Removing Post War Uncoupling Shoes

take a flat screw driver, and gently pry the side of the truck apart enough to let the wheels and axles pop out. you now have easy access to the top of the truck plate. take a small drill bit in your drill and drill out the rivet. you can get replacement rivets if you ever want to put the shoes back on.

Bevel the edges so they don't snag anymore. Barrett published this solution long ago.

No need to remove the shoes. Put a dab of hot melt glue between the top of the shoe and the truck frame; push the shoe into the hot glue and hold until the glue hardens. The glue is easily removable with a small flat blade screw driver.

Allan

You could swap out the truck assembly with another post war one that doesn't have the uncoupling track shoe on it. Lionel used to make add-on coupler assemblies for the post war cars like cabooses that came with only one coupler.

Lee Fritz

Thanks for the replies. I looked at my 2671W tender (6 wheel trucks). I can spread the frames a bit but I'm worried about busting something. I think I might try the glue method, as long as it can easily be removed without damaging the paint. I have electrical table on the shoes but after running for some time, the tape starts to come off and need to be reapplied.

Jim Battaglia posted:

Bevel the edges so they don't snag anymore. Barrett published this solution long ago.

 

Is there a how-to or an article or photos (or anything) to show exactly what to do? I assume just bevel the edges of the shoes with a Dremel to have a "ramp" for the shoes to slide up and over the switches?

I tried bevelling shows on operating cars years ago.  While an improvement, it didn't fully resolve the issue with some cars on some switches.  Eventually I replaced all the trucks and went to a different method (light) of triggering the cars.  This is detailed in a lengthy thread in the Electrical Forum.

My preferred solution is to use a shim to elevate the shoe just slightly. It doesn't take much, maybe 1/32" I cut it into a U-shape and slip it above the metal plate on the underside of the truck--between it and the "stop" on the upper part of the shoe (the part that the strap spring presses down on). It takes a long needle-nose pliers and some patience to get the shim in there, but it requires no glue, and will never come out unless you want it too.

The advantage to doing this versus trimming the shoes themselves is that the change is completely reversible. The advantage over gluing the shoes in a raised position is that you can still use the shoes with uncoupling tracks--though you have to modify those too, by elevating the control rails so that the shoes will touch them. (It is also important that the elevated control rails are electrically isolated from the outer rails, since third-rail pickups may possibly touch them.)