Those Darn Shoes

Many folks put a dot of super glue between the shoe and the truck plate and glue the shoes into the retracted position. If you ever want to use the shoes again, just give them a twist and the glue will break loose.

That's one of those "why didn't I think of that?".  Thanks.  It will be the first project tomorrow morning.

 

Bill

I've purchased many a pre war car with those covered by a piece of electrical tape. Easy on, easy off, and no chance of damage.

Gandy

Here's a follow up concerning my attempts using above suggestions:

Pre-war shoes on my stock are all metal and appear to have very little contact surface  to glue it to the truck plate.  I got out my Dremel tool and ground out the rivets holding the shoes.  That made a nice & clean job.  After I'm gone someone else can fiddle with reinstalling them.

 

The modern repro tinplate, however, has a plastic-like shoe and the shoe springs are much stronger than the old ones.  Loctite Super glue could not hold the shoes, even with clamping for 30 seconds (with my fingers).  Perhaps the glue is not effective on that material.  So, tried the tape suggestion on these.  It appears to work, but I have no illusions that tape will continue to hold for any length of time.  I used 3M brand electrical tape.  If there is a better holding tape, please let me know.

 

For now, at least, my Christmas layout is operational.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Bill