I wonder if any of the team have ever tried to convert a Trix Big boy back to being a Marklin 3 rail digital loco. I have been offered a brand new Trix weathered big boy at half the price of a Marklin Big boy & thought I would ask you guys if it is "A" worth the while & "B" at all possible. If any one has performed such a feat I welcome your input.

Hi, check this topic https://www.marklin-user...ault.aspx?g=posts&t=5586

Ria

Biotechee & ria, you beauties, that is just the ticket I Needed. Many thanks for your help.

Sure will Bigdaddynz. I am also considering replacing the decoder with a LokSound MFX one & using its old LokSound V3.0 decoder in my Red Arrow. Not sure if I can up load a new profile to the EX Big boy decoder? Loco could take up to 3 weeks to arrive from Germany but will keep you posted.

I hope I am able to. Of late I have not been able to do a thing with the latest Marklin decoders. The Br 05 (39550) locked me out completely. Most I remove from the loco & then solder the red & brown wire from Programmer to appropriate terminals as I do not have a decoder tester & use that procedure, but so far no go. Bigdaddynz are you located in Auckland?

Dave Banks... dlbanks@dodo.com.au

Either way, get the weathered Trix Big Boy. Conversion is not too tough, and demand for the DC version is good too, always a good re-seller if you decide against it.

The wheels could be a problem, but the Big Boy is a wiiiide turnout loco anyways, and the weight may help too!

Best to get the NEM wheelset version of the Trix BigBoy, if you can, especially if you are running M Track, as I am.

The Trix 22598 Bigboy has the NEM wheelset, and the Trix 22599 Bigboy has the RP25 wheelset. I'm not sure what the 22806 has.

As for the curves, well you are stuck with R1 and R2 if you want to use the Marklin bridge approaches, otherwise you would have to make your own. I don't have a Bigboy myself, but the thing that would worry me most with running one on my layout with R1 and R2 curves is the approach to the bridges. My BR45 comes close to clipping the side of the bridge as it enters the bridge, coming as it does from a R1 curve approach, so I wonder what the Bigboy would do in the same circumstances.

Nothing too much, just make sure you have nice smooth approaches to the long line of bridges, and that you don't have too much of an angle (height wise) going from the last curve to the bridge. The BR45 can go 'light' coming off the bridge otherwise, and go straight on and derail. The BR45 doesn't clip the bridge going into the truss bridge, but there is about 1mm gap between the side of the bridge and the smoke deflector as the loco goes onto the bridge.

I would at least try the Big Boy on the layout, at slow speed, just to see if it goes around. If not, you can always keep it for display.

I used 100mm x 25mm (gauged to 89mm x 19mm) pine for the frame, and 9mm MDF for the base. 9mm may be too flexible, I did it to save weight, but you may want to use 12mm. Everything is glued and screwed, and of course came from Bunnings too....

If you have the room you could fold the track underneath the layout for a hidden storage yard, see the expansion plan I drew. I won't be able to do quite that as there is a bed in the layout room, but I may be able to expand the left hand side at the same width, to fold the track underneath and make some room for a turntable. In fact I have drawn up several expansion plans, from the one you see in my thread, to a much larger one, to the small one I just talked about. All in C track.

Dave, since you will be able to walk around your layout, 6mm MDF should be fine. I can't walk around mine, so have to climb over the top. 9mm MDF does flex a bit when it is walked on, but is OK. I recently had to move my layout into another room, and fortunately I had made the layout in 2 modules, so was able to break it up and move it OK. Carrying weight of both modules was OK, my wife was able to help me move them. My modules are 2.4m x 1.2m (the right hand side, including bridges and ramps), and 2.2m x 1.5m. I made the top end ramp leading on to the bridge from the tunnel removable, and put some connectors in so that wiring between the 2 modules goes through those, and can be unplugged easily enough.

If you have the room, I would fold the track underneath the layout for a hidden storage area. This allows you to run many more trains than the 4 that can be run on the standard layout. It takes about 45-50 seconds for a train to go around, depending on speed, and having another level with an automated storage yard would increase that to maybe 3 minutes, depending on how many trains could be stored.

Hi all,

Sorry for a very late reaction to this topic. Work consumed all the time I had these last two weeks, but I promised Dave to elaborate a bit on my old conversion topic.

I had intended to add some more explication to the rather concise to-do list in my old topic, but as that has been locked (automatically after a year without replies?) I copied the list and expand it here:

So, the final, simple recipe for converting the Trix BB from the Magnum set so it runs on my layout:

1. Remove the loc hood and the tender hood. Do not forget the "hidden" screw in front of the cab!

2a. On the front PCB (see first post), the red lead soldered to the 5th solder point at bottom left is connected to the Trix electric pick-up under the first set of drive wheels. The Trix pick-up gets the "hot" side of the power supply from the wheels, while the Märklin slider gets it from the pukos. This means that -- in our Märklin world -- the red lead is now erroneously connecting the wheels on one side of the loc with the "hot" input of the decoder. So, connect this red lead to mass (we'll use the connector under the second set of drive wheels for "hot" pick-up Märklin style). Relocation of the lead is easily done to the (mass) solder point conveniently located 2nd at top left.

2b. As we'll need to pick up power from the pukos, the Trix pick-up assembly under the second set of drive wheels must be replaced by a Märklin slider. Simply remove the Trix pick-up and clip a Märklin slider in its place.

3. At first I thought the above would suffice. However, in the two-rail world the wheels on one side of any rolling stock are necessarily connected to the "hot" side of the power supply, and this goes for the tender too. Trix made use of this fact by creating an extra "hot" pickup via the wheels and the body of the tender. On the contrary, Märklin used the wheels and body of the tender as extra mass connections. If left in it original state the tender would thus create a shortcut between the sides of the power supply. To solve this, the tender body must be connected to mass again, instead of to the "hot" input of the decoder. Essentially, this means restoring the original (Märklin) set-up of the tender wiring. Disconnecting the grey lead from the solder pad on the pcb disconnects it from the "hot" decoder input, and soldering it to first solder point from bottom at right restores the Märklin connection to mass.

4. Replace hoods.

5. Enjoy! (I did).

I hope this makes the matter somewhat clearer.

Jeroen