how to take apart Lionel pasenger cars for repainting

[Elsquared67]

I have several of the Lionel Milwaukee Road passenger cars - like 6-9503 City of Chicago - that I want to repaint with my own road names.  Does anyone know how to take them apart?  There are 2 screws holding the couplers on, but that's not it.  Thanks for the help.

 

 

[ADCX Rob]

The secret to getting these apart is to squeeze the windows in from the bottom or sides instead of trying to reach over the top... hold the car in front of you with the side windows facing to your left & right between your hands.

Press in on the "notched/raised" rear windows with both index fingers using a pushing up motion at the same time to "unlock" the raised tabs from the windows. Switch to the front windows and do the same. Repeat on back windows again... usually by this time you have opened up the roof enough to get a grip on the roof panel and raise it straight up & out of the car. Here is the Ploar Express observation(same tooling/method):

Don't mar the finish by using wedges or screwdrivers to pry the roof up - it just isn't necessary.

Only the earliest Milwaukee cars had the additional tabs in the undercarraige area - and yes, they must be clipped/excised to facilitate the roof removal.

[Roger Carp]

Hello Elsquared67,

 

Please contact me at Classic Toy Trains regarding your interesting and useful question.

 

Many thanks,

 

Roger Carp

Senior editor

Classic Toy Trains

262-796-8776 ext. 253

[Elsquared67]

Hi Rob;

 

That did the trick.  All came apart easily.

Would you know how to remove the trucks?  They seem to be held on by a pin, but I'm afraid if I pull them off I won't be able to reattach them.

 

Larry

 

 

[TrainLarry]

The plastic truck retaining pin can be taken out by gently squeezing the sides of the pin with a long-nose pliers from underneath the truck, and pushing it upwards through the hole.

Here is the parts diagram for the car, page 12-2

 

Larry

[ADCX Rob]

Elsquared67

...They seem to be held on by a pin...

Here is what that pin looks like if it will help visualize what is needed to pop it out(photos from The Train Tender - best parts source)