Anyone feel like posting some stories or pictures of driving pin removal? We have been a little challenged in this area recently.

Please define "driving pin". Are you referring to the crank pin in the driving center?

Here's one way.

Unless you have large presses and equipment to true up the hole afterward, your best bet may be to burn off the protruding end of the pin, core it out with the torch, gradually open it out towards the perimeter until you can crush it inwards with a hammer and punch and remove it without damaging the bore in the wheel center.

Yep, that works. An old Reading RR machinist told me that they had to replace a crankpin in the roundhouse while in place on the locomotive. They cut the old CP out with the torch.

They also didn't have a press to put the replacement in with. Their solution? They made a thick brass cap to cover the end of the crankpin, hung an old driving axle from the rafters, and hammered the new crankpin into the driving wheel like a nail into a plank.

There's a lot to be said for dry ice.

Yes - sorry it is the literal Danish translation.

We set up a porta-power, rods, bars, and sundry and pushed each one out

Claude Camp MM from the Texas and Pacific told me years ago to burn them out with a torch and hit them with a sledge; we used a a Mag-Drill then a sledge!

The WW&F in Maine has a portable crank pin press. It was donated by a member and is reported to have come from the D&H. It includes large clevis that would be fitted behind the spokes on the wheel so the press has something to bear against. It has not been tried under load, but it has been operated.