Welcome to Mark’s Trains – a renowned specialist DCC conversion service.
We offer a friendly and reliable bespoke DCC and Sound conversion service in all scales, catering for all budgets with quick turnarounds. We also provide servicing and repairs including electrical repairs, cab and interior detailing, directional and prototypical lighting installations, weathering, kit building, and resprays.
Mark’s Trains stock a range of digital model railway equipment to cover all budgets. The range of products and accessories we sell have been selected through experience and specifically on the basis of quality at all levels of the market. We are stockists of Digikeijs, ESU, Lenz, Rapid & Zimo. The full range can be seen in our shop section.
Services
DCC Conversions
Digital Command and Control (DCC) brings a whole new level to the control of trains on a layout, including better low speed running and realistic operation. Many trains can share the same section of track and each train can be controlled separately in any direction and speed. Lights stay illuminated at a constant brightness even when the train is sat idle, and can be controlled individually.
Sound Conversions
DCC Sound provides an ultimate level of realism to the control of trains on a layout, including better low speed running and realistic operation with real sounds. Sounds are independently controlled and callable via mapped function keys on a DCC controller. Sounds generally include engine start & shutdown, engine running sounds, various horns/whistles, among many others.
Servicing and Repairs
Servicing helps to improve the running performance, reliability and longevity of your models. Poor maintenance can lead to many problems over time. Periodic light lubrication is recommended for almost every model, however over long periods, problems start to occur such as poor reliability and performance due to the build up of dirt attracted by oil, poor electrical conductivity of pick-ups, and split gears.
Cab & Interior Detailing
Cab and interior detailing can add a further element of realism to your models and can be undertaken as part of a conversion or on it’s own. Cab lighting can be installed with train crew on diesel locomotives and multiple units, and steam locomotives can be fitted with a flickering firebox with driver and second-man/fireman. Interior lighting and the placement of passengers…
Directional & Prototypical Lighting
With earlier generation models not having working directional lights, DCC conversion may initially be thought of as a wasted exercise. However, Mark’s Trains can provide a bespoke service to install directional lighting to your prized stock, giving them a new lease of life in the digital world once converted to DCC.
Kit Building
Mark’s Trains now offers a kit building service in all scales. Mark has many years of kit building experience whether it be plastic or brass. This kit building service was not previously advertised owing to capacity issues, however with a new larger workshop work capacity has now greatly increased and so we are able to offer this as a service to our customers.
Spray Painting & Resprays
Mark’s Trains is now in a position to provide a professional spray painting and respray service since we have moved over to our new larger workshop facility at the end of summer 2018. This has allowed a significant increase in the work capacity that we are able to contend with.
Weathering
If you are looking for an element of extra realism in your models then it is worthwhile considering some weathering. Unless a mainline locomotive is ex-works or lovingly cared for, in reality it wouldn’t appear in a pristine condition and neither should your model when you take it out of the box. At a minimum it would have some roof and frame dirt and perhaps some bodyside grime.
Current Soundscape with RealDrive sound projects
Current projects are as follows;
British Diesel: Class 3 / 7 / 17 / 20 / 24 / 25 / 33 / 37 / 40 / 43 / 47 / 55 / 57 / 73 / 101 / 105 / 107 / 108 / 121 / 122 / 128 / Derby DMU / AC Railbus
British Steam: 3MT / 4MT / 5MT / 4F / 4P / 52xx / 57xx / Castle Class / 3F Jinty / Hall Class / Princess Coronation / Royal Scot / Stanier 8F
New Products
-
Layout & Accessory wire – Violet
£4.00 -
Layout & Accessory wire – Black
£4.00 -
Layout & Accessory wire – Red
£4.00 -
Layout & Accessory wire – Grey
£4.00 -
Layout & Accessory wire – Orange
£4.00 -
Layout & Accessory wire – Yellow
£4.00 -
Layout & Accessory wire – Pink
£4.00 -
Layout & Accessory wire – Green
£4.00 -
Layout & Accessory wire – Blue
£4.00 -
Track bus wire – Black
£6.00 -
Track bus wire – Red
£6.00 -
Track bus dropper wire – Red
£5.00 -
Track bus dropper wire – Black
£5.00 -
Layout & Accessory wire – White
£4.00 -
Mark’s Trains Black Tack adhesive – 1m strip
£4.65 -
Antex 2.3mm chisel soldering bit for XS25W
£5.40 -
Antex 1mm chisel soldering bit for XS25W
£5.40 -
Antex 0.5mm conical soldering bit for XS25W
£5.40 -
Hanging Hook For Antex XS25W Soldering Iron
£0.95 -
Antex XS25W soldering iron 230V with silicon cable
£34.99
Mark’s Trains Facebook feed
Whilst we prepare to reopen the workshop (and spray booth) at the beginning of next week, we had a look back at some respray work which we completed before all this madness took hold of the world. This respray was completed for a customer who wanted his Dapol OO scale Western to look exactly like the limited edition version of 'Western Enterprise'. Have a look at the full gallery here;
www.marks-trains.co.uk/project/dapol-western-enterprise-respray/
Here's a Lima Class 37 respray I completed for a customer back in December 2019. Follow the link below to view more photos of this stunning respray. I'm really happy with the results here. The satin gloss varnish really makes the colours pop out! What do you all think?
www.marks-trains.co.uk/project/class-37-respray/
May 2020 News - mailchi.mp/8ab4d6dd1dfa/may-2020-news
mailchi.mp
Are you having to isolate yourself or follow the government guidance to shield? If so we can help to arrange a door to door courier service with one of our couriers - UPS. They have been doing a lot of work for us recently and can provide a quicker service than Royal Mail at the moment, which is qui...Who will be joining in with the stay at home street party, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day? I remember the 50th anniversary, that certainly shows my age!
The current COVID-19 situation means that the majority of planned events and celebrations for this weekend 8th – 10th May 2020 have been cancelled or postponed. However it is for the greater good that the public should be kept safe and healthy during these extraordinary times.
That said, you could take part in your own celebrations quite safely from your own home. For example, you could spend some time with your children and make some fantastic bunting to place around your garden fence or display in one of your windows facing the street. Or perhaps to drape over your model railway layout, you could even go as far as putting on your own special train service…
Follow the link below to read more.
I would like to remind our customers that we are still very much open for business with a few operational changes; our workshop shed is currently closed which means any spray painting or weathering work has been put on a temporary hold during the lockdown.
All other work such as DCC and Sound conversions, kit building and mail order from our website are still operating as normal.
Mark is working out of the new office and has strict social distancing measures in place, so we are not currently accepting personal visitors while we face this unusual and difficult situation.
Rest assured, as soon as things get back to normal we will resume our normal service and open our doors again.
In the mean time if anyone would like to post their videos and photos of their layouts, either during construction or operating, please feel free to post on this page. Let’s share some inspiration and kill some time.
Remember, stay safe people!
From the team at Mark’s Trains 😷