Saturday 24 December 2011

Return to sender?

My most recent ebay bargain turned up in the post this week, or rather it turned up in pieces.



This was an Athearn Genesis SD60M in BNSF livery, which I picked up very cheaply as it had some handrail damage.  That shouldn't have been a problem because I have several replacement SD60 handrails in my parts box.

Unfortunately although the seller had very carefully packaged the Athearn box in a larger outer shipping carton with plenty of polystyrene beads, he hadn't actually secured the locomotive within it's own box.  The SD60M was originally supplied in packaging which includes a block of wood which the locomotive is screwed onto.  Unless it is screwed back onto the block of wood the locomotive will move around in the box (I found that out the hard way with my Norfolk Southern SD60M which suffered bent handrails in storage).

So this particular BNSF SD60M was loose inside the packaging, sliding back and forth, and obviously encountered some rough handing in the postal system too... it was not a pretty sight when I opened the package to find all manner of broken and loose parts rattling around.

The shell is really badly scratched and most of the detail parts have been snapped off, including the ditch lights (which were actually embedded in the box insert - suggesting a very heavy impact indeed)  the brass horn is bent and snapped, the plow is crushed and broken, the handrails are destroyed, the paint is scraped and even the couplers are snapped.

A real mess, and very dissapointing, especially as the post office hit me with a £12 fee for vat on top of everything.

Fortunately the seller was willing to give me a partial refund, so the outcome was not as bad as it might have been, but this locomotive goes on the rebuild backlog instead of into service.  I do have a Union Pacific SD60M shell in the parts box, so I may simply fit that for now.

The remains of the BNSF shell will go towards my parts collection as I don't think this shell is really going to be salvageable.

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