Hello Gentlemen,

I hope everyone's Christmas and New Year went well. I recently received my Passenger Car set 43929 from my friendly Marklin Dealer! I love these cars!

Now the quest for the lighting of the cars is in order. After looking through the pamphlet that came with the cars Marklin is recommending the 73400 Light Kit (2 per car) and the 73405 pickup shoe and the 72020 current conducting couplers. Well I purchased the Light Kits and the 72020 but have not received the pickup shoe yet. Trying to make an extra pickup shoe work (from leftover stuff)long or medium it does not seem to want to clear the axles. So I am just guessing that the 205229 offset shoe would be a better choice?

The light kit is kind of flimsy and does not seem to go all the length of the car. So I might be using some white SMD lights I purchased from Jorns instead.

Has anyone else put lights in this car set yet? It just seems way too much of a hassle to buy 3 different sets of stuff from Marklin to put lights in the cars. From putting in light kits into my other passenger cars, the Marklin kit for that particular set included everything. Kind of getting on the ridiculous side if you ask me.

Bob R

I don't have the one I used with me but I think it is the same part number as the one I used. If it is the light bar expands to fit the car.

Thanks for the nice greetings and my congratulations! Yes, I love these cars as well.



Correct; You'll need for each car two sets #73400 (which is a total of 8 for this complete car set). The other parts are dependent whether you want to equip only one or all cars with a pickup shoe.

- all cars with pickup shoe: you need 3x #73406 and 1x #73405 (for the dining car).
- only one car with pickup shoe: you need either 1x #73405 or #73406 and 3x #72020. Since the shoe of #73406 is new, you might have some shoes left over which are suitable for the dining car.



Each set has a length of approx. 105mm; i.e. 210mm/car. This is sufficent to light all compartments, but not the toilets which have white painted screens anyways. Nevertheless, you can still easily cut a LED pcb in half and by that add another three LED's.



Yes, I did. No problems at all except that my dealer doesn't yet have as many electric couplings as I would need - so I'm running some of my trains with the fixed electric connectors, like the Rheingold train. Sometimes more "hassle" to put this on the tracks than mounting the LED lights!

Very easy to xplain: the new lighting is used for different types and lengths of cars (for example as well the Langenschwalbacher, which just need 1x #73400). Thus Märklin decided to use this "kit system", similar to what we use to know from C-track switches.

From a price perspective, there is no real difference between the new parts and the older "car specific" sets. Technically, the LED lighting which has been applied here finally too surely has a big advantage.

Another one is that the "system" is designed especially for Märklin cars, opposed to most if not all other LED lighting on the market today; thus still very easy to install.

Until now the Märklin LED lights are yellow due to the era of cars which they are currently recommended (II/III)- and surely for cost reasons. I'm confident that white ones will show up sooner or later as well, especially with the forthcoming era IV cars with that scale length (see 2007 news). Whether someone wants to install yellow or white LED's into those cars is IMHO a matter of personal taste.

Hi BobR - I also have the 43929 set and will install interior lighting. On the M*.de site the description of the set includes the following -

43929 Express Train Passenger Car Set.

"they are ready for installation of interior lighting." and "A lighting kit will be available later."

If this means a kit tailored to these beautiful wagons, I would prefer to wait. Perhaps Lutz can find out more about this reference.

Hi Soren,

You can ignore that remark.

the "later available" is just the new one we're talking about here; i.e. #73400. The phrase was only included because it was not yet ready at the publication date of the car set.