 Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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I was quite happy to receive my 26922 Orient Express train set last week, or at least I was initially. I had an mfx registration problem with the loco which I was able to resolve with some help from the forum and a day of my time. So I was thinking that I was finally all set with this train.
But I have severely flickering interior lighting in multiple coaches in this set. The flickering does not affect any of the coaches further from the baggage coach with the pickup so I don't see how it can be the current conducting couplers. The only two coaches which have rock steady lighting are the two baggage coaches, one being the coach with the slider and the other is at the far end of the consist. KiwiAlan wondered if perhaps I had two-rail wheel sets but they are regular three rail wheels with continuity between the wheels on the axle.
I have taken the wheels and axle wipers out of the coach, cleaned them thoroughly but it has not made any difference. The ground passes from the truck and through the coach via a steel rod which I assume contacts the pcb with the lights at the top of the coach. I have not figured out yet how to open the coaches to see if there is a problem where that rod contacts the pcb. Removing the diaphragms on the ends of the coaches does not seem to release the coach body from the frame and there are no instructions which show how to open these coaches. At this point I am reluctant to apply more pressure to these new coaches and maybe break something.
So the two baggage coaches and one sleeping car never flicker and work perfectly. Three sleeping cars and the dining car have lights which flicker badly when run and when stopped are often completely off. If I push on the roof of those coaches I can get them to light intermittently but they go back out as soon as I remove my finger from the coach roof.
I will contact the selling dealer and see what he suggests. I don't understand why three of the seven coaches work perfectly and four hardly at all. I really don't understand how a limited edition (and quite expensive) train set such as this was delivered without functional interior lighting. I guess I have been fooling myself when thinking that Märklin's quality control is back up to their former standards.
As always any input or suggestions from anyone would be greatly appreciated. |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
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 Joined: 25/09/2006(UTC) Posts: 945 Location: Sydney, NSW
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Hi Jim, I have had a few problems with these coaches. See the following articles: Problem fixesAnd my LED light upgrade LED light upgradeThe manuals for the coaches are linked in the last article. Hope it gives you some ideas how to fix the none working lights. To KiwiAlan are you able to supply the part number for the coupling pocket contact? Edited by user 02 January 2025 00:21:23(UTC)
| Reason: Links corrected 02-01-2025 |
Ross
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 2 users liked this useful post by Ross
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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Originally Posted by: Ross 
Hope it gives you some ideas how to fix the non-working lights.
Hi Ross, Thanks for your ideas. The 26922 coaches are slightly different so I am still not sure how to open them safely. I will study those manuals some more and see if I can figure that out. Does that one diagram indicate removing the steps on the coach ends and then prying the sides away from the frame? I am surprised that the set did not include instructions for opening the coaches as most other Märklin products do. The problem seems to maybe be where the rod from the grounding spring contacts the pcb in the top of the coach. I could perhaps examine that contact area if I can get the coaches open. The current conducting couplers are working perfectly and the problem is inside the individual coaches. I can't argue that this is a bad design, since it was shipped from Märklin without functioning lighting and this is my second Märklin coach set in the last two weeks that I have had to work on right out the box. |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
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Joined: 25/09/2006(UTC) Posts: 945 Location: Sydney, NSW
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Hi Jim,
I think if you have a look at the manual as I suggested you should be able to work it out. Some coaches you can lift the roof off and the others (luggage) the body lifts off after easing the plastic tabs as indicated.
Yes it is a shame Marklin didn't supply manuals for the coaches. I don't understand why your set would be different from mine as Marklin would have used the same tooling with maybe cosmetic changes.
Photos always help in these situations
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Ross
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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Originally Posted by: Ross Hi Jim,
I think if you have a look at the manual as I suggested you should be able to work it out. Some coaches you can lift the roof off and the others (luggage) the body lifts off after easing the plastic tabs as indicated.
Yes it is a shame Marklin didn't supply manuals for the coaches. I don't understand why your set would be different from mine as Marklin would have used the same tooling with maybe cosmetic changes.
Photos always help in these situations
Hi Ross, You are right - looking more closely at the manuals I think that they are basically the same coaches with different cosmetics. The lighting is all done with led's but otherwise they are most likely very similar. I will try to get them open tomorrow and see what happens. Once I get inside I will post photos if I have more specific questions. It would be interesting to compare the one coach which is fine with the three that are not to see what the difference might be. I think it might be where that vertical rod the grounding spring attaches to meets the PCB at the top of the coach. Maybe the contacts are bent like the ones you illustrated. Stay tuned for my rebuild efforts on my brand new limited edition Märklin collector set. I would gladly trade them their certificate of authenticity for some coach lighting that actually works! |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
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Joined: 04/11/2016(UTC) Posts: 153 Location: Maryland, South Laurel
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Hi Jim,
Please let me know what you find when you open your coaches. I am disappointed to hear of your experience with the 26922 set. I received my 26922 set in early January and haven't had a chance to run it yet. Do you know of any others who have had lighting issues with their 26922?
