Big boy trailing truck fell off


Modeltrains2021 said:
how do i get it out
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Very carefully. Seriously, if there is any stub left sticking out, then a pair of pliers would be your best bet. Otherwise, carefully clamping the engine in place and using a drill press with a slightly smaller drill bit and drilling it out is your other option. Using a bigger bit and tapping the hole for a larger screw is another option. Perhaps there is a machine shop close by that might be willing to do it. For a job like that, they might not even charge you.
Good Luck.
 
You can also buy screw extractor bits like these.
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I don't have any experience with them but there have been more than a few Bigboys made, it depends on which one you have. How did it fall off? What does the stub look like? Screws are made of hard material and fracture with sharp edges. Rivets are soft and tear leaving deformed edges.
 
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Personally, regardless of whether it was a rivet or a screw, I'd go with what Willie and Smudge suggested earlier in the thread. If you can, I'd tap the hole and use a screw to reattach the truck. Using a screw will allow you to adjust the "tension" on the truck - you could use a very little Loctite Thread Lock to secure the screw in place and prevent it from coming back out. You can get Loctite that will allow you to remove the screw if you need to at any time as well now.

I'm not sure how you would go about putting in a new rivet.
 
I absolutely would tap/drill out what remains of the original rivet and then try to jury rig with a small machine screw. I would find one that would work, ideally with a small metal sleeve over it to make it lubricable and to protect the threads from the drawbar, but I would naturally trim off most of the shank with a Dremel cut-off disk or a jeweler's saw. Dress up any damaged threads using a fine needle file, and then put the customized screw on with a retainer of some kind (drop of latex caulk, Parr Bond, or maybe Loktite makes a product that will do the job and not also sieze up the drawbar.
 
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