Lionel NYC Crew Car 6-18430

[Leverettrailfan]

Alright, here’s the facts: 

I vollenteer at a trolley museum, and we’ve been selling off an absolutely MASSIVE collection of Lionel, MTH, K-Line, and other 3-rail electric trains, mostly MPC era up to present, with the odd postwar and prewar item mixed in. I saw this Hi-Rail car for $20 (with box), and thought it would be foolish to say no to it, so I bought it. Turns out the box was for a different item in the same series, so it took me a while to find the right product number (it isn’t on the car). I found the number, but alas, can’t find the instructions online! The car is in unused condition, but I want to add weight to it, and maybe re-decorate it at some point (since it’s rather bland looking, and fairly common). It is deceptively difficult to remove the plastic shell from the chassis (the motor truck is easy to remove though). There are two clips, which appear to be releasable by squeezing the sides and pulling the shell off, but in fact, this does not work! There appear to be nubs on the shell, which connect to the fenders, on the frame, and I cannot for the life of me, figure out how to release them, so I can’t get the shell off. Anyone have a copy of the instructions, any kind of help? I also want to modify the chassis, since in the current state of things, the chassis doesn’t sit low enough that the automobile wheels touch the railheads, which frankly looks rather silly to me!

[rtraincollector]

Not having one in front of me, I went to ebay to look. It appears that you need to squeeze the two nubs inward to get the shell off. But again I do not have one anymore so don't have one to look at. I seem to remember taking the shell off one time but that would of been about five years ago. 

[cwburfle]

If I recall correctly, the body just snaps onto the chassis. The body will flex. I think you just have to flex the body sides outward.

Why do you want to an weight? They don't pull anything.

[Leverettrailfan]

Squeezing the sides doesn’t seem to work- it’s the first thing I tried, right after I got it home. No dice, there are nubs at either end of the car that seem to be preventing it from coming off. Not sure how to get those to release.

I want to add weight, for two reasons- added traction, so it can climb slopes better, and not have wheelspin, and also to make it less likely to derail, since at the moment it weighs barely anything. Also I’m used to postwar stuff, which has some decent heft to it, and this car feels too “cheap” and light weight right now, so I want to give it a little heft so it feeks more substantial. It shouldn’t have any negative side effects, only positive ones anyways, so I don’t see why not. 

I plan on repainting the car at some point, so I’ll need to know how to get the shell off for that, anyways.

[cwburfle]

Squeezing the sides doesn’t seem to work

Expand, not squeeze.
I may have a spare shell. I will try to find it and see if there is any indication of how it mounts / comes off.

[Leverettrailfan]

I figured it out- you have to pry the front (or rear) outwards from the frame, until it pops out, from there you can wiggle the shell the rest of the way off. Very sneaky! Be careful, the frame can be broken. I broke a corner off of it, so I’m going to glue it back on soon. I’m planning on customizing this model, as there are several things I want to adjust. The front headlights are too weak to be seen unless running at the maximum voltage I can feed to the track, at which point it’s going a scale 130or something miles an hour, at least (just guessing). So, I think I’m going to replace the front headlights at least, with LEDs. I plan on repaining the car for a local railroad, or maybe trying to match the prototype of the model, which was painted black, not white. Yes, I have found images online of a NYCS Hy-Rail that looks very similar to the model, if you allow for the usual concessions Lionel makes when adapting a prototype into something that can be easily mass produced.