Opening K-Line Passenger Cars

I seem to remember that the ends come off the car, after removing the underbody screws, then the whole floor/interior piece slides out the open end.

Hot Water,

Thank you for responding. I changed the Topic header to be more specific. Maybe that will get the thread going.

Only things to add, there is a connector for the overhead lighting that has to be disconnected before the bottom will slide out.  Also keep the trucks straight as you slide the bottom, not a lot of clearance where the body curves down.

Many K-Line passenger cars indeed have to have the vestibules removed, there is a screw centered under the coupler arm that's at the top of the car.  You'll also have to take the plastic detail piece off the bottom to expose several of the frame screws as well.

ICRRE8:

      Do you have K-Line aluminum cars or K-Line heavyweights? I just did a lot of work on the aluminum cars and can help you there.

John

I have K-Line Aluminum Streamlined 21" passenger cars. Roadname in New Haven with the red stripe board, ribbed sides made with polished aluminum. The series is K4649-#####. Real beautiful set.

Hopefully your 21" aluminum cars are similar to my 15" Milwaukee Road Hiawatha aluminum cars:

1) Remove the under body detail plastic piece between the two trucks. There is a black screw at each end of this piece.

2) Again, under the body, remove the four screws, two at each end of the car. While under the car, you will see another set of four black screws. These are further toward the center of the car.  Just LOOSEN them SLIGHTLY.

3) You should now be able to slowly pull the vestibules from the end of each car. Get a fingernail between the body and the vestibule and pull slowly.

4) After removing the vestibules, locate the wiring. It will be at one end only. This wiring connects the lighting in the ceiling with the wiring that goes down into the trucks and attaches to the third rail pickups. There is a plug and socket connector that needs to be unplugged before you can get to the interior. There are little "fins" on the plug and on the socket. These need to be pressed in order to release one from the other. I used two needle nose pliers and pulled gently.

5) Once you have removed the plug from the socket, you will find that K-Line hot-glued the wires to the ceiling or at least to the inside of the body (this is what I found on the Hiawatha). Use a hot glue gun to soften the glue and pull the wires out, being careful not to pull them from the ceiling fixture.

6) Now you should be able to slide the frame out of the body shell. As someone else said, be careful to keep the trucks straight so that they don't get hooked on the body. The Hiawatha had a plastic floor attached to the frame and then appropriate furniture glued to the floor. I found that there was plenty of seats to which you could glue many more "people."  In fact, K-Line made only four people for this set of six cars: a man in a gray business suit, a woman with a yellow top, an African American young man in a T-shirt and a woman with a blue top. These are repeated over and over again in the various cars. I bought more K-Line people from Brasseur and painted them different colors.

(Remember to tighten those four "inner" screws on the bottom of the frame that I suggested "loosening" earlier. Those screws hold the plastic "floor" of the interior to the metal frame. By loosening them, it makes it easier to slide the frame out of the aluminum shell. When you are finished re-assembling the car, remember to tighten them again.)

Good Luck!

John

I have the K-Line Heavy weight passenger cars and there are 6 screws that must be taken out on the bottom side in order to remove the shell or top. Two screws(one on each side) in each corner and two screws(one on each side) in the center of the car.

It might be different for other sized K-Line passenger cars.

Lee Fritz

I've had to take apart many of the K-Line 21" cars, including those that Lionel issued under their own brand that were based on K-Line tooling. I agree the 6 steps John Knapp has set out above and would add a couple of points:

A.  On the streamlined cars with skirting, which I believe your set has, the trucks will get hung up on the skirting when you try and pull the metal frame out unless you detach them from it. I don't believe these cars were assembled at the factory with the trucks already screwed to the frame. There is a small screw underneath the end of the truck which is closest to the center of the car. That screw secures a plate that the truck is attached to against the frame. If you remove that screw the truck should slide back; the other end of the plate is simply a tab that slides into a slot in the frame.

Below is a photo of the underside of my 21" Milwaukee Road observation car showing the screw position (green arrow under the looped ground wire):

B.  Even if you've loosened everything you may have to use a shot of WD40 to get the frame to slide freely out of the channels in the aluminum body that hold it in place. I have not found that this damages any of the paint but unless you use it sparingly it is very messy to clean up. I apply it with a Q-tip at the join between the frame and the channel, which you can also see in the photo (red arrow).

The whole process is no picnic but enjoy anyway!

Thank you all for the guidence. The only problem I had was getting the floor off of the bottom frame. The screws broke the plastic screw holders. I will have to rig something up when I put the floor back in.  I did keep the small plastic stand-offs.  Any suggestions?  Thank you all again. This forum is awesome. So many talented people.

ICRRE8

Illinois Central Rail Road E8

I have found that K-Line floor sections were a standard molding with some extra bits attached to cater for observation and other special cars. As a result there are often "spare" stand-offs you can use if the originals break off. Sometimes there are even unused screw holes drilled in the metal frame that enable you to use those stand-offs instead of the original ones.

However the easier course may be to re-fix any that have broken with JB Weld epoxy and once it has set drill a very small pilot hole to get the screw itself to cut a new thread. Alternatively, I have taken to using fairly thin double-sided tape to hold the floor in place on the frame. You need to be careful about aligning the floor sections because (a) there is not much space to work with and if you raise the floor even a little bit the interior components will ride too high in the windows and (b) you don't want the floor section binding in the body shell when you re-assemble the car.

ICRRE8 posted:

Thank you all for the guidence. The only problem I had was getting the floor off of the bottom frame. The screws broke the plastic screw holders. I will have to rig something up when I put the floor back in.  I did keep the small plastic stand-offs.  Any suggestions?  Thank you all again. This forum is awesome. So many talented people.

ICRRE8

Illinois Central Rail Road E8

Can you glue the screw's mounting area? The little piece of plastic that holds the screw in place, use some model glue and insert the screw to form the shape you need and remove the screw after a few seconds and let the glue dry overnight(24 hours sometimes to dry) and then re-assemble the passenger car.  I have used Squadron putty to re-mount some of my screws in plastic holes for screws and it works very well. I don't recommend super glue as it will hold the screw permanently and you won't be able to remove the screw if needed at a future time.

Lee Fritz

What I do for broken posts is use a brass tube over them and fill it with JB-Weld.  Then I just drill a new hole for the screw.  In some cases for a less than totally destroyed post, you can use a soda straw over it to create a "mold" and fill that with JB-Weld.

I learned from experience that I do not have to take the insert piece that holds the people and chairs, etc. It is easier to work on them without removing the plastic floor.

I have received many compliments on my observation car. The dining car came out sharp as well. Will send pictures tomorrow.