adding passengers

[charon]

Fellow Bachmannians,
Just recieved my new Big Hauler Mountaineer passenger set, runs perfect, great chuff-chuff, passenger cars light up fine.
I would like to add passengers to the two cars, however, I watched the video and read the manual, but nothing on how to get access to the interiors.
Are their any exploded views of these cars available?
I went to product reference, order parts and even looked at the available passenger car kits but could find nothing applicable.
Any help appreciated.
Happy Bachmanning,
Chuck

[Ted Yarbrough]

Chuck,
Take out the silver screws (3 on each side) on the bottom of the car, this will seperate the body from the frame and allow access to the seats. There are some tabs on the ned of the body that need to be disengaged before lifting it up from the frame. Sorry, but no easy was to add the passengers! Roof screwed on from inside the car body!
Happy Rails To You,
Ted

[Jon D. Miller]

Just to add to what Ted has described.

The screws you want to remove are those that are along the very edge of the chassis, next to the car body sides.  They are located close to the needle beams.

Any screws that are further in on the chassis are those that secure the seat platform to the chassis.  Don't remove these screws.

One each end of the car are two tabs that are part of the car body end walls.  These tabs snap into place in the chassis.  Press in on these tabs to release the chassis from the car body.

With the screws removed and the end wall tabs released the body can be lifted off the chassis.  On the newer track powered lighting there will be two wires that feed power to the overhead lights.

You should be able to access the seats enough to add passengers without disconnecting these wires.  If not, then disconnect the wires.

Put the passengers in place, put car body back on chassis, snap the end wall tabs into the chassis and replace the screws you removed.

Oh, and good luck getting the wash room back in place while trying to place the body back on the chassis.


One of the "Enthusiastic Children"

JD

[NarrowMinded]

Just my two cents, use a good glue and enough to keep your passengers seated forever, it's a pain when one of them come loose from routine handling of the car.

NM

[charon]

Ted, JD, NM,
Thanks el mucho for the tips.  Those were exactly what I needed.  When I get passengers in place, I'll let you know.
Happy Bachmanning,
Chuck

[charon]

Ted and JD;
Did you forget something?
I finally got around to trying to add passengers and after removing frame screws there are metal electrical contact strips that run from the battery box to the lights making it seemingly impossible to seperate the body from the chassis without removing the screws that hold the seats in place!  If the seats and the electrical strips are both removed, how would you get them back in place?
Mr. Bach-man, or anyone else, can you please help on this?
Thanks in advance.
Chuck

[on30gn15]

On coaches in the sets I bought last year those metal strips were indeed screwed to underside of seat molding which made it required to undo seat molding from floor/frame molding in order to get at interior.

It was a case of remove all screws from underside at beginning.

Getting the thing back together was an adventure but was do-able.

1. I painted seat molding, toilet compartment, stove, glued all together.
2. drop seat molding in car
3. screw metal tabs to contacts under seats
4. snap on floor/frame molding

5. Note - there appears to be some kind of relationship between window strip and seat molding which keeps seats from dropping in too far

6. insert 4 screws which hold frame to walls

7. insert remaining screws which hold seat molding to floor
It seemed doubtful but they did grab.

Something I am doing is taking all the screws out of roof so it becomes press-fit only, which will allow access to interior without dismantling the thing.