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John - There are four screws at the corners. Then you have to remove that underbody detail piece (one screw and a plastic lip that fits into a slot in the floor). Then you will see two . call them wedge pieces that are held in by screws and fit into slots on the body sides. Back the screw out slightly and slid the wedge out. The car will then come apart. Be careful with the corner screws and plastic posts when reassembling. Very easy to over tighten the screw and split the post. Not a lot of plastic on the post.
Be careful of the wires for the overhead lighting. They are tucked in and there is not a lot of slack between the shell and frame. I'm pretty sure there is a plug that can be disconnected.
What happened to the windows?
Looks like mold, doesn't it?
Bruce
cjack posted:What happened to the windows?
Thanks guys. Going to try one tomorrow. The cars windows have adhesive blotches on them. They came from the factory that way.
What will you use for replacement windows?
The windows in my heavyweights came like that too.
Pingman posted:What will you use for replacement windows?
I ordered a ton of replacements when Lionel had there 50% off sale ... they were less than a dollar a piece. They have a certain tint to them that my box of over head acetates did not have... but the clear looks good as well, great job!
The observation cars are a must fix!
The wretched snowflake or clouding effect (both descriptions too nice for this nuisance) is the result of the adhesive used on these strips at the factory. It set like concrete but reacted with the plastic forming the window strips. Removing affected strips and the residue of the glue is a real bore; it takes a solvent like Goo Gone to clean it up. It looks like a cellulose-based glue. The replacement windows come with adhesive strips top and bottom. I also like the green glass tint.
There was a thread on this subject a while back. From my own experience the defect may take years to become visible and it can only be dealt with by replacing the affected strips.
Actually looks like frost on the windows...maybe some snow on the roof and you're good 
I have some cars like that as well, haven't gotten around to replacing them yet.
I figured it will be a high of 20 degrees this week-end and there will some good football on... time to get the toolbox out and start repairing...
I replaced a few of them also.
I replaced mine on the George washington with Lionel replacement parts. Big improvement for less than $ 20 dollars shipped from Lionel. I also ordered an additional set of steps for the observation car on the set. For some reason it did not come with one for the platform.
lionel89 posted:I cut strips of overhead transparencies to use as windows for my Lionel heavyweights.
Must be what MTH used on one of my PS1 diesels, but they keep popping out.
What me worry?
Hump Yard Mike posted:I replaced mine on the George washington with Lionel replacement parts. Big improvement for less than $ 20 dollars shipped from Lionel. I also ordered an additional set of steps for the observation car on the set. For some reason it did not come with one for the platform.
Yes, I neglected to order a set of steps... will be on next years part list.
what is an "overhead transparency?"
Remember these? It's the printable transparent film that you use for presentations. 
I was noticing that I have some .030 plastic notebook dividers that have some really nice tint like very light green blue, etc. They will make excellent window material. I really like the looks of the Lionel Heavyweights, so I am interested in all this maintenance.
I have a set of NYC Heavyweights coming. I got a set with 3 broken diecast trucks and Joe Grzyboski is taking them back and going to send another new set. He said that the ultra cold can make the diecast brittle and with a good UPS drop, the somewhat tightly bound trucks in the foam can shatter. I did notice that the trucks are really tight in the packing compared to similar MTH car's trucks. And they were broken in a direction that supports a good vertical drop issue. Sounds reasonable but anyway they are taking care of me, hope I get a good set this time. I at first thought all the parts were not in the wrapping but I think I found all the parts that fell out of the plastic covering onto the rug in the room and put them in a zip lock and in the box for the return trip.
RR George, Many thanks for the pointers / procedure for taking these heavyweights apart. I have the 7 car George Washington set which needs them all replaced. I think I'll order a bunch of sitting passengers before I install the new Lionel replacement windows so that I only have to open them up once.
chris a posted:RR George, Many thanks for the pointers / procedure for taking these heavyweights apart. I have the 7 car George Washington set which needs them all replaced. I think I'll order a bunch of sitting passengers before I install the new Lionel replacement windows so that I only have to open them up once.
ARGH!!! Six hours later... 10 cars done... got hung up on a station sounds diner... put it back together and the sound went out! Took me an hour to figure out the rheostat was shorting out... BTW the first set of 7 cars I did was the George Washington. 4 of them needed new windows...
Now that I am and expert at it, I would remove the end vestibules so when placing the new windows on you can square them up right... 25 more cars to go... I am taking a break.
As I mentioned in a parallel thread, mine are bad also. Took one of the window pieces out, and brought it to Lionel at York. Lionel acted like I had the only windows with that problem. Happy to sell me s replacement set. Geez. Seems like an obvious recall issue. Oh never mind.
For anyone interested, the curator at the B&O Museum says the windows were clear on the Pullman GW cars.
cjack posted:Actually looks like frost on the windows...maybe some snow on the roof and you're good
That's what I thought when I saw them on my Milwaukee Olympian Heavyweights. They will look OK when traveling through the Bitterroot mountains in my layout.
Mine are not as noticeable as JDaddy's, so I'll probably leave them alone.
Bob
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