I have recently purchased the 12 tin-plate coach set. 00796
They do not have current conducting couplers, however interior lighting can be installed with lighting kit 7077 or 7320.

I have two questions..

First and foremost, it was suggested to me that if I were to purchase 12 of these lighting kits (and Im not 'too' concerned about cost, because I got the coach set at a good price) that all the pick-up shoes would produce alot of noise and drag.. But, that it would also drain alot of power from the system (more than a carriage set with current conducting couplers?)
How much of a concern is the above?

So, therefor, the second question is; can a person purchase current conducting couplers for such a set to ad it on and lose some of the problems inherit with the above question (ie. increase in drag, noise and power demand).

Thankyou very much for any help.

Lawrence

I have four coaches from the 00796 tin-plate set (00796-01, 00796-02 and 00796-03) I thought that the 7320 lighting kit would work, but alas, it does not fit in these coaches. Just yesterday I fitted the 7077 lighting units, which work fine. The coaches and pick-up sliders are quite noisy on M-track, but I expected that!

Cheers to all.

Lawrence,

You are absolutely right what you are saying and the 2 issues you've pointed out are a concern, a.) power consumption and noise.

The only other solution I could find is a.) find an interior lighting set (led's) that has a rectifer and b.) use a single wire right through the coaches and connect them that way but you would have to comprimise to have a train you can't separate.

an other option but a more radical, to cut off the coupling at a certain point and replace it with a NEM coupling shaft and superglue it to the remaining coupling, you than can use an electrical coupling.
Before doing so you have to make sure the coupling or bogy movement would not be restricted in any way and the buffers would not interfere with each other, if I remember correctly are part of the bogy and set back considerable.

a more remote option is: using the overhead system (not everyone has one), using a different power supply and a dining car with an overhead pantograph but you still would have to use a wire going right through all the carriages making it again a permanent train consist using the lighting kit you've mentioned.

What surprises me thou, Maerklin produces these sets, (12 coaches) but give no thoughts how on earth can you add a lighting set into all these coaches.
A railcar was produced, (3028, 3428) whereas the interior light for any additional carriage you had connectors inside of each carriage and the motorcar and you inserted a wire into these to be able to use the interior light in all the other carriages and by using this method again you had a permanent connected train because the connectors were inside.



John

I have completed the addition of wire through the cars and have small connectors inbetween them. See this form for more details and pictures.
Running Power through Cars

Was thinking about the same idea myself, and using tiny bulbs, instead of kits.

I just thought of another option,

http://wwww.trainaidsa.com.

have bajonet Led's so using them, you would reduce the power consumption a lot.

John

Edited by user 21 March 2012 17:51:03(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

You could try a lighting kit sold by Walthers called the "EZ-Pesi" lighting kit I think. It has a circuit board with leds and a reed switch connected to some button stile batteries.
The kit comes with a magnetic wand to activate the reed switch.

Some where i have the kit but never got around to installing it, I was going to have to modify (shorten) the circuit board to fit marklins shorter coaches.
it was an inexpensive kit.