New member, need help opening Kato JNR passenger cars

[kmcsjr]

Hi all,

I'm new to JNR. I bought a few locos last year, but just found that I really like JNR passenger colors. Anyway, I've put lighting in my Kato SP Daylight set and I've opened a number of other cars in my day, but no luck here.

I have 5015, 5016 and 5017

http://www.katomodels.com/product/nmi/12kei.shtml for pics.

I've twisted squeezed and pried these things about every way I can think. I've removed the wheels to get better access, I've unclipped the base of the doors at the end of the cars. The paperwork that came with the cars (all in Japanese) seems to illustrate light installation. If I could only open them.

Any Guidance would be welcome. Thanks

Marty

[disturbman]

It should be the regular operation of push the side of the shell outward while pulling the base out. You could use the truck for this operation.

 

I'll move your thread to the correct section.

[kmcsjr]

OK, I got one. Yikes, they definitely used a different design for keeping the shells on. i thought for sure they would snap. They are meant to stay on! Not complaining (well yeah I am, I think they are very nice cars and I like that they are so solid.

In contrast, the SP Daylight shells come off easily and lend themselves to repeated adjustment of the lighting. Which is good, as I seem to need to make repeated adjustments.

Before I reassemble this car, does anybody glue the light boards into these unit? I'm thinking woodland Scenics Accent Glue, as it comes offI don't think I want to reopen these cars because the board or the lens shifts.

And now for prototypical question

I am using kit 11-210 (Interior light sets with LED)

I think these cars were pulled by steamers. Would the lighting have been/be incandecent of fluorescent?

 

Thank you,

Marty

[David]

I don't use glue in any of mine. Sometimes the lens or light board can come loose, but I find this happens in the process of banging the shell back on, not after its already back in place. The difficulty in removing the shells varies a lot between models - a big factor is how open the ends of the shell are. On something like the 800 series, which have special diaphragm couplers on the ends (attached to the base) in place of the usual shell attached ends, the shells are incredibly easy to remove. By comparison models with the ends as part of the shell can be more difficult, and take a bit of getting used to in order to know where to pull in order to make them nicely pop off. (though cab cars and other speciality cars are often difficult no matter what).

[CaptOblivious]

One trick: Never remove the trucks before you take the shell off. The frame is often composed of several layers, all held together by the screw that the truck is mounted to. Removing the truck makes removing the frame nearly impossible, and getting the screw back in can be really tough.

 

Using a little PVA glue to hold the lights in place is likely a good idea. You will notice that the Kato lights have an annoying tendency to flicker, sometimes only after a period of working fine. Be really really careful to ensure that the pins from the light unit and the brass tabs in the frame line up correctly. I've found that what happens often is that the brass tabs shove the pins out of the way over time, so that the pins no longer lie underneath the tabs, but beside them to the inside, causing intermittant contact. My advice is to bend the pins ever so slightly outwards from perpendicular up and down, to making almost an inverted V shape. This helps to ensure that the pins remain behind the tabs, rather than getting pushed aside. A little dab of PVA glue (not where the metal bits contact! It will spoil the electrical connection) to hold the light unit in place in the frame is likely a good idea to help.