Hi All,

I had this Roco DB BR 420 Railcar since 1984 and bought it in a shop in Salzburg.
It was AC analog, over the years it was converted to digital (6081 decoder) and now has an ESU decoder.
The loco had its work done on it.
It was never easy to take apart and a lot of parts had to be removed to convert the loco.

Originally it has 3 headlights and 2 taillights (bulbs).
I had to figure out to to change them to Led's and the wiring was a bit complicated.
The interior lights had also long bulbs and I've changed them as well to Led's.
by converting it to digital and seperating the interior lights from the headlights, meant more wires.

The 3 unit rail car has a 3 pin electrical coupling and 2 of them are still on the train.

One front carriage has the pickupshoe, so there are 5 wires going to the motorcar (middle car)and the this is where the decoder is as well.
4 wires from the other end car, which I'vre replaced with a 4 pin Roco electrical coupling.

To take the railcar apart was always a bit of a gamble and the last time it was lying on a bubble wrap and unfortunately it rolled over in it and one of the coupling broke.
Being such an old model, the same spare parts ain't available anymore and I've looked at the spare part list of the latest model and ordered one of the couplings.

So today, I've set my task, to tackle the broken coupling and looked at different options.
Adding a total differnt coupling to the railcar was a bit of a challenge.
the distance between railcars had to be about equal in lenght and the height was also important, so it doesn't scrape the middle contacts.

Here are some photos:


























more photos will follow with the railcar being re-assembled

John