Back when I showed this pic:

I mentioned that I was thinking of adding lights to the coach. Last week I ordered a pack of DCC Concepts wheelsets, which cleverly incorporate pickup springs as part of the design. There are twelve wheels in the pack so enough for three coaches, and I thought that the auto-coach would be a good starting point, since I had a good idea of its construction.

Swapping the wheelsets is a doddle, or it would be if you didn't already have the extra brake gear underneath the auto-coach, added as part of the Dart Castings detailing project. I had to break and reattach (for the second time) the main control rod which runs the length of the coach. The wheels went into the bogies easily, and I didn't bother adding bearings.

Here's a close-up of one of the two bogies. I glued PCB pads to the bogie mouldings, then soldered one of the pickup springs from each wheelset to the pad. The wheels are insulated on one side, so you only get pickup from one rail, but for a coach that isn't a problem as you just swap the orientation for the other bogie.

I ran insulated wire from the pickup pad to the interior of the coach. While I had the brake rod off, I added some heat-shrink insulation to the areas that might come in contact with the wheels or springs, to eliminate the possibility of a short circuit.

Here's a shot of the whole length of the underside:

Adding these pickups was a straightforward job and the DCC Concepts wheels, while being fine in profile, seem to work well.

In the interior of the coach, I brought the pickup wires up through the luggage/guard's compartment at the loco end of the auto-coach:

Having gained the extra pickups, I also wanted them to be able to supply power to the 14XX, so I also added wires running back out of the coach toward the engine. Two leads also go to the detachable roof, where I fixed an LED lighting strip. I'd bought this strip in the Netherlands for another project some years ago, and unfortunately I don't remember the name of the manufacturer, but I gather that similar products are still available - if anyone can point me to the make of this unit, though, I'd be grateful. I'd cut it slightly down in length for the other project, but it was still suitable for the auto-coach.

Unlike most coach models I've worked with, the Airfix auto-coach has a detachable roof. This is great for access to the interior, but after adding lights there's a likelihood of some light "spilling" through the fine gap between the roof and the main carriage moulding. This was compounded on mine as I'd removed the original glazing, meaning that the clips on the roof are only holding the roof in place by friction against the body sides. One solution would be to glue the roof in place but for now, I added black paper masking strips along the inside edge of the roof, and that seems to have done the trick.

Adding DCC to the engine was simpler than I'd assumed. Even though the 14xx is small, there's a surprising amount of room in the cab. I was able to hard wire in a Hornby decoder, and then add the additional pickup connections from the coach. Although my 14xx always ran well, it's now able to run with none of its own wheels touching the track, so I think stalling should be a thing of the past.

I could have added a switch to turn off the coach lighting, but in practical terms, you can't really tell it's on when running under normal, daylight conditions, so I didn't think it was worth the bother. Under dusk or night lighting, though, the yellow LEDs give off a nice cosy feel:

Next up will be a pair of B-set coaches but first I need to find a suitable supplier for the interior lighting strip - any recommendations?