I have been doing this for years but recently when I mentioned it to a fellow collector, he had never heard of it and it solved an ongoing soldering problem for him so I thought I would pass it along. I repair and recondition not only locomotives but also transformers, mainly ZW and KW. Many of the soldering connections I re-solder have holes for the wires on the connection. Many are remote such as the power cord connections on the ZW and KW. Typically when you remove a wire on these terminals, the molten solder fills the holes. When I am ready to reconnect I heat the terminal to a molten state and quickly push a round toothpick into the hole, twisting as I push. The toothpick is easy to remove and you have a nice open hole in which to insert the new wire to solder.
Jim