Thanks,
David
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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Originally Posted by: AmalfiCoast Hi Jim,
Please let me know what you find when you open your coaches. I am disappointed to hear of your experience with the 26922 set. I received my 26922 set in early January and haven't had a chance to run it yet. Do you know of any others who have had lighting issues with their 26922?
Thanks,
David
David, No, I have not heard of any other problems of this type with the 26922 set but since I don't often read the stummiforum, there may be more. I had a great bit of difficulty just getting the loco to register. After I worked through that I believed I was home free. I have older coaches which work perfectly in which I installed the lighting myself and I never imagined that a special set like this would ship without functional lighting. Last summer I bought a Rheingold coach set that I didn't get the chance to run until just two weeks ago. That set had some of the current conducting coupler parts installed incorrectly with some of the parts even installed in the wrong coaches! I had to repair that set before it would work also, but it seems to be fine now. I suggest that you check out your 26922 as soon as possible. Right now I am wondering how a company like Märklin forgot how to make passenger coaches with lighting that works properly and I am quickly losing interest in getting more of their expensive coach sets. Unfortunately I pre-ordered the Insider 103 and coaches just a few days before I put the 26922 on the track and now I am wondering if the lighting in it will work or not. It seems like it is time for me to take a break from acquiring more Märklin products for a while, which my bank balance will thank me for anyway. |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
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Joined: 01/06/2016(UTC)
Posts: 2,465
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Originally Posted by: dickinsonj I was quite happy to receive my 26922 Orient Express train set last week, or at least I was initially. I had an mfx registration problem with the loco which I was able to resolve with some help from the forum and a day of my time. So I was thinking that I was finally all set with this train.
But I have severely flickering interior lighting in multiple coaches in this set. The flickering does not affect any of the coaches further from the baggage coach with the pickup so I don't see how it can be the current conducting couplers. The only two coaches which have rock steady lighting are the two baggage coaches, one being the coach with the slider and the other is at the far end of the consist. KiwiAlan wondered if perhaps I had two-rail wheel sets but they are regular three rail wheels with continuity between the wheels on the axle.
I have taken the wheels and axle wipers out of the coach, cleaned them thoroughly but it has not made any difference. The ground passes from the truck and through the coach via a steel rod which I assume contacts the pcb with the lights at the top of the coach. I have not figured out yet how to open the coaches to see if there is a problem where that rod contacts the pcb. Removing the diaphragms on the ends of the coaches does not seem to release the coach body from the frame and there are no instructions which show how to open these coaches. At this point I am reluctant to apply more pressure to these new coaches and maybe break something.
So the two baggage coaches and one sleeping car never flicker and work perfectly. Three sleeping cars and the dining car have lights which flicker badly when run and when stopped are often completely off. If I push on the roof of those coaches I can get them to light intermittently but they go back out as soon as I remove my finger from the coach roof.
I will contact the selling dealer and see what he suggests. I don't understand why three of the seven coaches work perfectly and four hardly at all. I really don't understand how a limited edition (and quite expensive) train set such as this was delivered without functional interior lighting. I guess I have been fooling myself when thinking that Märklin's quality control is back up to their former standards.
As always any input or suggestions from anyone would be greatly appreciated. Hello Jim, your coaches are not the only ones with an flawed interior lighting. I found a topic about this problem at Stummis community too. But they sound quite relaxed about these problems.  The problem is the opening of the coaches and a not accurate mounting of the lighting. Just want to inform you shortly about this German topic. When I got it translated, I send it to you. Here the link to Stummi, if somebody may read in German. "Märklin 26922 "Orientexpress" Innenbeleuchtung (interior lighting)" http://www.stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?t=144637And it seems to be an old problem. I have this problem with my Blauer Enzian (42615) as well and I found another source at Stummi community about the "Trix-Wagen 23324-23326". http://stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?t=431Although they are different coaches http://www.trix.de/de/pr...1%5Bsubgroupchoice%5D=36Even in German too, I set this link, because it describes a very complicate way to open the coaches and shows a picture for explanation. Also the Orient Express coaches shall be a Trix design. May be it helps too. Regards Wolfgang
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 Joined: 08/12/2004(UTC) Posts: 4,430 Location: Attiki Athens Greece
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I never had a problem with the similar 42795-42796 blue Orient Express set.
