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Offline ocram63_uk  
#1 Posted : 17 May 2020 15:02:12(UTC)
ocram63_uk

United Kingdom   
Joined: 07/01/2015(UTC)
Posts: 704
Location: England, Suffolk
Good afternoon everybody, hope you are all well and keeping safe !!!

Please, do you know which interior lighting kit can I buy to insert in this set ? I know the set is old and the lights that were made for it do not exist anymore, probably.

Is there some kit I can use ?

Thank you
Marco
Online dickinsonj  
#2 Posted : 18 May 2020 02:06:34(UTC)
dickinsonj

United States   
Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC)
Posts: 1,676
Location: Crozet, Virginia
At this point Marco, Traintek lighting kits might be your best option.

They work well, are easily installed and save you from all the hassles of trying to get lighting into coaches which do not have good options from Märklin.
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.
Offline ocram63_uk  
#3 Posted : 18 May 2020 09:56:20(UTC)
ocram63_uk

United Kingdom   
Joined: 07/01/2015(UTC)
Posts: 704
Location: England, Suffolk
Jim good morning :-)
Hope you are well and keeping safe !!
Thank you very much for your suggestion. I'll look into Traintek, which I didn't know existed.
They are based in UK!!! Good for Covid and shipping times then :-)
It is 'Train-Tech', not Traintek
Cheers
Marco
Offline Nigel Packer  
#4 Posted : 18 May 2020 12:40:48(UTC)
Nigel Packer

United Kingdom   
Joined: 11/02/2006(UTC)
Posts: 682
Location: Cheshire, UK
Originally Posted by: ocram63_uk Go to Quoted Post

Please, do you know which interior lighting kit can I buy to insert in this set ? I know the set is old and the lights that were made for it do not exist anymore, probably.

Is there some kit I can use ?

Thank you
Marco



If you want the contemporary lighting kits for this train, they are still available.

You need 2x7329, and 2x73150.

Nigel
Märklin collector since age 5.
H0 Collection from 1935 to today.
Online dickinsonj  
#5 Posted : 18 May 2020 15:12:19(UTC)
dickinsonj

United States   
Joined: 05/12/2008(UTC)
Posts: 1,676
Location: Crozet, Virginia
Originally Posted by: ocram63_uk Go to Quoted Post

It is 'Train-Tech', not Traintek


Indeed. A brain malfunction on my part where I substituted a North American train dealer for the English firm. Confused

I need to order a number of these but I will wait until shipping returns to something more normal before I do. You are lucky to have them so close to hand and I think that you will be quite happy with them. ThumpUp
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.
Offline ocram63_uk  
#6 Posted : 18 May 2020 16:02:43(UTC)
ocram63_uk

United Kingdom   
Joined: 07/01/2015(UTC)
Posts: 704
Location: England, Suffolk
All good afternoon,
good health to everybody !!!
I wrote Marklin asking their advice. They have been very quick in the reply too :-)
This is the naswer I got:

"No interior lighting was provided for this car set. Here, only the possibility remains to retrofit lighting on a bastleric way.
Possibly the interior lighting 73400 could be made suitable.
The 73405 would then be needed as a power supply. However, we cannot guarantee that."

So the idea to use Train-Tech's lights seems a good one.

On the Marklin online shop 7329 is not in stock.

HTH
Thank you
Marco

Offline Nigel Packer  
#7 Posted : 18 May 2020 23:28:07(UTC)
Nigel Packer

United Kingdom   
Joined: 11/02/2006(UTC)
Posts: 682
Location: Cheshire, UK
Originally Posted by: ocram63_uk Go to Quoted Post

On the Marklin online shop 7329 is not in stock.
Marco



There are plenty of them on eBay!

Nigel
Märklin collector since age 5.
H0 Collection from 1935 to today.
Offline ocram63_uk  
#8 Posted : 19 May 2020 09:32:10(UTC)
ocram63_uk

United Kingdom   
Joined: 07/01/2015(UTC)
Posts: 704
Location: England, Suffolk
I just finished adapting Roco's 44740 and 44741 coaches interior lighting kits to Marklin. Fortunately these kits were already in the coaches.
Nice job I have to say, conducting couplers and ghost car to power them.
In the bottom of the coach there are two copper strips that get current from the bogies to power the lights.
I isolated one and connected it to the power conducting couplers at either end of the coach. In this way whether the coaches run alone or in a convoy the lights always work.
I'll have to fit the locomotives with conducting couplers now which, at the moement, doesn't play well with my old Marklin wagons that are all metal.

Anyway, I much rather not have to open a coach, remove the bogies to place conducting clips underneat them and place the pickup shoe, which BTW Markin says it might not work.

Train-Tech'c lights seem to work fine. I'll have to give them a go :-)

Have a good day and stay safe !!!
Marco
Offline Nigel Packer  
#9 Posted : 19 May 2020 12:13:33(UTC)
Nigel Packer

United Kingdom   
Joined: 11/02/2006(UTC)
Posts: 682
Location: Cheshire, UK
Well, I have some of everything!

I have quite a few TrainTech coach lighting units. I tend to use them for coaches that have no built-in support for interior lighting, such as my Harry Potter train, some Märklin/Tillig Eastern European coaches (eg 42982), and a Dutch train I have of Artitec coaches. The TrainTech units work very well, and the only criticisms I have of them are that the light is a bit dim, and of course, by design, the lighting is not switchable. My layout is completely computer controlled, and I prefer the train lighting to be switched on before the train starts moving, and before the platform announcements, or guard's whistle sound, etc. So almost all my trains have Digital decoders, and often relays, to turn lighting on and off.

