As I am still in the midst of the biggest regauging project I have ever taken on things with the otherwise superb Lionheart  Lynton & Barnstaple models the issues arising seem a bit relentless.

The latest – the carriage roofs don’t fit properly in the DCC fitted coaches.

This only affects the ones sold as DCC controlled lights by Dapol/Lionheart. The DC ones are fine.

Naturally, Dapol have used their own Imperium Function decoder and the problem is its a bit too fat. It fits between the lighting strip and the roof and forces the lighting strip to bend down which in turn stops the roof sitting down.

Dapol Decoder

Measuring the Dapol decoder we find its 3.43mm thick whilst the gap between the lighting strip and the roof is 2.5mm tops.

Having investigated this I can offer you two solutions depending on whether you have already bought the coaches or are about to.

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Already got the coaches?

The ceiling/lighting strip has tabs on the end that are suppose to locate in these slots in the coach end moulding. They stop the lighting strip going lower which means the roof is forced up and can’t clip home.

Clearly these notches stop the lighting bar sagging but it seems pretty rigid so my solution for an already DCC coach is to trim the tabs off the lighting strip allowing it to go a bit lower.

My heart was a bit in my mouth doing this as the lighting strip is PCB with circuit pathways in it but I couldn’t see any reason they might go right to the ends. There was only one way to find out so I sacrificed one of my coaches so you don’t have to.

I cut the tabs off with a fine bladed piercing saw and then cleaned it up with a fine file.

With that done I refitted the decoder, screwed the lighting strip back in and tried the roof on the coach. The roof seated fully and you can’t tell looking through the windows that the ceiling is any lower. Its certainly less obtrusive than a roof that doesn’t fit!

Still to buy the coaches?

As I said before the DC lit versions are fine but if you want DCC control so you can turn the lights on and off and control the dimming of them but haven’t bought them yet then I have a solution.

First buy the DC version of your coach. Then buy a ZIMO MX689 function decoder. I can sell you both (and install it if you wish)

The ZIMO decoder is much thinner and fits in the N18 socket without deflecting the lighting panel.

The roof just clips back on without any problem now.

BONUS – there is a six quid saving doing it this way.

One thing that having the roof off the coaches does reveal is that we really need a cheap source of rent a crowd.