When it happened you might have been able to hear a pin drop, but all I could hear was my Kato SD-40 falling off my layout and hit the floor! I couldn't even hear my heart beating, it had stopped!
It still works but the front motor assembly is broken - I can see where the plastic mounts on the inside have broken off.
Where can I bring or send the locomotive for repair? Anywhere in Canada near Montreal or Quebec City?
I tried looking at removing the outer shell, but I can't figure out how to lift it off and check the broken mounts out closer to see if I can glue it back myself.
Ohhh, I sympathize with your distress over injury to a fine model. I have no suggestions for Canadian repair folks. The shells of my diesels (Athearn, Bachmann & P2K mostly) pry off. The chassis has a couple of lugs along the sides that fit into recesses in the shell. I'd try inserting a hobby knife between the chassis and the shell and prying them gently apart. Eyeball the couplers, it may be that you have to remove them before the shell will come clean off. Once off, a careful job with Tenax or PlasticWeld can yield a joint with the strength of the original plastic. Let capillary action suck the glue into the joint, and if possible clamp it. Let it dry overnight. It would be worth buying some clamps if you lack the right kind. Alternately, you can order repair parts from Atlas, parts up to and including an entire new shell. For that matter, Bachmann offers a factory repair service for its stuff and perhaps Atlas does too.
Well, that's good - the damage seems to be relatively minor. Does it sound ok?
Udisco, 4662 Decarie Blvd, Montreal, 514-481-8107, advertises itself as "Canada's largest full service hobby shop", so they may be able to help you. They may even be able to repair the engine. (I am going entirely by their Dealer Directory advt in Model Railroader.) But be prepared for a price shock: it's quite possible that repairing the engine will cost you close to the price of new one when shipping is included, and certainly more if you factor in the cost of driving to Montreal, etc (unless you can persuade your nearest and dearest that a trip to Montreal would be a nice break, in which the cost of dealing with the broken engine comes under "incidental expenses..." :-))
I'm not sure what you mean by "motor assembly." I assume you mean the truck, and that the side-frames are broken. If that's so, there is likely to be hidden damage. So brace yourself for further disappointments. :-(
Do you still have the parts sheet? It includes an exploded view of the engine, which will help you figure out how to disassemble it.
The cab, hood, and walkway are separate assemblies. The cab clicks off, then you remove the walkway, then the hood. You'll have to unscrew the couplers to release the walkway. There are nubs on the chassis that click into loops on the bottom edges of the hood. There are also screws that hold the fuel tank onto the chassis. You remove the fuel tank to get at the motor mounts. If you don't have small screwdrivers, go to Can. Tire and buy a set. And be sure to save those screws - loop a piece of masking tape onto a strip of plastic, and stick the screws to it as soon as you remove them! You'll need needle-nose tweezers or forceps to hold the couplers while you align the screw to remount them -- not easy. I've done this several times on different engines, and it's a royal PITA.
BTW, Tenax will not work on engineering plastics (usually some type of nylon), so I doubt that you'll be able to repair what's broken. The truck side-frames are engineering plastic, as are the plastic bits in the gear train, etc. Some types of ACC glue work (ie, "super glues"), and there is a type of glue that supposedly works on any kind of plastic.
Good luck.
PS: unsolicited advice: If the track is so close to the edge of the layout that derailed vehicles can fall off, consider fastening a a strip of clear plastic along the edge.
Wolf is quite correct, the styrene glues (Tenax etc) only work on styrene, the material the shell is made from. The black glossy slippery "engineering plastic" used for gears, u joints, and handrails is very hard to glue or get paint to stick to. The styrene glues won't touch the stuff. In principle Superglue will work, but it's a tough go. You may wind up having to order a replacement part from Atlas. On the other hand, the engineering plastics are quite tough and don't break easily. You may be in luck and find the break is in a styrene part.
but not the SD40. I bought an SD40 off ebay (I think that's where I got it) a few years back, and when I got it, one of the trucks was broken. Ended up having to order another truck assembly (for about 20 bucks) from Walthers (via my local hobby shop) and fixed it myself.
Read all the advice given and made the fix on the locomotive. The shell came off easier than I thought and the pieces that broke holding the truck into position were spot glued. Spotted one wire that had become disengaged, a lucky find having removing the shell and all works well now.
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