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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Originally Posted by: TEEWolf Hello Jim, your coaches are not the only ones with an flawed interior lighting. I found a topic about this problem at Stummis community too. But they sound quite relaxed about these problems. The problem is the opening of the coaches and a not accurate mounting of the lighting. "Märklin 26922 "Orientexpress" Innenbeleuchtung (interior lighting)" http://www.stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?t=144637Regards Wolfgang Hello Wolfgang, That post by Marc about his 26922 sounds very much like my problem as well. There are four coaches with this problem in my set. When they are not in motion they may be lighted or not, depending on the luck of the draw. If I tilt the coach to one side it lights until I remove my hand. All four flash on and off constantly when the train is run, which is actually much worse than having them not lighting at all! Thanks to the manual link from Ross I now know how to open a sleeping car, which three of the four problem coaches are. I have one sleeping car which works fine for comparison if the cause is not obvious. Hopefully it will be a PCB misalignment or a bad solder joint and I can sort it out. I will post again after I get the chance to work on them. BTW Google recently added AI to their translation software and it does an amazing job now. I should have checked out the stummiforum earlier since reading a German language forum is much, much easier than it was in the past. Thanks for sending me that link! So I might be able fix this problem although in the future I will obviously wonder about buying factory lighted passenger coaches from Märklin. In the past I assumed that they would be more reliable than ones that I lighted myself, but obviously that is no longer true. |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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Originally Posted by: foumaro I never had a problem with the similar 42795-42796 blue Orient Express set. Thanks - that is encouraging. It makes me think that maybe I can fix mine so that they work properly also. |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
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Joined: 08/12/2004(UTC) Posts: 4,430 Location: Attiki Athens Greece
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Originally Posted by: dickinsonj Originally Posted by: foumaro I never had a problem with the similar 42795-42796 blue Orient Express set. Thanks - that is encouraging. It makes me think that maybe I can fix mine so that they work properly also. Just be very careful and patient when you are opening these sensitive cars.
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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Originally Posted by: foumaro
Just be very careful and patient when you are opening these sensitive cars.
Excellent advice! I intend to be very careful opening them. Their complexity is why I hesitated to open them right away until I knew more about what was going on and how to proceed. |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
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 Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC) Posts: 8,467 Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
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Originally Posted by: Ross
To KiwiAlan are you able to supply the part number for the coupling pocket contact?
Bottom photo of this post.Ross, this is also the part number you want to put in your doco where you wanted the contact spare part number. The number is for a pack of two.
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Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC) Posts: 8,467 Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
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Originally Posted by: dickinsonj Originally Posted by: Ross Hi Jim,
I think if you have a look at the manual as I suggested you should be able to work it out. Some coaches you can lift the roof off and the others (luggage) the body lifts off after easing the plastic tabs as indicated.
Yes it is a shame Marklin didn't supply manuals for the coaches. I don't understand why your set would be different from mine as Marklin would have used the same tooling with maybe cosmetic changes.
Photos always help in these situations
Hi Ross, You are right - looking more closely at the manuals I think that they are basically the same coaches with different cosmetics. The lighting is all done with led's but otherwise they are most likely very similar. I will try to get them open tomorrow and see what happens. Once I get inside I will post photos if I have more specific questions. It would be interesting to compare the one coach which is fine with the three that are not to see what the difference might be. I think it might be where that vertical rod the grounding spring attaches to meets the PCB at the top of the coach. Maybe the contacts are bent like the ones you illustrated. Stay tuned for my rebuild efforts on my brand new limited edition Märklin collector set. I would gladly trade them their certificate of authenticity for some coach lighting that actually works! I would be interested to see how they have done the LED lighting, so a photo of that PCB once you get them open would be appreciated. To get them open it is worth having some cocktail sticks or similar fine items that you can poke in as you lift the coach sides off the chassis, as they do tend to clip themselves back on. However before you get to that stage remove the fine piping pieces off the ends of the coach, some of them also go into the chassis, from memory.
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Joined: 01/06/2016(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: foumaro
Just be very careful and patient when you are opening these sensitive cars.
Exactly, but that is the overall major problem to me. Maerklin is producing waggons which can only be opened, if you breack any plastic sticks or similar fortifications. This is not customer friendly and expensive. So I would not mind to fix a loose connection because of a bad mounting of coaches, if this would be possible easily without destroying these waggons.
