Can you DCC Trix TTR locos?

[Forum-1211528]

Trix TTR was a totally incompatable model railway system thats incompatable with anything really modern so can you DCC TTR locos or is that impossable?

[96RAF]

Nothing is impossible Colin but is it necessary.

[Phil_Spiegel.]

This partly depends on WHICH PERIOD of Trix Twin you are concerned with: There was ac, and then, there was DC.

DC Trix Twin locos included their 3.8mm scale Westerns and other UK production:   They had insulated axles, just like a standard 2-rail model, but they ALSO had a central shoe pickup - so power collection was from centre and ONE side - depending on which way the loco was facing.   This allowed 2 trains (hence Trix Twin) to be independantly controlled (in analogue, with 2 controllers) on a single length of track!   

The models convert to standard 2-rail simply by removing the central pickup, and replacing it with pickup-contacts to the insulated set of wheels.  From that point, conversion to 2-rail NMRA 'dcc' is fairly standard - as long as the decoder is chosen to have sufficient current for the elderly / less efficient motors of those days.

At least one continental manufactuer (ESU) has sensibly adopted the same construction approach to make their models compatible with both the 3 rail and 2 rail markets ! - with the dealer only having to stock a single version !

Effectively the model is switched between 3-rail or 2-rail mode by removing the central shoe.  No electrical conversion is necessary because the 'ac'/3 rail compatibility is for DIGITAL 3-rail ie Mfx - and many continental makes of decoder are already multi-protocol including the Marklin protocols, as this is a large proportion of the Continental market (at least in Germany and Sweden)  So, by selling a top range model with sound and digital control already onboard, the dealer also has the benefit of only needing 1/3 the stock !!   (not analogue 2 rail, NMRA 2rail dcc and 3-rail Mfx/Motorola )

(In the past, there have also been different 'wheel standards' used - particularly in flange depth.  Trix EXPRESS models have quite coarse wheels - and will bump anlong on Peco Code 75 track). Trix Twin were finer, as I recall.

The OLD TRIX TWIN AC models also probably had metal bodied locos - and metal bodied locos present another possible problem when converting to Digital ( ie multiple occupancy of a piece of always-live track )   FIRST task woud be to replace any METAL COUPLING with an insulated one, and 2nd task to try and insulate the BODY from either rail - otherwise if 2 locos touched, it might be a short circuit. Notice how UK models rapidly changed to plastic couplers when Zero-1 was introduced !!