No matter how careful we are, this can happen to any one of us.

This is a HO scale Fujiyama S.P. M-4 that arrived with a broken pilot. If you look closely you will also see bent steps and damage to the pilot deck. This story does have a happy ending. You can see this locomotive after repair at the top of the Paint and Decal page.

Structural repair is required when a locomotive has damaged parts that are not attached by screws or other fasteners. The parts cannot be removed with a screwdriver or wrench. Structural repairs require me to disassemble a locomotive in ways the manufacturer never intended. A worst-case scenario might be a dropped locomotive. Things might be bent or broken completely off. I might have to unsolder pieces and straighten them before reattaching them. I might have to press drivers off the axles. I can do this work, but it’s time consuming and can be expensive. I recommend you send pictures so we can discuss options before pursuing mechanical repairs.

Most structural repairs will do some damage to the paint job on a painted model. In the event that a painted locomotive requires structural repairs we can also repair the paint after the structural repairs have been made.

The pictures above show a pilot assembly from the most widely produced brass locomotive in history, the Sierra #38. When this model arrived it was in pieces. Some of the steps and handrails were loose in the box. The handrails that were still attached were bent and smashed flat. As you can see, the loose parts have been reinstalled and the bent parts have been fixed. Some of the handrails were unsalvageable and new rails were formed from brass wire. I regret not having a before/after comparison because the difference between the mess I started from and the repaired piece says it all.