Bachmann 2-EPB: Trailer coach lighting issue

[RFS]

For a while I have had an issue with one of my 2-EPBs in that the lights in the trailer coach would only come on in one direction. This unit has been confined to schedules where it is not required to change direction. But then a second unit developed the same problem so I decided to investigate further.

 

It's not the coupling bar as I tried changing that. I opened up the trailer coach and can see that there are two wires going from the coupling to tabs on each side of the PCB. A check with a meter showed that one wire had no connectivity to the coupling, so it's an issue with the trailer coach's coupling. I could not see a detached wire anywhere, nor could I see how to remove the coupling from the CCM slot.

 

But the way the lighting works means that all lighting stays on regardless of direction. The PCB is therefore fed from either the left wire or the right wire depending on direction. So it seemed a simple bodge to connect these together. However this has to be done in the motor coach, as in the picture below. You need to remove the body and the seating, the latter being held in place with 3 tiny screws and also clipped in at the outer end. Then a bridging wire is added between the PAD1 and PAD2 terminals as shown here (white wire). The lighting now works perfectly (including head codes), and once the seats are screwed back in and the body on, no-one will ever know!