screw VL Hudson

Brent as I don't have the answer you are looking for I have a suggestion. Get a good size magnet and "drag" your track with it slowly.My engines loose screws constantly and I have found many this way. Good luck. Nick

Thanks Nick,  Will get one tomorrow.

Brent

It is a metric screw - M3 x .5 but it has a hex head and shoulder so that you can tighten it without binding the rods.  If you can’t find it you will, likely, have to go to Lionel.

Having a strong magnet around, as Nick said, is really helpful.  I use a magnet rescued from a magnetic curtain rod.  It is strong and in a convient shape to hold.  You can pickup a rod at any big box store for about $4 and get 2 magnets.

I like Rockstars solution - will remember that.  Recently dropped a small flat washer under my work bench - dining table - and could not spot it after many crawling searches; then, pulled out my Dyson dust buster and swept the area - found it in its dust bin.

magnets work.

I found a "tiny" screw that belonged to the VL BigBoy , still missing one for the Hudson

Thanks for all the comments

Brent

rockstars1989 posted:

Brent as I don't have the answer you are looking for I have a suggestion. Get a good size magnet and "drag" your track with it slowly.My engines loose screws constantly and I have found many this way. Good luck. Nick

Yes; magnets are always handy to have around. Get a fairly strong one. Also, a telescoping magnet "wand" can be handy for finding ferrous parts under furniture. I think I got mine from Micro-Mark, or from a train show tool seller. Unfortunately it won't help with brass screws or plastic parts....

-----------

I "found" a part years ago when one of my locos began stalling over switches, for no apparent reason. It was a Magnetraction J Warhorse. I still ran such stuff 15 - 20 years ago; my first TMCC loco. 

I turned it over and what did I see? A wandering coupler steel "thumbtack" from some piece of rolling stock, picked up by the J's Magnetraction from the track and jammed into one of the roller pickups, holding it off the track. Problem solved.

Got any Magnetraction locos to run around where the VL Hudson may have lost the screw?

rockstars1989 posted:

Brent as I don't have the answer you are looking for I have a suggestion. Get a good size magnet and "drag" your track with it slowly.My engines loose screws constantly and I have found many this way. Good luck. Nick

Some of those screws are not magnetic I believe.

If it is stainless steel in will not work.

Removed the same type screw from the front wheel.  A magnet will pick it up.

Brent

I slip a small plastic bag over the magnet so the magnet does not collect any unwanted metal, easier to remove the bag and (scrap) metal instead of cleaning off the magnet

I have a little magnet car, this jewel.  It has a large Neodymium magnet in it, just sitting in the bottom.  The magnet is 2" x 1" x 1/2", and will lift 100 pounds.  I put the plastic wheels on this as the metal ones gripped so strongly that it wouldn't roll, it just got dragged along the track.  After a couple trips around, you just remove the plastic coal load and pick the magnet out, all the stuff it attracted falls off.