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Joined: 01/06/2016(UTC)
Posts: 2,465
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Originally Posted by: kiwiAlan
I would be interested to see how they have done the LED lighting, so a photo of that PCB once you get them open would be appreciated.
To get them open it is worth having some cocktail sticks or similar fine items that you can poke in as you lift the coach sides off the chassis, as they do tend to clip themselves back on. However before you get to that stage remove the fine piping pieces off the ends of the coach, some of them also go into the chassis, from memory.
Alan I found on YOUTUBE this movie with the titel "Einbau einer flackerfreien LED Beleuchtung im Orient Express von Trix Express" "Installation of a flicker-free LED lighting in the Orient Express from Trix Express" Unfortunately the explanations are in German, but you may see the pictures. But I translated the explaning text below the video. "Published on January 6, 2017 This is a circuit which is designed for analogue, digital and also EMS driving and ensures that breaks in the driving voltage are intercepted and the interior lighting of a car does not flicker. This can be the case, for example, when points or electrical disconnections are crossed. An integrated GoldCap, also known as a supercapacitor, buffers the travel voltage and illuminates the interior lighting further. An integrated charge circuit ensures that it is charged evenly. If the driving voltage has been interrupted, the circuit lights up for approximately half a minute with the capacitor fully charged. The shape of the board is similar to the original Trix modules. It is 180mm long and 11mm wide. The board fits, for example, in the Wagons of the Orient-Express."
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Joined: 25/09/2006(UTC) Posts: 945 Location: Sydney, NSW
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Originally Posted by: kiwiAlan Originally Posted by: Ross
To KiwiAlan are you able to supply the part number for the coupling pocket contact?
Bottom photo of this post.Ross, this is also the part number you want to put in your doco where you wanted the contact spare part number. The number is for a pack of two. Thanks Alan, I missed that post entirely. My document will be updated very soon. Now updated |
Ross
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 Joined: 15/12/2012(UTC) Posts: 40
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I have similar problem. One the sleeping cars lights are not working properly. They are flickering. The problem is aggravated on the curves. As a matter of fact the cars came equipped with current conducting coupler 72020. A set set of Drawbar coupler 7319 is included in the box.
The manual which came withe the 26922 does not mention anything about the cars. It only contains the description of the Locomotive in the package: "Very poor documentation".
one would think that since the couplers are factory installed, they should have been installed properly. First thing I checked was the eclectic contact in the coupler pocket. I did not find the the electric contact has been pushed back. I suspect that the ground spring is not touching the wheels properly: it is bit short. These are special ground springs and installation may be tedious. The seem to be riveted.
Does anybody know how to reinstall the ground springs on these cars?
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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Originally Posted by: loderunner I have similar problem. One the sleeping cars lights are not working properly. They are flickering. The problem is aggravated on the curves. As a matter of fact the cars came equipped with current conducting coupler 72020. A set set of Drawbar coupler 7319 is included in the box.
The manual which came withe the 26922 does not mention anything about the cars. It only contains the description of the Locomotive in the package: "Very poor documentation".
one would think that since the couplers are factory installed, they should have been installed properly. First thing I checked was the eclectic contact in the coupler pocket. I did not find the the electric contact has been pushed back. I suspect that the ground spring is not touching the wheels properly: it is bit short. These are special ground springs and installation may be tedious. The seem to be riveted.
Does anybody know how to reinstall the ground springs on these cars?
I had a busy day with my 26922 and to make a long story short - it is now all working properly. I have info about what I did, photos of inside the coaches and input from a discussion with my dealer. All will be revealed soon, hopefully tomorrow. Loderunner: Yes, the documentation sucks and that it a Märklin tradition. But not giving you even the very old instructions on opening these coaches was above and beyond dumb. These lights might have been working when they left the factory but they are a weak design, as Ross pointed out. They do not seem to handle the rigors of shipping very well and anyone getting these old Trix lighting sets should be prepared for issues IMO. Just another case where I probably should have mined the collective wisdom of this forum before I placed my pre-order! The ground springs on mine just sits on that stud, held in place by tension from contacting the axles - they are not riveted. If you remove the wheel sets they will just fall out. I checked them out first myself but the problem was within the coaches. Back sometime tomorrow hopefully - it is time for a break from my trains. |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
2 users liked this useful post by dickinsonj
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Joined: 04/11/2016(UTC) Posts: 153 Location: Maryland, South Laurel
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Jim,
Congrats on getting your set working. I'm looking forward to seeing your photos and instructions.
