I have a Walthers Mainline 25’ NE-Style Center Cupola Caboose (Item # 910-8601) that has to be repainted in the colors for my layout. Rather than masking the windows, it would be a lot easier to pull the chassis, remove the windows, paint it and then replace the windows and chassis. However, I don’t know if the chassis is glued to the bottom of the shell, or if it snaps into the shell. There is no obvious seam between the body and the chassis. Does anyone know how the two pieces are connected?
It has been quite a few years since I have taken mine apart but I have the pieces in front of me.
The locking tabs for the body shell to frame are located just under the end door thresholds on each end.
I suggest removing the trucks and couplers. This should allow you to gently pull off the center sill.
This will then expose the bottom side of the locking tabs where they pass through the floor. You will have to pry the end railings and ladder from the holes at the edge of the roof, also.
The cupola can be removed by pressing slightly inward on each end wall between the windows while applying an upward pull.
The interior stays with the floor and the window glazing is glued to the interior walls so painting the shell should be easier. Lots of delicate parts in these little cabins, for sure. Nicely detailed interior with a coal stove, basin, ice box, bunks, conductors desk, even pigeon holes for waybills. Too bad the windows are so small!
I hope I explained it well enough…
Good Luck, Ed
I think so Ed it terns of your explanation. I have already pulled the trucks and the couplers. By center sill, I assume you mean that piece on the bottom that the coupler boxes are attached to. Other than that I know what to do.
I also didnt know that the cupola can be removed. That is a pleasant surprise.
Yes, center sill takes the strain of pulling (or pushing) the train, coupler-to-coupler.
It should pry off along with the brake rigging. In my case these were undecorated models from Life-Like so maybe everything wasn’t glued. You MAY have to carefully separate parts that have been glued. There is a small pin on the floor that engages the center sill so it goes back in the correct orientation.
The body attaching clips are just behind each coupler box.
Then you will have to use a back-and-forth rocking motion to pull up on the body shell since it is a tight fit over the interior which stays glued to the floor.
And— the glazing pops right out with a little prodding, making your masking job SO much easier!
Hope that works for you…
Ed
Gotcha, Ed. The center sills on my box cars all come off easily when the trucks are removed. The one on this caboose does not come off as easily. Having said that, I may just set the caboose into some 91% alcohol which hopefully will soften any adhesive in case the sill is glued to the rest of the bottom. It is not like I am concerned about ruining the existing paint job.
Are there screws right behind the coupler boxes? I went back to my shop to look for the center sill and now that I have it, I see where there are two bosses for screws (I thought those were for the coupler box) There are six screws on the bottom!
You still have to be careful with the delicate brake rigging but with a little nudge and poke from a tiny screwdriver and/or #11 blade you should be able to get it lifted off.
Watch for the hand brake rods at each end.
If you try to soaking off the paint I wonder if it will discolor the window glazing? I would try to get a little farther along on the disassembly.
Again, Good Luck.
Ed
There are no screws behind the coupler boxes. If there were, I would have removed them after I removed the couplers and the trucks.
And I have no intention of soaking the whole body in the alcohol. Just bring the level up so that the underframe is submerged. The rest of this project seems to be fairly straightfward if a little slow, dealing with the delicate details.
thanks, Ed.
Must be a bit of a design change. Mine date back to the 1998 Life-Like era.
Sounds like you’re on your way to a fun project!
Regards, Ed
I would question if this project can be adequately decribed as “fun”. If yours dates to 1998, I think that was before Walthers bought out Life-Like, which may or may not explain any design changes.
The Life Like P2K ones don’t screw on either. The original runs shipped in the box in two pieces, just like the locos. Unlike the locos though the shell does not screw on the chassis, it just snaps on. I’ve got a small stash of undecorated ones awaiting paint, since they only ever did one number in the originally red for Reading, but they did two numbers in the yellow and green scheme which I don’t model. So I pick up any undec ones I see. I have a few other makes so I can get different classes of cabooses as well, since a fleet of just the one class the P2K model represents would get boring.
–Randy
Well, I have it apart and for the record, realized the following, the underframe is one piece, there is no separable center sill. It snaps into the bottom of the shell, however, there is a lip along the long sides of the underframe and when the factory painted the body it also painted that lip and the paint acted as an adhesive. Soaking the bottom of the body and the underframe stripped off the paint to the point where an exacto blade could be inserted between the underframe lip and the shell. After working the blade slowly back and forth along that seam the shell just popped off. There are no tabs.
Before this could happen the ladders and another bar that was connected to the underframe and to the edge of the roof via a small whole had to be disconnected from the holes on the edge of the rooof.
Well don’t I feel like the fool…[D)]
I missed one little word in the title! “Mainline”
What I have is the “Proto” Duh.
IMG_9567_fix_web by Edmund, on Flickr
As you can see, there’s the body tab “A” and screw hole for the center sill at “B” and the related boss and slot at “C” are as I described.
IMG_9571_fix_web by Edmund, on Flickr
Sorry for the confusion! Admittedly, it WAS very early in the morning…
I’ll pay more attention in the future!
IMG_9569_fix_web by Edmund, on Flickr
Glad you are making progress in spite of my confusing input… These silly names of the various product lines can get confusing for anyone!
Regards, Ed
Hmm, yes so what are the Mainline versions based off of? The old Life Like train set level caboose, which WAS a proper Northeast caboose, just had somewhat(!) oversized handrails. I have one that was custom painted for Reading and had markers added and it looks fine, just fat handrails. I don’t know if they cut all new tooling for the P2K version but it was fromt he same plans for sure, just much finer handrails, the nice underbody detail, and the interior with lighting that sort of worked. They have a tendency to not roll well, but it’s not the electricla pickup, it’s the brake shoe detail on the truck, seems to be modeled with the hand brake applied. Speaking of wheels, the regular Life Like caboose has an odd axle length so if you want to replace the plastic wheels with metal, the typical P2K or IM wheels don’t fit, you need to hit up Reboxx for the correct axle length - I actually discovered an error in the Reboxx fitting chart for that model and I believe it has since been changed.
–Randy
Actually Ed, you are not that far off. After seeing your pictures, and notwithstanding my previous post, those tabs A do exist, but B and C do not exist on my caboose. The underframe is molded as one piece. I think the A tabs are meant to keep the body shell centered on the underframe. As I indicated, once the paint was stripped and the blade was worked through the seam, the shell just popped off.
Not a total loss, Bearman! You reinvigorated me to get back to the original project I had in mind for those undecorated NE cabooses!
I plan to have them in a scrap yard as burned out shells but some of the New Haven paint still showing…
Sacrilege, I know— but we all know they wound up there by the thousands!
Regards, Ed
Mine is located in Arizona. The owners of the short line are thrifty (cheap actually) and they got a great deal on a C&O caboose.
There are quite a few of the Reading ones still around. Some served 2 or 3 other railroads, others went to private ownership. There’s a bunch of them all in one place in Strasburg PA that serve as motel rooms you can stay in - The Caboose Motel. Regardless of the paint scheme they happen to be wearing, a lot of those are Reading cabooses.
–Randy