurities in the diecast, FYI, have you seen this.... as im ordering anyway PM me if you want me to get you one also.

Ge 4/4 I Ge 6/6 II