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I have an LGB 31523 RhB coach (AB 1617) which arrived as a "rattler".... all the seats were floating loose in the 2nd Class saloon section of the car. It was otherwise fine so I pushed it aside for later attention. The tedium of COBID-19 lockdowns has been relieved, to some extent by working through all the later projects, and 31523's number finally came up.
I have a few of theses RhB steel coaches but have never had occasion to remove the roof from one, so I turned to the Marklin instructions which cryptically suggested that there was something that needed to be done with your fingers in both end vestibules to remove the roof but declined to say what that was,
With the car in front of me I discovered that there was some sort of catch in the roof of the vestibule that moved back and fort, with one end of the movement being stiffer than the other,
After several minutes trying the catches in various positions I finally determined that the roof was definitely a bit looser if both catches were in the same position in respect to one side of the car. The roof was still firmly attached to the car but it was somewhat looser overall. I tried pushing hard on each end of the car and eventually the roof literally popped off to my surprise and relief. Once it was off, the nature of the catches became apparent. The following two pictures show the parts of the catch.
Once the roof was off the lighting unit is revealed and that can just be lifted out to get into the interior.
During all the handling of the coach while figuring out what to do with the roof I managed to dislodge the "window glass" in one vestibule, so that needed to be remediated. There are two screws at the top and another two underneath the car which secure the vestibule to the rest of the carbody. When these screws are removed the vestibule slides off the carbody, and it was an easy task to secure the "window glass" panel with a few drops of PVA adhesive.
When these screws are removed the vestibule slides off the carbody, and it was an easy task to secure the "window glass" panel with a few drops of PVA adhesive.
The rattling seats had simply come loose in transit so they were repositioned with a drop of PVA adhesive to (hopefully) stop it happening again. Putting the roof back on does take a bit of care as the catches are asymmetric, so everything has to line up correctly but its not too hard to figure it out by trial an error.
I have a few of theses RhB steel coaches but have never had occasion to remove the roof from one, so I turned to the Marklin instructions which cryptically suggested that there was something that needed to be done with your fingers in both end vestibules to remove the roof but declined to say what that was,
With the car in front of me I discovered that there was some sort of catch in the roof of the vestibule that moved back and fort, with one end of the movement being stiffer than the other,
After several minutes trying the catches in various positions I finally determined that the roof was definitely a bit looser if both catches were in the same position in respect to one side of the car. The roof was still firmly attached to the car but it was somewhat looser overall. I tried pushing hard on each end of the car and eventually the roof literally popped off to my surprise and relief. Once it was off, the nature of the catches became apparent. The following two pictures show the parts of the catch.
Once the roof was off the lighting unit is revealed and that can just be lifted out to get into the interior.
During all the handling of the coach while figuring out what to do with the roof I managed to dislodge the "window glass" in one vestibule, so that needed to be remediated. There are two screws at the top and another two underneath the car which secure the vestibule to the rest of the carbody. When these screws are removed the vestibule slides off the carbody, and it was an easy task to secure the "window glass" panel with a few drops of PVA adhesive.
When these screws are removed the vestibule slides off the carbody, and it was an easy task to secure the "window glass" panel with a few drops of PVA adhesive.
The rattling seats had simply come loose in transit so they were repositioned with a drop of PVA adhesive to (hopefully) stop it happening again. Putting the roof back on does take a bit of care as the catches are asymmetric, so everything has to line up correctly but its not too hard to figure it out by trial an error.
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