Pre war O guage freight cars

[overall]

I have some Lionel pre-war O gauge cars with the box latch couples and contact shoes. Whenever I run those cars, the contact shoes conflict with some of my high rail switches as they move through those switches.  The contact shoes are spring loaded. If you turn the car over, you can press the shoe down with your finger. I was thinking of gluing the shoe down to the bottom of the truck with some medium viscosity CCA and accelerator. I thought I could reverse this later by using some CCA remover. What does everyone think of this plan?

 

Also, do the new Lionel/MTH O gauge tinplate cars have these shoes?

 

Thanks,

 

George

 

[rtraincollector]

First I wouldn't what I would do is try to do a track with no switches for these cars. I know you believe you can reverse what ever you do but can you safely do it with out hurting the paint or anything else you might accidently hit with the remover. I would be affraid to do it myself.

Second I donot believe the new Lionel tin plate by MTH has those shoes.

[j.t.]

I had a that happen with some of my sliding shoe cars, but not all of them. I found that some shoes were lower than others. Replacing the shoe and rivit took care of it. Making a punch and anvil to peen the rivit took longer than to replace the shoe.

If all the cars are having trouble thats another store.

 

JT

[DMUinCT]

Do you really want to alter the 70 year old cars? 

The "contact shoe" was part of the 2600 Series, 2800 Series, and post war 2400 Series cars.  The first "Remote Control" uncouplers, cataloged in 1938 to 1948, used "coil coulpers" that were energized by the extra rails on a special uncoupler track section (RCS Track Section).   After that Lionel went to a magnetic track section to energize the uncoupling.  The contact shoe also was used to operate automatic dump cars.  The shoe should hang down and be square with the track, the shape on the ends of the shoe should prevent snagging switches.  If you don't have one, buy a RCS Uncoupler Track section and use it to set the hanging shoe posistion.

Today, if coil couplers are used, they operate by electronic control (TMCC, DCS, etc)