TRIX TWIN COACH LIGHTING

[Wolseley]

I have six Trix Twin BR crimson and cream coaches and four Pullmans with lighting fitted but unfortunately five of them are missing the pickups for the third rail (I will be running them on a Dublo three rail layout and am in the process of rewheeling them with Dublo wheels and, yes, I have figured out that the bogies with the pickups need plastic wheels).

 

Is there anyone who has experience with these coaches who can advise me if it is easy to make a replacement or adapt something (a Marklin skate maybe?) to do the job?  I suppose I should also ask if anyone knows if there are any spares out there somewhere - unlikely I know, but stranger things have happened...

[Il Grifone]

The centre rail pickup is rather delicate and easily broken. Being fixed with a single screw means that it is often missing altogether.*   There should be no problem making replacements, as it's just a strip of springy metal with a pickup shoe in the middle. The short Märklin skate should fit, but I have never tried. Spares were available back in the day, but it is unlikely that many survived (and collectors like these odd items). The single shoe will result in the lights going out on point work. LEDs and a large capacitor or battery might help.

 

* Most of mine suffer from one or the other!

[Wolseley]

I have got three of the crimson and cream coaches' lighting units working (I have four of these with pickups) but this leaves me with six coaches without pickups.  If I am to fabricate replacements myself, is there any particular type and thickness of metal that should be used?

 

The coach lighting is rather effective, if a bit toy-like by present day standards.  It does work quite well although, as you would expect, the lights on each coach go out for a fraction of a second as it goes over the points (I'm talking about Dublo points here - I have rewheeled the coaches with Dublo wheels so I can run them with my other stock).

 

As an aside, our grandsons were over today (we babysit three days a week) and the youngest one (he's 13 months) was so excited by the sight of trains with lights that, when our son-in-law arrived to take the boys home, he wouldn't let his father take him to the car until he had seen the coach lighting working.....

[Il Grifone]

I would use phosphor-bronze strip. It does need to be fairly thin as the flexible portion is quite short. It needs to be sufficently strong to make contact without lifting the coch off the rails. The originals are possibly nickel-silver as they don't seem to suffer from rust. Insulating the pickups from the bogies would enable two pickups per coach to be fitted.

 

I've thought about energizing the dead rails on Dublo points, but it would involve complicated switching using double pole changeover relays. It's one of those projects on hold....

[Wolseley]

I would use phosphor-bronze strip. It does need to be fairly thin as the flexible portion is quite short. It needs to be sufficently strong to make contact without lifting the coch off the rails. The originals are possibly nickel-silver as they don't seem to suffer from rust. Insulating the pickups from the bogies would enable two pickups per coach to be fitted.

I think I'll just leave them with the original setup.  the occasional flicker from the lights doesn't really bother me.  Now, if they were more realistic, it might be worth doing something about.  I suppose using a Marklin skate would ensure constant lighting as well, albeit at considerably more cost.

I've thought about energizing the dead rails on Dublo points, but it would involve complicated switching using double pole changeover relays. It's one of those projects on hold....

Now that's somewhere I don't want to go.  One of the things I like about three rail is that the wiring is simple....

Edited November 10, 2018 by Wolseley

[sagaguy]

I suppose you could fit a Marklin 7823 coach lighting skate to one coach or even one on each coach!.

 

Ray.

[Il Grifone]

I suppose you could fit a Marklin 7823 coach lighting skate to one coach or even one on each coach!.

 

Ray.

 

It should be possible as there is no need to insulate the skate. The Trix system is quite ingenious in that it uses the 'spare' switch/closure rail (one long piece of bent tinplate) as the centre conductor on pointwork and thus a single contact is sufficient. The bodywork of the whole train is live to the centre rail (the common return for everything with Trix!) through the couplings in any case.

Making use of the Twin system, it is possible to have constant lighting, at the cost of the second train, though normal sectioning would allow this too.

 

I don't intend to convert my Dublo locomotives, though it is easy with 3 railed 2 rail ones. I would have to use universal fibre Trix track (this has the advantage of enabling 2 and 3 rail stock to run, though not together*), I use the large radius (15¾")** for my test track, but I don't know how Dublo locomotives would take to the standard radius (13½")**. I suspect the 'Duchesses' at least would have problems. They are certainly allergic to the 3 rail Märklin track I have (scavenged when we were living in Turin - a board had been left for the bin men, but it came home with me.... I suspect it is16mm gauge as Dublo locomotives don't even like the straight rails. A better product than the similar Dublo track (to which it connects without problems beyond the different base heights) as the sleepers are stamped out. The points have the German route indicators, which actually work (as does Trix express track), but the flangeways are a bit wide for Dublo wheels - every make had their own standards back then!

 

* Obviously the 3 rail stock shorts out the 2 rail.

 

** I can never remember the metric eqivalents - I think the standard is 471mm radius.

 

SWMBO says we have to go out to Asda, so I'll sign off (to the relief of anyone who has read this far! ).