[cmanvell]

Hi everyone.

Can anyone help me? I have a set of four Minitrix coaches (DR Ep4 Eilzugwagenset, cat. no. 15761) that I purchased from a well know British supplier about 3 years ago. When the set arrived I found that the coaches had not been packed properly and most of the close coupling mechanisms had been damaged in the post. Thinking that parts would be easy to come by, I agreed at accept a 25% discount and put the coaches to one side. Then started a sporadic search for the fine spring wire and the coupling mounting brackets required. Nobody wanted to know apart from one person who offered to help but hasn't been able to follow it through except to say that the bogies are bought in as complete units and I might have to purchase them completes. Of course, there are no part numbers supplied by Trix.

Can anyone help?

Best wishes to all,
Chris.

 

[goedel]

Hello Chris

Sorry that this reply is of no comfort, and I'm sorry to get your hopes up by replying!

I'm affraid Minitrix just don't offer spare parts for non-locomotives with one or two exceptions, as can be seen in the Trix Online shop. The only wagon/coach parts available are couplings and wheelsets as I understand it, and that was in 2005...so who knows what the situation is now. I think that it is just not economical for them to offer spares for "relatively" low cost items. I know that your part of the UK is not the easiest part to encourage people to ship to/from at reasonable cost, but I have found that it is always best to return defective or damaged models for return for replacement or repair as soon as they are received, fortunately it has only happened once to me so far...

I think that your only option will be to try and assemble as many functioning couplers as possible (if you still have the bits, how are they broken? I can't quite see how the KKK mechanism could be damaged without smashing the ends of the coaches irreparably...) and then look for replacements off other coaches on eBay? Perhaps the coaches have been released before, or at least ones with the same underframe and bogies etc. but perhaps without KKK which you could snap up for less cost?

 

[cmanvell]

Thanks Gödel.

What actually happened was that somehow the plastic bits in the boxes that are supposed to hold the coaches in place are missing so the coaches were free to move back and forth, the couplings taking the brunt of the resulting forces. The mechanism has a small pin at part of the moulding and nearly all these were snapped off. The pin and the piece of the spring wire are used to recentre the couplings if they are pushed aside. I might be able to re-create the pins using wire of the same gauge and melting the plastic so that it is gripped in position. The spring wire is much more of a problem as we don't have any engineering works up here.

One suggestion was to look for bastier coaches on German eBay and get the parts from them but I have other problems at the moment (designing the control electrics for my Z scale layout) so haven't tried it yet. I will have to follow that up some time.

All the best,
Chris.

 

[zmil]

Hi Chris

Not sure how fine your spring wire is , but I have replaced coupling centering springs with electric guitar string (0.008 ") is probably as fine as you can get (0.007") may be found if you are lucky

Regards

Zmil

 

[poliss]

You could try the lok-doctor on Ebay. He has several couplings sets there, although not the exact set you are looking for. But they do have the springs. http://stores.ebay.co.uk/lok-doctor From searching it seems the couplings you need are called 'Kupplung: Trix Kinematic'.
As I browse for N Scale German items a lot on Ebay the other thing to look for is 'bastler', not bastier. Bablefish says it means for the 'amateur handicraftsman'.

 

[cmanvell]

Thanks for those tips. lok-doctor certainly has a very wide variety of stock and, while I didn't see what I was looking for during a quick look, I have earmarked a few items for further investigation. The guitar string I hadn't thought of. Cannot get them here but next time I am in Inverness I will be able to get one.

Once again thank you all who have come up with suggestions.

Chris.

 

[Paulo Sousa]

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