Lionel Northeastern caboose- how do I get inside?

Hokie 71,

I just purchased one of these, did you ever get it apart?

 

Dave

I am wondering the same thing.

 

hokie; I don't have this caboose; however, the construction looks eerily similar to the Lionel I-12 caboose which i have disassembled. That green piece of flooring in the I-12 fit extremely tight to the sides of the caboose cab and had to be worked out very carefully. It is as if the caboose cab squeezes on the flooring piece. You MIGHT try running an #11 X-acto blade around the perimeter of the floor and see if that helps loosen it up.

Good luck.

These are a PITA to take apart. Obviously you have the frame separated from the body. There are 2-3 screws (I don't remember) that attaches the floor to the shell. The screws are recessed into the floor. Once those are removed the floor separates from the shell

sorry for not responding, been out of town.  yes I did get it apart. the picture above is after taking out the two screws in the longitudinal brace on the bottom- they look too small to hold it together but they are first.  then if you look closely at the turquoise part in the picture (bottom of the interior) you can see corner holes (two are visible- there are philip's head screws up there I could not see originally.  if you take those out the interior comes out and you can replace bulbs, glue back windows, etc.   

As I recall the coupler/truck assembly on the Northeasterns are a PITA also.  I had one uncouple from a consist and the diecast engine rear-ended it.  As a result the coupler hung low. I tried to take it apart to see if I could re-align it.  Its still in pieces.  These aren't cheap cabeese!

 

Stack