Several MRR manufacturers use felt pads to pack locomotives safely. Those felt pads are meant to prevent damages – but this works only when they are at the right places.
At the wrong places, felt pads can even cause damages.
This is what I saw when I recently opened a parcel:
The red ellipses show where the felt pads should be to prevent damages caused by the PET inlay rubbing on the paint. The green ellipses show where the felt pads are.
Here you can see the felt pad and the coupler pocket which was bent down by the felt pad. This problem is known for quite some time: when closing the PET inlay, the felt pad can be drawn down, bending the coupler and thus causing damage of coupler or coupler pocket. This is a serious problem with digital couplers (Märklin use the term Telex coupler) because the couplers are expensive and soldering is required to replace the couplers or the coupler pockets.
Known for quite some time, but still not known by everybody: position the felt pads above the couplers to protect the front of the loco and the roof area above the cab windows – the felt pad must not touch the coupler.
Tip: Some PET inlays contain cardboard pieces at the coupler area. With this type of package make sure the couplers are straight when you close the box. Couplers that are not centred may collide with the cardboard and get damaged or bent. Also make sure the cardboard piece is at the correct position – push it up if it slipped down.
The other side of the loco – this coupler was also bent down.
And here you see the loco on the track. On a turnout the uncoupler hook of the coupler touches the centre rail studs. On the photo you see clearly that the coupler loop was lifted.
The other coupler – on this side the uncoupler hook also touches the centre rail studs, but the loop was not lifted noticeably.
The last photo shows the coupler pockets I removed from the loco. Long, thin plastic pieces, both slightly bend. Each coupler pocket has two small hooks that keep it at the correct height. With both couplers these hooks are broken and no longer can keep the coupler pocket at the correct height.