Here's what greeted me after I opened the box that had all the engines in it... After spending 5 days meticulously inventorying, photographing, and carefully packaging each loco, car and caboose, I never expected this. I had sections of foam between each piece of rolling stock and after the first 6 trays were inspected intact, I was horrified at what I uncovered. Out of 15 trays, this was the only damage. I am filing a claim with the moving company, and I am NOT happy about it. The F45's I spent dozens and dozen of hours building took the hardest hits. One arrived unscathed (????),while the other suffered a shattered rear pilot, twisted handrails, and various rub marks on the paint. Most damages were to the handrails, but a PB-1 suffers from a twisted stirrup step. Most of SD50 fleet suffers from missing horns, bent bells, and the SAR GP30 broke the plow off, the horn was fragged, and a BN SD24 took a lot of handrail abuse. I'm soon gonna find out how the claims process works...
Bummer! Sorry, I know how bad you must feel (and extremely P.O'ed)! Document everything!! Hopefully the claim process goes smoothly. Chuck
It's hard to find good help these days! Seems like more and more people are unhappy (and quite bad) at their current jobs, almost as if they're just putting up with it while they're waiting for their recording contract or their reality show to come along. Customer service?? Forgeddaboudit! These folks are interested in serving only themselves. There's been way more that one occasion when I've asked where something (standard) is at one of those large harware-type stores, only to be told "we don't carry that" by a (typically younger) employee who obviously didn't want to be bothered with it. I may be jumping to conclusions, however. I suppose there's a chance that the people that damaged your stuff are sitting on a curb somewhere in anguish over what they've done. Russ
I don't think you can drive to where he went. Sorry to hear it... I hope you get the appropriate $$$. Charlie
From the scattered appearance, the top must have come open, even if briefly. Once packed, I would not have thought that possible. I am interested in how the claims process handles this. Good that you have pictures. How will you ship it back in a few years?
What a bummer.. Last PCS I did from Germany an entire footlocker of n-scale stuff never made it. You did a very smart thing listing everything individually. File that claim and fight for its value. Mark
Wow, sorry to hear and see that. How will you put a value on the sar engines and the kits you built? That is alot of your time and effort that they may not realize. Keep us posted on what happens.
This was a military-contracted civilian moving company. I really don't know how that happened, they taped the box shut. It stayed shut, but some how, they managed to defeat the hours of careful stuffing sections of foam between everything. I don't know how to value the custom paint jobs that got ruined, the craftsman kits that got ruined, but the handrail carnage should be easier to value. Still, the F45 will need a whole rear pilot replacement, all the grabs, handrails, MU hoses, trainline hoses, couplers, paint and prep to fix. Sent to a custom-painter, even that small repair could cost a bundle. That said, the pilot is prolly not available from Kaslo Shops as a seperate part, and I'd have to include the whole F45 kit price. I still need to finish unpacking, in case there's more damages to claim. We have 70 days from delivery to file the claim. It's too bad I couldn't put them in the car with me like I usually do...
Sorry to hear about the mover inflicted carnage. When my family was moving from New Hampshire to Guam, we had a neighbor wonder why we were selling our car instead of just driving it. Some folks just did not pay attention in geography class.
Surely that is not a cardboard box in the photo? If it is, you're lucky more damage wasn't done and lucky to get more than the box from the movers. Al
B U M M E R !! That SUXS !! On the flip side...look at all the free "weathering" you got! !! *OK Hemi...admit it...ya just smiled...just a wee little bit ;-) * Here is hoping the claim goes smooth and the compensation is more then reasonable !! .
I feel your pain. I too lost an enormous amount of early run MT cars and locomotives from Atlas and Kato. Inmy case it was well meaning people putting the carefully packed and stored boxes out tof the back bedroom closet and into and by the metal garage door at my Phoenix area home. Well I can't do anything about mine, because it was my parents who did not know what they were doing instead of a moving company that should have known. I lost 228 locomotives and about 800 cars in my disaster. Just wanted to let you know I share your pain.
I'm not sure how your engines and rolling stock were packed, so I cannot give a real direct answer to your problem/future claim with the movers. But after seeing the inside workings(being a driver for) of both a Major overnight express company(Federal Express Ground) and Overnight(now UPS Freight), I feel that I can give a few tips to other modelers who are making the MOVE. 1) overpack, Overpack & OVERPACK!!! Pack your stuff up like you are going to let a 5 year old play with the box. Take something breakable, like an EGG and pack it up. Hold it at an arm's length and drop it onto a concrete floor. Drop the box flat, on its top, back and corner. Open the package back up. Did the egg break? If it did, you didn't use enough packing. If the egg did not break, your box may survive the journey. All cartons are handled by machines while in FED EX's and UPS's possession, and the machines CANNOT read your DO NOT DROP/FRAGILE notice on the box. 2) Use plastic tape. Tape all the way around your box, top, bottom & sides get taped. This way more than one piece of tape is holding the box closed. NO paper tape, duct tape, masking tape or STRING. 3) Use styro-foam peanuts for packing. You want something that will absorb impact. Foam rubber is okay, but see note #1 4) Put your contact information inside the box. An index card with your name address, phone number etc. in the middle of your shipment. EACH box with have said card. 5) If shipping multiple boxes by Fed Ex, UPS or Motor Freight, mark them ALL with return address, destination address and carton count(ie 1 of 6, 2 of 6, 3 of 6 etc.) Don't expect that the cartons will stay together while in transit. WON'T HAPPEN. 6) For that box with the HIGH VALUE stuff in it: Inventory the box, take pictures and INSURE the box. And KEEP your proof of INSURANCE paperwork. 7) Use a heavy cardboard box. Just remember, your HIGH VALUE box may be packed OK, but when they load it on a trailer, at the bottom of the pile with the 40 other boxes on top of it.......this where the tape mentioned above can save your bacon!! NO WIMPY FLIMSY boxes allowed! This is but a couple of things I have seen on the inside of the shipping business. And if you value your stuff, as much as I do mine, you will carry it yourself, if possible, to avoid what HemiAdd2d is going through and will be going through now that he gets to enter the CLAIMS PROCESS procedure. GOOD LUCK!! HEMI Patience, neighbor, PATIENCE!!
What a shame! Looks like the movers played football with the box. I will have to say that I would never pack my locomotives the way you did. The problem with the foam packing is that it will compress. The weight mass of the locomotives will keep it moving if the shipping box is dropped of slammed against a wall or some other immoveable object. The locomotives becomes a missile when it get loose, slamming itself against a neighboring locomotive or car. Each locomotive should be packed into a separate box. The original box works best. That box should be taped so it will not come apart. Each box should then be wrapped with bubble wrap. Then these boxes put into a large shipping box with about two inches of padding on all four sides. You should see how packages are handled at a post office, ( UPS or Fed X) transfer distribution station. I don't think that movers handle them any better. You box travels on a belt (over head) and when it reaches its correct location it is pushed off the belt on to a drop shoot. The box falls into a large bin and then travels to it new distribution station, where the whole process could happen again depending on where and or how it is being routed. No matter how well your claim is handled you will never recover the TLC you put into them.
I would be so p.......!!!!! Man, just looking at that photo turns my stomach! I know how much time and work you have in some of those locomotives. I would push the claim 100%!!!!!
