I recently acquired a second hand digital class 628 railcar, model 3676 made in 1990. I have an analogue layout and no plans to go digital – too much emotional attachment to my locos from my childhood and the cost of converting them. I am so grateful to Marklin for making their digital locos analogue compatible. My new addition runs OK but without lights. I know I can rewire the printed circuit board to make the interior lamps work off the track supply. The head and tail lights are no so simple. Does anyone know if the headlights can be made to work under analogue conditions. The forum is a wonderful source of advice and I have done a search but couldn’t find anything specific. There are warnings about not grounding the decoder to the track so I don’t think I can take a feed from the motor field coils to power the head (white) and tail (red) lights. Looking at the forum most of you are digital so the issue doesn’t arise – I can’t help being a dinosaur – I bought my first set, the goods tank engine, catalogue 2939, in 1961 and it still works. Can anyone help?

Juhan makes a good point.

Delta decoders are dirt cheap on ebay. Just replace the 6080 decoder from the railcar with a cheap second hand delta decoder and you get working directional lighting in analogue. It would still operate in digital too, if you changed control method in the future.