Thanks,
David
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Joined: 08/12/2004(UTC) Posts: 4,430 Location: Attiki Athens Greece
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Very good news. 
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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I ran my 26922 set for about an hour last night and I did not see any issues with the lighting at all, so I am very relieved. I heeded foumaro's advice and I was as careful as I could be when opening and handling the coaches, but by the time that I was done I had broken 4 of the pipes that plug into the roofs. Luckily Märklin supplied spares, although at this rate I might eventually need more! I think that the next time I open one of them up I will just go ahead and remove them completely from the coach rather than just popping them off of the roof as the manual indicates. I didn't break them when I first removed the roof but later when trying to put the roof back on. I did not find any smoking gun problems inside any of the coaches. The most obvious thing that I saw was that the PCBs had moved upward and were no longer pushed completely down on the rods from the trucks. Two of the sleeping cars started to work perfectly by just firmly pushing the PCBs back into place. The other two took more effort. I moved the steel sleeves that are attached through the PCB hoping to improve the contact there. I turned them and moved them laterally in the copper edged opening in the PCBs. In one that seemed to make the difference and I was done. The third was still flickering after doing that and I spread the split pins the sleeves sit on so they made better contract with the pin. Strangely when I put that coach on the track it didn't light at all until I pulled the PCB up a little. Why that made it start working is beyond me, unless the PCB was pushed too tightly onto the interior assembly and perhaps putting pressure on one of the traces on the board? One of the worst flickering coaches was the dining coach and it was more of a problem, since I never figured out how to get the interior out (the part with the LED table lamps). That did not allow me to access the area where the shorter rods contact the lower PCB. I could see the inside edges of the clip that contacts the rod through the opening in the floor, so I used a very small screwdriver to push the clips down hoping to make a more stable contact with the pins from the truck. By a miracle that seems to have worked and that coach has gone from constantly flashing on and off to steady lighting. One thing that I learned is that I do not like the old Trix lighting setup very much at all. My dealer called about an hour after I had it all working and we had a nice talk. He said that the coaches are from about 25 year old Trix moulds. He thinks they were done so well that there has never been any reason to change them but he also thinks that it is well past time for Märklin to redo the lighting system. I obviously completely agree. He had two interesting observations. He said that on his coaches with that lighting arrangement he solders over the contact between the PCB and the sleeves, since that tends to be the source of most of the issues. He also said that he is currently trying to find smaller, flatter capacitors to fit into his coaches of that type. He does not think that the system is robust enough to work up to his expectations without capacitors. I agree and I hope to avoid getting any more coaches with this type of lighting in the future. So I do expect more issues to come with these over time, since what I really did was open the coaches and fiddle around until I got it working. It is hard to say how long they will stay happy but at least they are totally flicker free right now. Here a couple of photos of the inside of the coaches. Feel free to ask for better explanations about anything on which I was not clear. PCB installed:  Underside of the PCB:  PCB Grounding Detail:  |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
2 users liked this useful post by dickinsonj
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Joined: 25/09/2006(UTC) Posts: 945 Location: Sydney, NSW
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Hi Jim,
It's good to know you have got the lights to shine. Are they switchable with a digital address?
In the dinning car how have Marklin done the table lamps and do they all light up?
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Ross
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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Originally Posted by: Ross Hi Jim,
It's good to know you have got the lights to shine. Are they switchable with a digital address?
In the dinning car how have Marklin done the table lamps and do they all light up?
Hey Ross, You got me pointed in the right direction with your manual links, so a big "Thank You" is in order! I don't know what I thought I saw at first, but my coaches are exactly the same as those that you sent the link for. I just finished running that train and they are still working perfectly. Hopefully I will stop holding my breath every time that I boot up the CS2 pretty soon.  No, Mäklin made no provision for adding a decoder as they did in my Rheingold set (#41929) but it certainly could be done. There is a red table lamp on each table in the dining car and it looks great. I will post some images soon, now that the coaches all actually light up! |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
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Joined: 01/06/2016(UTC)
Posts: 2,465
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1 user liked this useful post by TEEWolf
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Joined: 08/12/2004(UTC) Posts: 4,430 Location: Attiki Athens Greece
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Originally Posted by: dickinsonj Originally Posted by: Ross Hi Jim,
It's good to know you have got the lights to shine. Are they switchable with a digital address?
In the dinning car how have Marklin done the table lamps and do they all light up?
