I hope you'll excuse me, but reading through this thread has lead me down a different path.
First of all, I have no 'skin in the game' regarding a 726 shim. I don't have a 726 Berkshire. But I was curious what all the 'fuss' was about regarding a shim, so I had to read through. And, after seeing the photo(s) and reading some dimensional specs, I'm left shaking the head for a different reason.
About 60 years ago I was the pimply age of 13. I was in public junior high school (grades 7-9) in which the guys were obliged to attend shop classes as part of their curriculum. You know, wood shop, print shop, METAL SHOP, etc.??? Now, in truth, for my own situation, Dad had already acquainted me with tools and techniques that obviated much of metal and wood shop classes. But, I do vividly recall that one of our first individual metal class 'projects' was to make a simple flat metal object out of sheet stock....steel, more specifically. We had to transfer the drawing info to the sheet, cut out the shape, dress the edges, drill holes, etc.......and receive a grade. I'm sorry, but to look at the 726 shim, I'm transported back to my junior high metal shop experience. We're talking a flat piece of 28 gauge steel, cut to a rectilinear U-shape of certain dimensions, with 4 holes of two different diameters drilled at defined positions on the legs of the U. (
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Now, I am well aware that shop classes...gender-divisive as they were, besides being deemed antiquated and of no practical use in the learning experiences of life...are gone from virtually all public school curricula. Too bad. That in 2017 we consider this piece of flat sheet steel of simple form and fabrication to be 'scarce' enough to mount a search is incredible.
What's really 'scarce' in a situation like this.....IMHO, of course....is our ability to easily transcend our search for a corporate or retail solution by applying some basic learned skills.
In the same era one of my hobby heroes was a guy by the name of Mel Thornburg. Never met him. He was well published in Model Railroader magazine, having written several serial articles on fabricating...from scratch...beautiful locomotives of brass and steel, using sheet, rod, wire stock, and simple hand tools. Example: Creating a shaped round part (e.g., sand dome, horn, bell, etc.) using rod stock turned with a hand drill clamped in a vise while using hand files as 'cutting tools' for the shaping. (Now that's just how we all would do it even today, right??? Yeah.....sure.
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IOW, I'm concerned that what's 'scarce' today is not the 726 shim, p/n 726-127, itself made by Lionel (?), but the skills and confidence to say 'Heck, I can make that myself!' Now, to be fair, the use of washers is probably one of the things I would've tried first myself. The shaped shim is more....elegant...., of course. It would take a tad longer to fabricate.
So, as a parting thought, maybe we, as caretakers of this hobby heritage, should start leaving behind not an assured supply of old parts available through Amazon or even a hole-in-the-wall retailer, but an accessible engineering record of the part for those who are encouraged to (gasp!!) make their own. For example, we have an original sample of this.....scarce.....shim; take measurements, make a simple drawing/specification, post it on the forum in response to the need.
Please understand, I'm not being disparaging about the responses in this thread. I'm suggesting an alternative solution to encourage dependency on ourselves, rather than on others.
FWIW, always...
KD
BTW: In a separate thread running concurrent to this one, I read about a couple of plaintiffs taking Menards and Home Depot to court, demanding $5,000,000 in reparations for the "deception" that 2x4 and 4x4 lumber is not, in fact 2" and 4" in respective actual dimensions. Well, duh, Bubba! This 70-year industrial standard was also taught in those useless shop classes now dissed by the all-knowing administrators of public education. What would you expect???
I'll say it again....
