Premier 2-8-2 light Mikado boiler removal

There should only be 3 screws holding the frame on: two under the cab and one under the front pilot truck. There should be a hole in the frame of the pilot truck so that the front screw can be reached without removing the pilot truck.

@Lou1985 posted:

There should only be 3 screws holding the frame on: two under the cab and one under the front pilot truck. There should be a hole in the frame of the pilot truck so that the front screw can be reached without removing the pilot truck.

Yes, thank you.  That's what I thought.  Still, having trouble getting chassis to release from boiler.  Will keep looking for things caught, report what it was when found.

If I recall correctly, there is more than one pair of screws under the cab of the Mikado.  One pair (the pair you want) secures the body to the frame.  Another pair, I think, might secure the cab to the boiler, or perhaps secure the engineer and fireman to the cab.  Make sure that the screws you removed from under the cab is the correct pair.

Yep, quite a few locomotives have multiple screws around the same location, have to pick the right ones.

Twer the right screws, but there is a near-interference fit near the front of boiler/frame and its screw location. Photo: frame saddle rear "slot" and corresponding portion of bracket that includes threaded hole for front screw fit together so snugly that they were a bit stuck.  Once I was convinced I hadn't missed a screw and could see daylight, a moment of gentle prying with a flat blade screwdriver and it came loose.  Just a very snug fit.  Reason for all this: front drivers were derailing at a couple of locations on the railroad where nothing else derailed, and I was looking for space for weight in the front of the boiler in case I decided it was needed.  Answer: if smoke unit were removed, there is space for most of a 1 lb. fishing weight cut to length inside the boiler.  This loco has four driver axles, all drivers same diameter (blind ones not smaller as on many 3-rail steamers), and no springs=no equalization.  It found two places on the layout with slight "peaks" that weren't laid as meticulously as I thought they were where axles 2-4 lifted axle 1 enough for flange of left front driver to climb the rail.  This MTH Mikado is now the official track geometry vehicle for the railroad, and those two spots are now fixed.  So far won't be adding boiler weight.