Hey Ross, You got me pointed in the right direction with your manual links, so a big "Thank You" is in order! I don't know what I thought I saw at first, but my coaches are exactly the same as those that you sent the link for. I just finished running that train and they are still working perfectly. Hopefully I will stop holding my breath every time that I boot up the CS2 pretty soon. No, Mäklin made no provision for adding a decoder as they did in my Rheingold set (#41929) but it certainly could be done. There is a red table lamp on each table in the dining car and it looks great. I will post some images soon, now that the coaches all actually light up! The 41929 is not equipped with decoder,you can buy the 60941 and install it if you want.
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Joined: 08/12/2004(UTC) Posts: 4,430 Location: Attiki Athens Greece
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The 41929 set is not equipped with decoder but you can install the 60941 if you want.
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Joined: 01/06/2016(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: foumaro The 41929 set is not equipped with decoder but you can install the 60941 if you want. Indeed and good question: which decoder is suitable? I think a 60941 is not applicabel, because it is a motor. The new msD3 as 60977? Very expensive for the functions needed. Which one would you suggest? What do you think about a TAMS function decoder FD-R extended? And this one only costs about 20% to 25% of the Maerklin 60977 decoder, but it has no mfx format. Only DCC and MM (fx) is possible.
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1 user liked this useful post by TEEWolf
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Joined: 08/12/2004(UTC) Posts: 4,430 Location: Attiki Athens Greece
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Originally Posted by: TEEWolf Originally Posted by: foumaro The 41929 set is not equipped with decoder but you can install the 60941 if you want. Indeed and good question: which decoder is suitable? I think a 60941 is not applicabel, because it is a motor. The new msD3 as 60977? Very expensive for the functions needed. Which one would you suggest? What do you think about a TAMS function decoder FD-R extended? And this one only costs about 20% to 25% of the Maerklin 60977 decoder, but it has no mfx format. Only DCC and MM (fx) is possible. If you read the booklet instructions of the 41929 marklin suggest 60941.Maybe another decoder is a better sollution but i am not an expert to have an opinion for your question.
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Joined: 16/02/2004(UTC)
Posts: 15,442
Location: DE-NW
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Originally Posted by: foumaro The 41929 set is not equipped with decoder but you can install the 60941 if you want. The 60941 is a motor. Märklin recommend the 60942 which was discontinued. I bought an ESU FX decoder. That is a function decoder without parts to control a motor, just what you need. From Märklin you can use the 60972, the successor of the 60942. You have to do some soldering if you want to use a decoder with cables. You can even use some shelf-queen decoders (6080 or AnDi or such) for a cheap solution. |
Regards Tom --- "In all of the gauges, we particularly emphasize a high level of quality, the best possible fidelity to the prototype, and absolute precision. You will see that in all of our products." (from Märklin New Items Brochure 2015, page 1) ROFLBTCUTS  |
1 user liked this useful post by H0
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Joined: 08/12/2004(UTC) Posts: 4,430 Location: Attiki Athens Greece
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Of course you are right,60941 is the five pole motor.I was confused,I am sorry .The right is 60942. 
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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Here is an update on my Orient Express coach lighting problem and another request for some advice. When I boxed up this set about a year ago all of the coaches were lighted and there was only a small amount of flickering, which was quite acceptable. But when I put the set back on my track last month one coach did not light at all. It passes power to the cars further back, so the CC circuit is fine, but the PCB is not getting power unless I push the PCB to the side. Luckily the other coaches are fine for now and the rake looks pretty nice with one fewer sleeping car.  I have traced the problem back to the metal post which comes up through the floor and onto which the post on the PCB pushes. It does not receive power unless that post is pushed to the side. I am guessing that the problem is where it contacts the CC power strip under the floor. I suspect that I need to run a wire from the power supply under the floor up to the PCB for these to ever work reliably, or maybe just solder that connection under the floor. To get to that though I need to remove the interior details but I have not yet figured out how to do that. If anyone has any experience taking these coaches apart I would love to hear about a safe way to proceed. I know from experience that if I just start forcing things I will end up breaking even more delicate parts on these very pretty but unreliable coaches. I have already broken several of the small pipes which run up to the roof and I would love to limit any further damage. |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
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Joined: 28/11/2007(UTC) Posts: 8,225 Location: Montreal, QC
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As far as I recall, the coaches get the live from the current conducting couplers and each coach gets the return from the wheels.
As the Maerklin current conducting couplers normally are single pole and conduct only the "live", you would have to modify the couplings if you wanted to install a two pole connection.
The Trix version has one set of wheel contacts for each coach, one collects the + and the other collects the -. If you can install a second wheel contact on each coach, this might improve the connection.
