This being South Africa, DCC is not everywhere available (actually hardly anywhere), so for my son's birthday I ordered a DCC fitted Hornby Flying Scotsman loco from a supplier in the UK. Cost me a fair whack of money, but brought the desired amount of joy to young Andy, aged 9.
Children and expensive toys are not a good mix. 36 hours after the package arrived, Andy's younger friend managed to knock the brand new loco off the table. It sort of survived the fall, but a pin popped out of the connecting rod assembly, so the rods now hang loose and the loco is unusable.
I am sure that this isn't the first accident of this kind, so I wondered if anyone out there could tell me the best way of getting this fixed. Here in South Africa (Cape Town), there are few hobby shops, and they are retailers, not repairers. Hornby is a long way away in UK, and I am mindful of the fact that the actual manufacture of these items is now probably done somewhere in the Far East. We have the little pin that popped out. It is tiny indeed, but there must be some kind of craftsman working in some kind of business that can work with things this small.
Any ideas anyone.