# Shipping suggection for Accucraft Live Steam



## TonyLou (Sep 3, 2009)

I bought a C19 thru G Scale Junction. Jim in G Scale Junction is very nice and helpful, thank you very much Jim !

I found the airway bill of shipment was shipped by Accucraft directly. When I opened the package, I saw the water glass was broken unfortunately. I believe it had been much more vibrations in shipping progress. So, the water glass was easliy broken.

During this case, I would try to suggest a hint to Accucraft that they could let any consumer to installed the water glass by themselves after unpack locomotive from box. The water glass packed in accessories package together. Thus, the water glass could be avoid any breakage in shipment.


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## zubi (May 14, 2009)

Tony, your water glass was probably broken before the shipping begun. Unless there was a loose part squashed against it. I have seen and heard of various shipping damages but never of water glasses broken. They are well concealed in the cab. Plus, installing one is usually a pain (which awaits you, I'm afraid...) Best wishes from Tokyo, Zubi


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## Charles M (Jan 2, 2008)

One of the new K-36's was delivered in Denver with a broken water glass. Saw the problem myself. Owner has since gotten new glass and has installed it. Just helped another friend here set the timing on his new K-36 . The eccentric crank on one side was not positioned correctly . It provided no valve motion at all. Reset and timed both sides and now runs like a swiss watch. Nothing else wrong with either unit other than these two problems. 

Charles M SA#74


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## TonyLou (Sep 3, 2009)

Zubi, thank you very much for your warning. I should be more careful to installing the water glass when the replacement part arrive Hong Kong. As your said, I was very unlucky if the water glass was broken before shipment. Because, Accucraft would tried to shipped defected goods to other non-American area !!


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## zubi (May 14, 2009)

Tony, I did not say that there was any deliberate action. I suspect you were just unfortunate. Just as in the case of the friend(s) of Charles M. While in theory both water glasses could have been broken in transit, it is unlikely that the eccentric crank got out of tune... How this is possible, I do not quite understand as all the recent releases appear to be test run at the factory, as evidenced by oil traces, etc. In summary, there still appears to be some randomness in the quality control of the Accucraft US outline. Much less so in the UK outline for example - Ian Pearse goes to China personally to test run his most important models. But the overall trend is positive, so I guess with your next purchase you will be more fortunate. And you can always count on Cliff, he is the best guarantee for this, or in fact any company that you could ever think of. Well, just be gentle when you tighten up the new glass, OK? Best, Zubi


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

I talked to Cliff at Accucraft this morning and he asked me to pass along some info on the water glass and eccentric crank problems. 


Cliff has heard from maybe five or six K-36 customers who received theirs with broken water glasses. As Zubi mentioned above Accucraft for some time has been test running every locomotive prior to shipment. Cliff said they have found that the factory did not empty all of the water out of the K-36 boilers. The water gets in the water glass and freezes during shipment going through cold weather. Cliff said he has plenty of replacemnt water glass and will ship a replacement to anyone who has a broken water glass just give him a call. 

Cliff also said the eccentric cranks out of position also appears to be a shipping problem. Cliff will be happy to walk anyone through the fairly simple adjustment if they call him. 

Accucraft, 510-324-3399


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## TonyLou (Sep 3, 2009)

Chris, 

Thank you very much for your help to discussed with Cliff at Accucraft. For my case, Jim at G Scale Junction had confirmed me that the replacement of water glass is shipping on the way to me. Hope I could receive the replacement water glass on coming Monday/Tuesday. 

So sorry to heard that some consumers of K-36 had found the same problem. As per Cliff said, it seen the factory in China had not done the best after testing the boiler. Anyhow, I am thinking that the water glass will be easy broken under the vibration on shipping. So, I have an idea that Accucraft could let the consumer to install the water glass after the consumer receive and un-pack the engine. 

I have one more comment on packing. The outside box is fine which had some very thicker sponge wrapped around two boxes. But, the packing of engine is so worst inside the box. Accucraft was packed the engine on the wooden board with some adhesive papers. It didn't have any screw to locked. After un-packing, the engine couldn't re-pack inside the box if the engine is not put on the track at once. Compare with USA Train, USAT had used some screws to locked the metal steam engine on the board. It is more safe and can be re-pack inside the box. 

Hope Cliff could see my post and doing something for improvement. 

Have a nice weekend, 
Tony 
Hong Kong


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## Jim Schulz (Aug 10, 2009)

The water glass on my Forney had spider web cracks in it (photo below). I had a replacement from Cliff within days. These things happen. Customer service from Cliff is top notch, not only on replacement parts, but on any other question or advice. He'll get back to you with a phone call or e-mail asap. 

Jim


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By TonyLou on 16 Jan 2010 06:18 AM 
Chris, 

Thank you very much for your help to discussed with Cliff at Accucraft. For my case, Jim at G Scale Junction had confirmed me that the replacement of water glass is shipping on the way to me. Hope I could receive the replacement water glass on coming Monday/Tuesday. 

So sorry to heard that some consumers of K-36 had found the same problem. As per Cliff said, it seen the factory in China had not done the best after testing the boiler. Anyhow, I am thinking that the water glass will be easy broken under the vibration on shipping. So, I have an idea that Accucraft could let the consumer to install the water glass after the consumer receive and un-pack the engine. 

I have one more comment on packing. The outside box is fine which had some very thicker sponge wrapped around two boxes. But, the packing of engine is so worst inside the box. Accucraft was packed the engine on the wooden board with some adhesive papers. It didn't have any screw to locked. After un-packing, the engine couldn't re-pack inside the box if the engine is not put on the track at once. Compare with USA Train, USAT had used some screws to locked the metal steam engine on the board. It is more safe and can be re-pack inside the box. 

Hope Cliff could see my post and doing something for improvement. 

Have a nice weekend, 
Tony 
Hong Kong 
I think shipping the water glass separately for the customer to install is impractical and too problematic to deal with a very, very small number of problems, maybe less than 2-3%.


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## Tim Hytrek (Jan 2, 2008)

My water glass was broken too. It still had ice in it when recieved, although once the engine thawed out, I checked to see how moch water was in the boiler. it was just residual moisture in the bottom of the boiler. One drop of water in the sight glass is enough to break it. So even if Accucraft dumped out the boiler before shipping, the glass could still break from the little bit that might be left. One solution, which is used on automobile air conditioning systems to remove all moisture and contaminants from the AC system is to put the system, and in our case, the boiler, under a vaccum. The vaccum is pulled down to 29hg. This vaccum is maintained ideally for two hours, although less might sufice to dry out the boiler, as it is a smaller vessel than a complete AC system. The vaccum would probably be removed when the adapter plug on the boiler is removed and the standard fill plug is reinstalled, but the moisture would be gone, and the sight glass breakage incidents would all but disapear. While the time on the vaccum system seems like more time spent on the engine at the factory, in reality the tech could go do something else while the boiler is under a vaccum. No different than waiting for paint to dry!


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

Tim: 
Thanks for the reminder. I left out one last thing Cliff mentioned; the factory will be doing a lot more to make sure the locos are dried out completely before they ship.


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## zubi (May 14, 2009)

This thread is actually a good reminder of the fact I have not seen mentioned before in the context of live steamers - do not leave your engines where the temperature could drop below the freezing point... Or, empty your boilers + all the plumbing pretty well before storage! Best, Zubi


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