The shell required a little more work than I was expecting. One of the hand rail stanchions was broken off, so I decided to go ahead and replace the handrails. To get the headlight out of the way, the boiler front has to be removed. There are two screws inside the boiler that take a long Phillips driver to get to. Then the classification lights have to come out. This is done with the special needle nose pliers with the shrink tubing in the needles.
The broken off stanchion would not come out easily, so I had to drill it out. I first used a spherical carbide burr to flatten the broken stub. Then I center punched the broken part and drilled out the part with a drill one size smaller than the tap drill for a #2 screw. I think it was a #50 drill. I was a good shot and the broken part came out without any damage to the threads. Then reassembly. With everything back together I still had to put three jewels in the class lights. I do this after the class lights are reinstalled as reinstalling them sometimes knocks out a jewel.
Here is a photo of the finished loco. I have finished servicing all 13 tenders and 10 of the locomotives. Three locos to go.
