I have slowly been buying my first passenger car sets, Era IV, and I want to add lights, particularly since the newer BR 103 that will be pulling them has lights for everything.

What is the best option for a novice? Install the factory Marklin warm led lighting sets or go with the ESU yellow or white?

And when installing the current couplers, can you install on both ends of all cars even if not connecting to another conducting car or the engine or do you have to pick the order of coupling then pick which ones get which couplers and the pickup shoe?

Very cool! My god are they expensive though...

IIRC Marklin do a warm yellow and a modern white interior light kits.

I would say depends on the Era you are aiming for, IIRC one of the 103's came with warm yellow lights fitted in the engineers room and so maybe warm yellow interior would go nicely?

I think the more modern coaches, in particular the bi-levels need white interior lighting.

My understanding (and I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong) of conductor couplings is that you can fit them at either end, but you should not connect them to a loco (or any item of rolling stock) with an old style metal coupling or telex coupling. There are at least two new models of Marklin loco were the loco has a power conducting coupling and can supply power to the coaches provided that none of them are equipped with a slider delivering power. If you have a consist that will remain a consist and to which you do not intend to add any further coaches, it is safe practice that the end coupling at each end of the consist be a regular coupling to prevent such accidents from occurring. Likewise, subject to correct wiring the slider can go anywhere in the consist provided the wiring allows the live to be carried through the conductor coupling and onto the next coach, and that each coach with lighting has an earthing clip fitted beneath. If using conductor couplings there can be only one slider, care should be taken that two separate consists each with sliders are not attached together via conductor couplings. In a lot of instances the last/first car has the slider and the power is fed down/up the consist, simplifies the wiring and makes it easy to keep track of which coaches are live and which are not, particularly if the end couplings at either end are regular non conductor couplings.

BR

I am sure I have seen an article somewhere on this where someone used a bulk roll of led lights on a strip and cut then to length and wired them himself. I am not sure if it was this Forum, but I did a search on the Forum but got a large number of results.

I think the major problem with devising a cheap solution is transferring the power from coach to coach without having an ugly cable between the two, and if you do use a cable then seperating the consist for transportation or to change around items on your layout presents another problem. The earthing clip for underneath can be fashioned from copper in much the same way as the Marklin item.

Always welcome good solutions

This is the link. I have added lighting to over 30 cars using this method.

Regards,
Roger


https://www.marklin-user...n-Marklin-passenger-Cars

I visited Lasse's layout last Saturday and he has the battery operated LED's in some of his coaches. He said the only hassle is changing the battery as you have to remove the roof and in some cases this is not easy or very delicate. I suggested running feed wires under the coach and fitting a battery mount down there.
He has a great layout.

Dereck

A desirable situation with sleeper cars. I even went so far as to extend the dividers to the roof in my sleepers to get this effect. Not so good in day coaches. Perhaps tolerable if it was random as to which compartments were lit and which were not, but since all wagens present the same lighting, it looks a bit odd.

I often use the Mäklín lighting kits and generally I have been very happy. If you do them yourself you can save some money and sometimes get a nicer result, but I have other priorities myself right now.

The Mäklín kits get the job done quickly and easily and IMO they look very nice.

The ESU sets look like you can get them with digital control for DCC and provides some codes on the ESU website. Do those translate over to using an MS2? It would be nice to turn them on and off and that is enough as long as I can set the dimming once. I am not even sure if the Marlin stock lighting will do that once installed.

I agree with what others have said. For compartment coaches, it isn't unusual to have some coaches unoccupied or dark... seems a bit more organic/realistic.

And it was an excellent post. I'm glad that I bookmarked that link.