I would think that installing a two pole coupling system and running both red and brown from the decoder would be the best option.
You could also install a function decoder in each coach, which would give you the option of having individual functions per coach that you could call up individually. If you go with that option, then you would run red and brown leads to each decoder and could still use single pole couplings and ground return for each coach.
Regards
Mike C
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1 user liked this useful post by mike c
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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Originally Posted by: mike c As far as I recall, the coaches get the live from the current conducting couplers and each coach gets the return from the wheels.
Regards
Mike C Thanks for the ideas Mike. Yes, these coaches follow normal CC coupler format, with one live power feed through all of the coaches and each lighting board grounded through a wiper in one bogie per coach. These are not Trix coaches and don't have 2-rail wheel sets, but they are adaptations of Trix coaches and that causes electrical issues. I have no desire to add decoders to these, since my other coaches with decoders are almost never used. I turn the lights on once and then tend to just leave them on, and I don't care much about the ability to turn them off. I did manage to fix one of the coaches and I think that I can now fix the rest as needed. I figured out how to get the interior out - you remove the body by releasing tabs inside the coach, rather than prying from the bottom. So the one coach which did not light at all is now fixed and eventually I will do the same thing to the rest of them as they cause problems. The CC power circuit is very robust and does not cause any issues in my coaches, reliably passing power to the next coach even when a coach is not lighting correctly. The return through the wipers on the axles is also solid, with a direct connection from the post on the PCB to the wiper. So although I investigated the whole circuit I only found faults in one area, which is good news. From what I can tell all of the problems come from where the plate under the coach interior floor contacts the pole taking power up to the PCB. The positive pole is pushed through this plate and this connection is not reliable, even though it looks fine on inspection. I now realize that all of the things that I did last year were indirectly affecting this one connection, like pushing down or pulling up on the PCB, both of which would make the lighting work, at least for a while. My fix was to solder a wire to the bottom of the plate the pin pushes through and route the wire along the pin and up to the top of the PCB. There I soldered it to the brass band on the PCB where the top segment of the post is mounted. That coach went from not lighting at all unless the post was pushed to the side, to working perfectly. I also soldered a wire from the return post to the PCB but I don't think that is necessary. As I said earlier that part of the circuit seems very solid and does not seem to be a problem, at least not on my coaches. I was in a rush yesterday and I did not capture any images of what I did. The next time I work on one of these coaches I will grab some images and post them along with a brief description of my fix. Advice from several people pointed to other areas of concern in this circuit but luckily all of my problems seem to come from just the one connection. My dealer suggested soldering over the connection between the post and the PCB but I don't think that would fix the problems I have had with these coaches. Now, if I could just find a few replacement packages of those stupid little water pipes to the coach roof - which I currently have about a 50% chance of breaking when I take these coaches apart. |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
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Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC) Posts: 8,467 Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
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Originally Posted by: dickinsonj Originally Posted by: mike c As far as I recall, the coaches get the live from the current conducting couplers and each coach gets the return from the wheels.
Regards
Mike C Thanks for the ideas Mike. Yes, these coaches follow normal CC coupler format, with one live power feed through all of the coaches and each lighting board grounded through a wiper in one bogie per coach. These are not Trix coaches and don't have 2-rail wheel sets, but they are adaptations of Trix coaches and that causes electrical issues. I have no desire to add decoders to these, since my other coaches with decoders are almost never used. I turn the lights on once and then tend to just leave them on, and I don't care much about the ability to turn them off. I did manage to fix one of the coaches and I think that I can now fix the rest as needed. I figured out how to get the interior out - you remove the body by releasing tabs inside the coach, rather than prying from the bottom. So the one coach which did not light at all is now fixed and eventually I will do the same thing to the rest of them as they cause problems. The CC power circuit is very robust and does not cause any issues in my coaches, reliably passing power to the next coach even when a coach is not lighting correctly. The return through the wipers on the axles is also solid, with a direct connection from the post on the PCB to the wiper. So although I investigated the whole circuit I only found faults in one area, which is good news. From what I can tell all of the problems come from where the plate under the coach interior floor contacts the pole taking power up to the PCB. The positive pole is pushed through this plate and this connection is not reliable, even though it looks fine on inspection. I now realize that all of the things that I did last year were indirectly affecting this one connection, like pushing down or pulling up on the PCB, both of which would make the lighting work, at least for a while. My fix was to solder a wire to the bottom of the plate the pin pushes through and route the wire along the pin and up to the top of the PCB. There I soldered it to the brass band on the PCB where the top segment of the post is mounted. That coach went from not lighting at all unless the post was pushed to the side, to working perfectly. I also soldered a wire from the return post to the PCB but I don't think that is necessary. As I said earlier that part of the circuit seems very solid and does not seem to be a problem, at least not on my coaches. I was in a rush yesterday and I did not capture any images of what I did. The next time I work on one of these coaches I will grab some images and post them along with a brief description of my fix. Advice from several people pointed to other areas of concern in this circuit but luckily all of my problems seem to come from just the one connection. My dealer suggested soldering over the connection between the post and the PCB but I don't think that would fix the problems I have had with these coaches. Now, if I could just find a few replacement packages of those stupid little water pipes to the coach roof - which I currently have about a 50% chance of breaking when I take these coaches apart. Well, they are still Trix coaches, even when marketed under the Marklin badge ...  My understanding is that the real problem is where the post is semi-riveted to the PCB. Because the post is designed to slide in a slot on the PCB so they can use the one PCB for the different length coaches in this range it is not done too tight. My solution os to solder a fine wire onto the post and onto the PCB. It may be possible to to solder the post directly to the PCB, but I would only do this if it is fitted to the coach so the distance between the posts is correct. It will then restrict that PCB to that coach instead of being interchangeable.
