3rd Rail J1a Hudson Tender Shell Removal

I have these engines but to understand what your up against some pics would be helpful.  Four screws like you stated and the shell should come off.

I have a 3rd Rail J3a "Super Husdon" along with a Greenbrier. I can't get to the Hudson at the moment, but I have had the tender shell off and you may have to spread the tender sides a bit to get the sheet metal floor to release.

My Greenbrier tender has two screws between the trucks as well, but the mount screws are fairly obvious on 3rdRail products.

Thanks Guys! I'll post some pics to show.

So as you can see, Pic 2 & 3 show the left and right lower sides of the tender with the screws removed. Those are the two shiny spots at either end of the tender. On pic 1 you can see three screws that have not been removed by the coupler. It is at this point where the base hangs up. At the fwd end the base is dropping out on its own, with no force at all.

EDIT- I edited my original post to say the fwd end comes out on it's own and the aft end is stuck

I have tried to dislodge the base by slide a piece of thin plastic I use for removing radio panels on my car without marring the surfaces, but I only got it 3/4 of the way down and the base still would not move. I removed the screws for the coupler and removed the forward truck, still no help. It definitely feels as there is still something holding the base onto the shell. I really don't want to and shouldn't have to force it, so any ideas I'm open too. And I won't hold anybody to task if I use their idea and break something, so idea away!

Since you say the forward end will drop down out of the shell, I'd try judiciously pulling the forward end to the front of the shell (and down at the same time) and see if it releases then. Obviously 3rdRail got it to go in, so it will come out sooner or later. If pulling forward and down won't do it, then pulling straight downward should release it.

That was my thoughts exactly!! If they got it to go in, I must be able to get it out some how!! My biggest fear was damaging a model before I even put it on the track by just trying to remove a stupid battery that was going to do way more damage if it started to leak!  So after fiddling with it for more than an hour and taking out every screw I saw, reviewing every u-tube and google search video, I did finally get the base to come loose, but it still would not come out. Fiddled with it some more, upside-down, right side up, shake it a little, I finally placed it on it's side to see if I could peer into it a little better than I had been doing and wa-la it just fell right out! Once out I saw the culprit, in the pics that I posted they grinded out the L angle to fit the speaker, as you can probably see there is no edge distance to the holes, but yet the angle still caught on the speaker edge holding it in. I may grind down the speaker edge so I don't have this problem again in the future. I did save a u-tube video of someone converting this exact same model to RS5 and Criuse Commander, and a Super Chuffer Board which I may attempt in the future.