All,
As it is the season for such things, I've been pulling out trains and running them like crazy lately. Today I pulled out a box that had me two Roco "Sputnik" work cabooses. These awesome little Swiss guys (1 SBB and 1 BLS) are some of my favorite cars. While admiring them I learned something new- they have interior lighting! Naturally, I've decided to complicate life and convert them to AC so I can make use of this feature. Has anyone done this, or know a person/website that has? It would be much appreciated.

BTW for entertainments sake the receipt was in the box. Price of a well detailed car with lights in 2001? $22,95 US. Boy things have changed

I wonder if it would be possible to take one of the Maerklin freight cars that have a version with slider, install the same slider underneath that car, put a decoder inside and then run the wires by current conducting couplers to the appropriate contacts in the Sputnik to activate the interior lights and taillight (if so equipped). The other possibility would be to install a 9V DC Battery and switch or digital relay inside the freight car and wire it the same way.

I don't know if Roco's model has place to build in a slider nor whether the circuitry can accept AC voltage

Regards

Mike C

I raised a query along similar lines some time ago which is in the archives under

Roco Sputnik #46964 on 3 Rail Digital - Lutz

Unfortunately the very informative reply from Lutz Hemmerich has lost it's picture links. However I'm sure you will still find this a useful read.

BTW - Such being life I still haven't found time to work on my own unit yet

Note that when searching for archive threads you must tick the Archive Posts box under Search In:

Otherwise the system will only search back so far - I'm not sure how deep the standard search is but the Webmaster may be able to advise us how far the default will go.

John this should give you access to the relevant thread - pesky computers

Hi everyone,

Nearly 9 years later, I thought I'd revive this post. I found Lutz's original thread:

https://www.marklin-user...on-3-Rail-Digital---Lutz

Based on this input, and my own adventuring, the electric is no problem. What is a problem is mounting a pickup shoe. I've cleared the center car floor to create a flat surface, but have no idea how to mount a shoe, or what kind of spacer I'll need.

Has anyone done this and can share tips or info? It would save me a lot of R&D effort if so! Google wasn't a ton of help either (surprisingly)

Thanks in advance.

Thanks Stefan- I saw that, but an hesitant to do a power supply car. I did find this, which is similar to my idea, I'd just need to sort the length of the plastic spacer:

Hi everyone,

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole today, and converted all 3 of my sputniks to AC. It took a little experimenting, but it turned out well. My notes/steps:

1- Remove the air tanks and hoses from the underside car floor carefully. This involves 1-2 cuts - be sure to make them cleanly and preserve the parts- you will need them later

2- very carefully sand or grind off the Roco logo and the "RO" ("CO" not necessary) to leave a smooth floor

3- Open up the roof. Unsolder the power lead from the PC board on the toilet side of the car, and solder it together with the lead on the other side

4- There is a vertical pump/hose/toilet drain under the car (see image under point #14 below for location) which you should have already removed to reveal a small mounting hole in the floor. Using a pin vise with small bit, go into that hole and drill through the car floor. Be careful with this- directly above is the dividing wall for the bathroom, so you need to drill at a small angle towards the bathroom. If done right this puts a hole in the bathroom floor.

5- Run a piece of 30awg wire from the (now) empty PC board lead through the bathroom, through the hole you drilled, and out the floor with at least a few inches to spare- you can cut it later. Leave it alone for now, and feel free to put the roof back on.

6- Get a Marklin 7175 pickup shoe and a suitable screw, preferable self-tapping. Also procure a Plastruct (or similar) 1/4 inch square dowel like the one in the image below.


7- very carefully -so as to cut straight as possible- cut an 8-9mm section if the dowel. I did this three times and probably have 3 different but similar lengths. Screw the pickup shoe into the dowel.

8- Test fit the assembly to the car floor. I used thin double stick tape, and accounted for the fact the tape added thickness. Gently test for height on C track. Don't forget to test over switches!!!! Shave dowel length if necessary, or shim with sheet styrene if too short

9- Once sorted, paint the dowel and edges of the pickup shoe a grey or black so they blend in


10- Once dry, Mount to the car floor. I used Plastruct plastic weld (orange label) for this as you need a solid joint.

11- Test yet again for alignment and running quality, this time behind an actual train

12- Take previously-removed toilet drain, and put the pin vise through it. Then run the wire through it and leave loose.

13- Solder the wire to the pickup shoe

14 -Use plastruct to re-mount the toilet drain to the floor. This conceals a lot of wire travel!


15- Reattach the hose gear. You may have to cut a few pieces, but trust me its worth putting anything possible back in to cover up the pickup shoe and mount


Enjoy! Photos to follow, this wasn't the easiest project but also not that hard, and well worth the results!

Edited by user 21 June 2018 17:30:15(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Coming from you that means a lot- thanks!!