Steve Johnson    Modelmaker

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Micheline Type 11

To keep up with latest developments, Micheline exchanged the Type 9 for a Type 11 railcar in early 1933. Broadly similar in appearance to the Type 9, the main differences were a coolant header tank on the cab roof and no rear side doors on the passenger compartment. The livery appears to have been dark red. The Type 11 was tested on a few routes, but seemed to spend most of its time on the Leamington-Coventry-Nuneaton route.

This railcar did not spend very long in Great Britain before being exchanged for a Type 22, being returned later in 1933.

Marklin make a HO scale model of the Type 11 in the dark red livery. As with all Marklin products, it uses the 20V ac stud contact system and therefore incompatible with 12V dc 2 rail systems. However, I thought it worth buying a secondhand model to see what could be done. Fortunately, Marklin have used a dc motor with flywheel, so conversion seemed to be reasonably straightforward.

I started by removing the centre 'ski' pick up from the rear bogie. The ac/dc electronic package in the main body was disconnected and removed. This railbus also features interior lighting, so I have retained the circuit board for future use with the DCC decoder. The Marklin wheelsets are of no use on two counts, firstly they are totally uninsulated and will short out on any 2 rail system. Secondly, Marklin use rather deep flanges on their wheels and will ride on the sleepers of Code 75 track. So, the live ac wheelsets were removed.

A new set of 'live axle' 9mm blackened brass bogie wheelsets (i.e. internal bearings, no pin points) were ordered from Markits. These are basically a direct replacement despite the slightly smaller axle diameter. Pick up is via the axles, with the front bogie picking up off one side and the rear bogie off the other. The Marklin pick ups were retained.

The driven axle is a little tricky though as the nylon gear is firmly attached. So what I decided to do was to turn down the ends of the axles to 2mm and produce a shouldered type axle. The Romford wheels were push fitted onto the shoulders and secured with a spot of Loctite.

After a bit of testing on dc, I then fitted the DCC decoder and wired up the lights. Little else has to be done to the body itself.

So this has produced a very unusual vehicle that ran in Great Britain, albeit for a short time.