Hello,

I need to repair some wagons and I know in the past polystyrene was used a lot but ABS is more common now.

I need to repair a buffer beam and 2 low sided wagon body ends that have been broken. The breaks are quite clean and so if I can use the correct adhesive I can make an invisible repair but if I try the wrong one first it will inevitably get messy.

As the wagons are the 3 from the 5506 set and together cost under £100 delivered in excellent condition otherwise, I am keen to get a neat repair. I have used super glue where strength matters and you cannot see any of the white staining but it is not ideal for all plastics.

The size and weight of our gauge 1 trains coupled with the nice details does mean unless they live behind glass, which seems a shame, you do need to make some occasional running repairs.

Sometimes I think there is a whole separate hobby trying to find the part numbers of in production suitable spares. It has got better with rolling stock being listed on the spares website although without illustrations it can be a surprise when the package arrives from Germany.

But that's where our forum is so useful.

Graham

Hi Graham I use plastic weld glue and if that dosen't work then I use a contact adhesive. At the moment I an having success with 151 but use sparingly

Have a look at these, I have used the Selley's product, the Loctite one looks very similar, no doubt there are other brands. You apply the 'primer' / 'activator' to both surfaces, but the glue itself to only one. It appears very similar to superglue.

After reading these replies I bought a new jar of E.M.A. Model supplies Plastic Weld at a model show as it promised to join Styrene, Butyrate, ABS Acrylic and Perspex.

And it worked. On both Marklin hard wagon bodies and the bendy plastics of brake gear to not make a mess but a strong joint.

So happiness.

However it got me thinking that these plastic welding solvents may not be a single ingredient and I am beginning to think the lighter active ingredients may evaporate whilst the jar is open and we are building a kit as it worked far better fresh than the half full jar in my drawer whose poor results prompted me to ask the question.

It lists the hazardous ingredient as Methylene Chloride and says contains Dichloromethane which is the same thing.

Best to read the Wikipedia about it after doing the modelling though.

So a fresh jar, keep it sealed and at £2.95 for 57ml throw it away if it gets lazy.

Graham