Right off the top, the Roco coaches are 1/87, the Maerklin one is 1/100, so there is a difference in scale length.
That aside, it was pretty common to find a mix of coach types in locomotive pulled consists. The 74565 is in the Interregio (IR) livery used for regional trains. The EWIV is in the latest Intercity livery, which was introduced in the last year or two. By that point, the EWII coaches in the IR livery had largely been taken out of service.

The EWIV are today primarily used in push pull intercity services between Swiss cities. They can be found combined with EuroCity coaches (4368 type) in some of these consists. For international traffic, the SBB uses only the EuroCity (EC) coach type.

Older liveries, the 1980s Gray-green, the so-called ICN livery of the early 2000s could be found in locomotive pulled consists (not push pull) and often combined with other types (EWI, EWII, RIC and EC coaches).

Roco offered an 2010-2015 "Boezberg" Express as a 2 Set consist in their 2023 catalog. This was a mix of EWIV and EWII. (6200022/23)
https://www.roco.cc/rde/...berg-interregio-sbb.html
https://www.roco.cc/rde/...berg-interregio-sbb.html

For the EWIV (Maerklin), you could create a mix of 42155/56/57/58 with the new 42153/42154 to reproduce a consist from the period when the new livery was being introduced. The pilot coach would be a 42179 or 42177. A complete consist in the new livery would be 42153, 42154 with 42177. Such consists are still rare as many still include a mix of new and older liveries. The restaurant coaches are still in the ICN livery (42174).

You can get an idea of Swiss consists at reisezuege.ch https://www.reisezuege.ch/index.php?action=10
You can select the year to see different consists. (2005-2023)

For the current year, you can look it up by coach type https://www.reisezuege.ch/index.php?action=9

I hope that this helps

If you want an interesting consist for the Roco IR coaches, you can have one EWII A, a pair of EWII B and a Pilot coach in the NPZ livery (Piko)
https://www.reisezuege.c...amp;fp_id=5&action=5

(74565, 74566, 74567 + Piko BDt)

Regards

Mike C

Is this the lighting kit that you used? https://www.eurorailhobbies.com/Roco/R-40420

For AC, you have to replace one of the axle contacts with a centre rail slide (40500). To mount this, you require a piece which used to come with many models, but is no longer included in the parts bag. The part, replaced the mounting of the AC slider and allows it to fit the two little pins on the underside of the bogie part.

One alternative that I have used is the Slider from Swiss company RailTop (99001). The base plate of the RailTop version includes the two holes for mounting on Roco coaches).

For AC operation, you can reverse one wheelset per bogie, which would yield return contact from the axle contact to both rails for the lighting. Once this has been done, the model cannot be used in DC operation without causing a short.

Regards

Mike C

Hi David,

Would love to see what kind of battery light you used and wondering how long they would last. Its a brilliant idea with the long life of some batteries with LEDs.

Is this something sold commercially or something you rigged up?

- Mark

David is absolutely correct in saying that Train Tech is an excellent product. The last time I checked it was getting pretty expensive but so is everything else now.

No sliders, no balky CC couplers, no wires, no return current wipers. There is a lot to be gained (lost) with the battery lights. Your coaches run better and your lights never flicker nor flash. As a bonus there is no need for a heavy and expensive capacitor.

I think that they are an overlooked resource, which is sometimes superior to forcing a conventional CC system into coaches not designed for them.

They look fab on the site but I see them listed for 22 pounds a pop!
More than the price of the cars when I bought many of them.

I have some very long strips/rolls of LEDs sitting waiting to be used.
There has to be cheaper and simpler way to set these up.
I do like the motion on/off feature I must say but... hmm
....(me thinking...)
...old decoders... wires in connected consist... one slider for a consist of 5 or 7 cars.
...no contact couplers. ... I think Dale had this in mind a few years back...

So many projects, I must not run ahead of myself.
But the TrainTech product is definitely a beautiful albeit rather pricey alternative.

I first bought them for my lovely Trix sourced Marklin Era I Bavarian coaches.

There are no practical provisions from Marklin for lighting them and Train Tech lighting works perfectly in those pretty coaches. I now have two sets of these beautiful K.Bay.Sts.b coaches and I need to light the second set before the price goes up even more.

At least in this case the solution is so perfect that it is worth the cost.

I think it's tricky for the makers to choose an optimal brightness because layout ambient light is all different. So they find a moderate medium.Piko seem to be in the dimmer side, even on the darkest part and tunnel of my layout.

With cheap electronics these days, how difficult could it be to install a motion detector with a corresponding on/off switch? Of course getting a nice fluorescent lights flickering on effect etc would be a challenge. I did see someone showing this effect on their trains recently but I can't remember where. Do the traintech ones do that?

Nonetheless somebody must have a son who could do up a circuit for which we just solder the components together. What would be really fun would be if we could do them one car at at time from back to front as if the conductor was walking through the train and turning them off, as I imagine might be for Era III style. I am guessing today the lights would all turn off at the same time.

I think we will have to hire Darpa to install necessary infrared robotics...


or... maybe just a cheap decoder in each car or lights with addresses that can be programmed to go off in sequence.

Sorry for my smartass Darpa comment Alan.
I already overthink things, but its all part of the challenge.

I do agree, David, that the battery option seems the most elegant solution. I am thinking about how to put in lighting for 60 some odd coaches at one go for starters, so 1000 pounds is probably worth reconsidering and thinking through other homemade options that might actually use an infrared or wifi remote, like the lkea lighting system, where there are pairing options. There has to be another way. I will keep thinking about it as I have time since a long list of other tasks on my todo list awaits me on my workbench. Time to decide on the best option.

.