Something that came about in the '50's seems to have made a come back into the 2K's . I have a large number of BLI locomotives and have found that some of them have Zinc Rot , the metal swells an crumbles from the inside out . This is from making cheap castings with impurities . I have found 2 of 6 RSD-15's with Rot . A call to BLI found they know nothing about it but supplied parts for the RSD-15 , not the parts I actually need . The motor frame which the decoder mounts to , cracked an warped . breaks apart with little pressure . You can coat all the parts that are still serviceable with epoxy paint to seal the metal , but will not stop the rot , just slow it down . So I guess We should start checking all our diecast frames , locomotives, freights car any thing diecast . This was big in the '50's and now it's sneaking back in because for cheap . I'll put some pictures together for what I've found and post them later .
SORRY not able to post any pictures , but I can email them to anybody that wants to see the problem. jp0055@aol.com