Help needed - k-line passenger cars

First of all I want to tell you that I liked the article about your layout, very impressive.  I have a couple of these k line sets, which I think are spectacular. They have screws on he bottom of the frame , have not had issues with pulling the bodies off. Failing an easy disassembly, I could only then recommend the "Jaws of Life" to extract your moribound passengers. Fred

Thanks, Audi. 

 

Anything unusual about getting the dome off?  It was a real pain with their cal zephyr cars. 

To add a bit of detail, first you have to remove the end vestibules which are plastic. The vestibule is held in place with two screws on the bottom, remove them and slide the vestibule out. You then should be able to slide out the entire chassis and interior as a unit. You will have to disconnect the wire for the lights, and you also may have to remove the big air conditioning boxes or whatever they are from the chassis. That's easy, just a couple of screws. I can't remember if these have to come off or not. I recommend silicone for reattaching the passengers.

 

The dome is a problem. I've never done it myself. It's difficult, and easy to damage the car. I have a set of instructions that I downloaded from a previous thread on this subject, which I will E-mail to you if you like but I will not take any responsibility as I have not tried it myself. 

 

Unfortunately the loose passengers are characteristic of the otherwise excellent K-Line aluminum cars. The adhesive they used was no good. While you've got your car apart, you should test each passenger to see if the figure is firmly attached - then you won't have to take the car apart twice. 

Thanks SWHi, If you think the dome is difficult, I will probably pass. Odd that k-line did not put any people in this dome.

Odd that k-line did not put any people in this dome.

 

I don't quite understand. K-Line did put people in the 15" full length dome. I have that car and it came with loose people rattling around the dome (Loose women? I wish). I had gotten the set new from a dealer so I called K-Line service and the tech told me, it's hard, you don't want to do it yourself, but it is a warranty item so send it in and we'll do it. So that's what I did. Obviously that is no longer an option. 

I have the 18 in sky dome. All the people are stacked in the dome area.
The first step is to send all the kids out of the room, as to not offend any ears!

I have about 20 of the K-Line cars, all converted to 2- rail.  I have only two complaints - one is that underframe. That is easily replaced with wood parts.  The other is that dome -  I would not keep a dome car, because the dome itself is so toy- like.

 

I use brass domes, and use adhesives to attach them to the aluminum car bodies.  I understand that Atlas has a pretty good dome, so maybe you could just smunch up the K-Line dome and replace it with Atlas?  Glue the folks back down before you glue the new dome in place.

"I called K-Line service and the tech told me, it's hard, you don't want to do it yourself"

folks, everyone has left the dome...it will remain empty.  yikes.

you don't need to take the dome off- you access the inside of the dome from underneath- when the body is off the frame, there are 2 scrws that hold the interior "pan" up onto the dome shell. Remove those 2 screws and this entire pan comes off- leaving the dome shell in place. Place your people in their seats and then reattach the pan to the bottom of the dome. You might have to remove the strip of lights but this is a piece of cake. Slide the frame back into place, secure the dns and you're set to go.

As Jeff states, above, it really isn't any big deal to slide the under frame right out one end of the carbody. Although I have never worked on the 15" K-Line cars, I have taken apart my share of scale 21" K-Line cars. You can take one end off the car, obviously remove the screws first, then slide the whole metal under frame right out the end. It also helps to spread the body shell apart a bit, in order to have the under frame slide easier.

"You might have to remove the strip of lights but this is a piece of cake."

easy for you guys to say (and probably do).

i would hate to mess up this car.  like i said, i put people in the CZ domes and dealing with the streamlighting strip was a royal pain.

you don't need to take the dome off- you access the inside of the dome from underneath- when the body is off the frame, there are 2 scrws that hold the interior "pan" up onto the dome shell. Remove those 2 screws and this entire pan comes off- leaving the dome shell in place.

 

Jeff

Are you talking about the full-length domes or the half-length domes like on the Budd fluted stainless cars (Burlington, ATSF, etc.)? I don't have any of the latter but I've been told the seat bases are held in with screws. The full-length ones are another matter - I haven't had one of those cars apart in a while, but I believe the upper interiors are actually glued in place. According to a posting on OGR about a year ago, that is the case. Another poster talked about the upper being held in place with miniature pop rivets, but it was unclear whether he was talking about the upper floor or the dome itself. 

well, i got all the screws off the bottom of the obs car and could not get anything to budge.  not even a hint of play.

 

put the screws back in.  these people have fallen and, apparently, they are not going to get up.