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Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,801 Location: Crozet, Virginia
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Originally Posted by: kiwiAlan Well, they are still Trix coaches, even when marketed under the Marklin badge ... Correct - I was just pointing out that they are already set up for 3-rail use and they do not have two rail wheel sets in response to Mike's suggestion. Originally Posted by: kiwiAlan My understanding is that the real problem is where the post is semi-riveted to the PCB. Because the post is designed to slide in a slot on the PCB so they can use the one PCB for the different length coaches in this range it is not done too tight. My solution os to solder a fine wire onto the post and onto the PCB. It may be possible to to solder the post directly to the PCB, but I would only do this if it is fitted to the coach so the distance between the posts is correct. It will then restrict that PCB to that coach instead of being interchangeable.
Because multiple people suggested that the post to PCB connection was the source of the problem I first soldered a wire from the lower segment of that post to the PCB. Much to my surprise that did not fix my problem. So I started checking each element of the circuit with a continuity tester and found the break under the floor of the coach, where the power from the CC circuit should be passed to the lower segment of that post. Wiring directly from that contact under the floor to the PCB made my lighting absolutely rock solid and flicker free. Before I added that wire to the PCB from the circuit under the floor, the PCB in that coach did not received any power at all. I posted this so that I could point out that at least in the case of my coaches the problem was not at the PCB, but rather where the posts makes contact with the CC power supply. It is a weak design and I am sure that there are other areas where problems can occur, such as that connection from the post to the PCB. My dealer said that he soldiers over that connection, so that must be a problem area also. I don't see any downside to doing that, it just did not fix what was wrong with my coaches and I wanted to point out a new area for people to investigate. |
Regards,
Jim
I have almost all Märklin and mostly HO, although I do have a small number of Z gauge trains!
So many trains and so little time. |
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Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC) Posts: 8,467 Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
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Originally Posted by: dickinsonj
Because multiple people suggested that the post to PCB connection was the source of the problem I first soldered a wire from the lower segment of that post to the PCB. Much to my surprise that did not fix my problem. So I started checking each element of the circuit with a continuity tester and found the break under the floor of the coach, where the power from the CC circuit should be passed to the lower segment of that post. Wiring directly from that contact under the floor to the PCB made my lighting absolutely rock solid and flicker free. Before I added that wire to the PCB from the circuit under the floor, the PCB in that coach did not received any power at all.
I posted this so that I could point out that at least in the case of my coaches the problem was not at the PCB, but rather where the posts makes contact with the CC power supply. It is a weak design and I am sure that there are other areas where problems can occur, such as that connection from the post to the PCB. My dealer said that he soldiers over that connection, so that must be a problem area also. I don't see any downside to doing that, it just did not fix what was wrong with my coaches and I wanted to point out a new area for people to investigate.
Ah, OK, I'll have to look out for that with mine. I have some where I need to look at he flickering problem, when I have some time.
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1 user liked this useful post by kiwiAlan
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Joined: 05/12/2004(UTC) Posts: 2,975 Location: CA, USA
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Hi all, a "bump" on this thread- does anyone know how easy it would be to convert a 21215 Trix set of these coaches to AC? I'm assuming the pickup shoe is easy, and that one wiper must either be swapped to ground, or omitted entirely.
Then from there install Current conducting couplers? |
SBB Era 2-5 |
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