New connie arrived, but.... Update: happy to report, Bachmann supports

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My new 2-8-0 Connie arrived today, but... front truck on the tender has a shattered bolster   ,  both dealer and Bachmann notified, so I guess I get to see what service will be like.  The truck looks like a previous repair attempt had been made, but the carton appeared factory sealed still... Hrrmmph.

Updates:...  The loco has issues as well...   The front boiler plate (switch unit) won't stay in the boiler tube.  This appears to be a friction fit, with no, er, friction. It was loose in the bag when I unpacked it.  One of the switch wires was broken off, and all of the wire soldering is cold - I've since fixed that but I will have to go back and reflow those connections, and I am going to install a pair of grub screws to hold the plate in place.  I tried some lazyman tricks of a couple beads of hot glue to add some friction, but that was less than satisfactory, so it appears the answer will be the "engineering solution".

The base plate of the tender is warped and will have to be annealed to straighten it.  Makes the tender look like it was parked on a boulder for too long and the ends sagged.  A couple of metal bars across the speaker mount holes might pull it back straight.

   Reading through the advice given in this forum (thank you!) I can see with a flashlight that the two side screws that hold the gear case together are also absent entirely, so it appears I'm going to have to do the teardown to examine the case. A general review of all screws appears to be in order.  I've snugged up the counterweights (they weren't bad over all).

Any other things to look at, better now than later?

While I'm greatful to Bachmann for producing these models, some basic QC during assembly would be nice...   

[paintjockey]

Man, that really stinks!. I got a connie a while back and other than the damage I did when taking it out of the box the loco was perfect.
My shay though, looked like a 5 year old did the soldering, it was horrid. Good thing I gut them and put in batteries and airwire.
Sorry to hear about your loco hope it all works out for you.

[Matthew (OV)]

The boiler front friction fit can  be fixed with a piece of electrical tape around the inside edge of the piece that came out... #7's has been held on that way from the beginning.

Hopefully there'll be a new tender in your future...

Matthew (OV)

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The boiler front friction fit can  be fixed with a piece of electrical tape around the inside edge of the piece that came out... #7's has been held on that way from the beginning.

Hopefully there'll be a new tender in your future...

Matthew (OV)

The tape trick might work - it took quite a bit, but that might be preferable to having to install retaining screws.   I've glued the broken pieces of the bolster back together and so far they're holding up - If Bachmann will send me a few truck parts, its an easy fix.   I've managed to take much of the warp out of the tender chassis - the problem is created because the tabs at the back of the coal bin need to be fully seated on the chassis - the tabs have a slot in them and if they don't slide fully onto the chassis it has the effect of buckling the chassis up into the coal bin when you screw down the front posts, and the plastic takes a bit of a set.

[Matthew (OV)]

Depending on where the trucks are broken, Dave Goodson had a fix that involved drilling them out a little deeper and putting in slightly longer screws.... that's a problem that's come up more than once.  Apart from that, there are a couple of options to replace them altogether; I've heard of Accucraft Brass ones being used, though that could end up being a little pricey.

Matthew (OV)

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The bolster on the front truck fractured where the screw enters its tube at the end of the bolster.  What I'm thinking is that the screw is a bit long for the molded hole, and when reefed in too tight pressures the end of the bolster and it fractures.  It fractured cleanly in 2 places - I was able to glue it back together with a quality CA, and re-assemble the frame and bolster.  I have more "gluable" areas around the end of the bolster I can re-inforce  if I need to.  The frame itself turned out to be fine.   If Bachmann can get me a bolster piece then I can salvage the truck easily.  I went around the rest of the trucks and the eased the tension on the frame screws a bit, and oiled the mounting pins lightly to relieve the stress from the screw.   So far so good.   Tore the loco down tonight and checked out the motor, which was mostly fine, and have loctited the driver counterweights, and generally snugged up screws wherever I found them.

The Greensville & Crook's Hollow Short Line might have another puffer running yet!

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Following up on this thread... Bachmann via Bridget has indicated they will replace the damaged truck, no fuss, no muss, so kudos to them!