It's not as bad as people generally think. On that 4-4-0, there is only a siderod attached to the drivers (no eccentric, main rod, or other valve gear connections).
And for the record, I vote "no" on the BFS compared to what a real tire will do for you.
Can you get tires? It looks like Kato GS4 tires might work if you can't get correct replacements from Atlas.
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There is an illustrated "how to" article, "Removing and Reinstalling Siderod Crankpins on Steam Locomotives" in the
NTrak Steam Annual 2015 (formerly called the "Steam Locomotive Information Book" in previous years).... written by yours truly.
...if you have that book.
The gist is, at least how I do it:
- Carefully slip a #11 Xacto under the rod and crankpin head, getting the sharp edge of the blade as close in to the shank of the crankpin
as you possibly can.
- Keeping a finger (or a little piece of tape) on the head of the crankpin, to prevent it from going flying, pry the rod/crankpin up
- Once the crankpin has move up out of the hole just enough to slip the pointy end of some very fine tweezers in there, slip
the points in, around the crankpin, and gently rock the tweezers from side to side as you push them inward toward the crankpin
(this is where having the photographs from the article would really help).
Gradually, as you slip the tweezers further and further in, they will work the crankpin up and out without mangling the crankpin head,
or putting any prying/twisting stress on the wheel. The pin will eventually pop right out.
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Now, on that 4-4-0, you're done. Once the two crankpins are out, the rods will come away from the wheels. Be careful of any space washers
you may find in between the rods and wheels. Now you need to replace the traction tires, which is another topic, but I
usually just hold a bit of tire down and use a toothpick between the tire and rim to go right around the wheel and ease the tire on.
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Replacing the crankpins:
Serrated tweezers (they grip without letting the pin go flying better than smooth tweezers)
Lay engine on its side
Place pin through hole with tweezers, keeping a finger or piece of tape on the head of the pin as before so you don't lose it if it goes pinging
out of the tweezers. Get the pin just placed on the hole, and then, give a GENTLE push on the pin with a finger to just get it started.
You can do this a million ways, but I find that getting it started with my finger ends up working the best.
Now, slip the jaws of the tweezers AROUND the whole wheel (one jaw behind the wheel, the other on the head of the crankpin)
and squeeze it in the rest of the way. Again, the idea here is to never apply any force that's going to twist or pry that wheel against its
axle so that the wheel ends up loose or out of square on the axle.