In general, with my collector's mentality, I prefer the Märklin trains to have lighting that is contemporary with the manufacture or design of the models. So I tend to fit original lighting units, with bulbs rather than LEDs, in older models. I prefer the nostalgic effect and colour-temperature of the bulbs. Similarly, when I upgrade an older Märklin loco, I don't change the light bulbs for LEDs, as it spoils the look of the loco for me.

I have quite a large stock of old Märklin lighting sets, probably some of all of the ones made, and I use these for old trains, but fitted with decoders for switching the lights on and off. I tend to use Tams FD-R Basic decoders, as they are tiny and work very well. And I use tiny 1-Amp relays if necessary, which can switch the lighting for a whole train.

But I do fit LED lighting sets sometimes too. I have quite a lot of the Märklin ones (73400 and 73401), but my favourites are Tams WIB-33.2, which sadly don't seem to be in production at the moment. They have all kinds of features and have a built-in decoder that can also switch accessories like tail lights, control-cab lights or lights in other coaches. This unit allows individual control of each LED, variable brightness, effects like fluorescent tube emulation, flickering to show a faulty fluorescent tube, light-sensitive feature so that the lighting can be turned on automatically at night, or turned off in a shadow station, and so on.

I like the Tams products a lot, and they are a very nice family firm. I meet Cornelia Tams at train shows in Germany (such as the Märklin Days in Göppingen aka the Treff), and she is the English-speaker and front-person on their exhibition stand. I always buy some of their stuff! I probably have over a hundred of their accessory decoders (k83 and k84 equivalent) on my layout, and a Tams MasterControl central unit which is used for switching all my points, signals, relays, etc, controlled by the computer. So, purely as a customer, I fully recommend them, and their support is excellent.

Anyway, I'm always to happy to share my experience!

Nigel
Märklin collector since age 5.
H0 Collection from 1935 to today.
thanks 3 users liked this useful post by Nigel Packer
Offline kesh  
#10 Posted : 10 September 2020 11:26:37(UTC)
kesh

India   
Joined: 06/01/2009(UTC)
Posts: 9
Location: Delhi NCR
Hi Nigel,
I read your post and seek your help with the TAMS FD LED Funktiondecoder. I wish to use it to switch the lights 73400/73401 on and off through the CS3. How many leds can it support. Will one decoder do for a 3 coaches with 2 Marklin 73400 LED strips in each coach. Im using the Marklin current conducting couplers with a pickup shoe on 1 coach. Can you help me with the wiring. Im new to this do it yourself and really need help.

Offline Nigel Packer  
#11 Posted : 10 September 2020 17:22:36(UTC)
Nigel Packer

United Kingdom   
Joined: 11/02/2006(UTC)
Posts: 682
Location: Cheshire, UK
Originally Posted by: kesh Go to Quoted Post
Hi Nigel,
I read your post and seek your help with the TAMS FD LED Funktiondecoder. I wish to use it to switch the lights 73400/73401 on and off through the CS3. How many leds can it support. Will one decoder do for a 3 coaches with 2 Marklin 73400 LED strips in each coach. Im using the Marklin current conducting couplers with a pickup shoe on 1 coach. Can you help me with the wiring. Im new to this do it yourself and really need help.




Hello Kesh,

I haven't actually used the Tams FD-LED decoder, but I have used many Tams FD-R Basic and FD-R Basic 2 decoders.

The FD-LED decoder has two outputs of 300mA each (and one of 10mA, suggested for tail lights), and Tams suggests that if you use their LED strips you can light up to six H0 coaches with one decoder.

When I have installed the FD-R Basic decoders, I have lit one coach directly from a decoder output, but for longer trains I have used a small relay connected to the decoder, and connected the relay output to the current-conducting couplers. That has proved to be enough for any train of a practicable length.

The Tams web site has downloadable manuals for all of their decoders (in several languages), and I suggest you look at these to see if they explain in sufficient detail for you.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Nigel
Märklin collector since age 5.
H0 Collection from 1935 to today.
Offline kiwiAlan  
#12 Posted : 10 September 2020 23:02:00(UTC)
kiwiAlan

United Kingdom   
Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC)
Posts: 8,082
Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
I am going through the loop of installing 73400 light strips in 43800 Silberlinge coaches, so I will look to measure the current draw of a strip. I don't expect it to be a large current as the LEDs are not very bright, so probably only 10-15mA, maybe 20mA, per strip.

Having looked at a strip I think it has a constant current circuit so that when used on an analogue system the light output will remain constant as the voltage varies. It should do this to a reasonably low voltage as there are only three LEDs in series in any one circuit, with two separate circuits on each 73400 strip, which is why the strip can be cut in half for a short coach.
thanks 1 user liked this useful post by kiwiAlan
Offline kiwiAlan  
#13 Posted : 11 September 2020 17:17:35(UTC)
kiwiAlan

United Kingdom   
Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC)
Posts: 8,082
Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
OK, i have measured the current for a 73400 strip (lighting both halves).

At 9V it was 9.4mA and at 24V it was 12mA, so reasonably constant current. It wouldn't light up at 6V.

I don't have a fully variable power supply handy, so had to make do with some fixed voltage wall warts I have handy.
thanks 1 user liked this useful post by kiwiAlan
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