Hi,
I have always admired this model of the Jouef railmotor because of it's lovely complicated details.

I decided to buy one when it appeared on ebay and see if it could be converted to Marklin running. I first gave it a light oiling and then put it on a 2 rail test track I use. I lasted about 30 seconds before I took it off, the noise was so awful. Rattles, clunks and way too fast at slow speed.
I had a look at the setup and it had four rubber tyres on the driven bogie and there was enough depth on the other bogie for the Marklin shoe to rise up over points. All four of these non driven wheels had track pickups. So far so good.
Internally it was a bit spartan with plastic construction of chassis and top. The windows were all part of the chassis which did give it some strength. ( makes the top a bit hard to get off).
The original open frame motor was clunky when turning but the gear transfer to the wheels was quite well done with a small straight toothed gear on the motor shaft driving a crown bevel gear (from it's underside) to transfer the drive vertically down to the bogie. The bogie used a similar gear/crown gear arrangement to drive both bogie axles. I think a standard Jouef setup. Cop the hair !!

The non driven bogie had no gears on the axles and a recess was available to mount a piece of nylon milled to size and about 5mm thick. This was inserted and attached by small screws from the sides. The centre was drilled and tapped 2mm to mount the slider.

I made the decision then to re- motor it with a Maxon motor and as luck would have it I had a small gear which had the same modulus but one less tooth. This helped to make a slower smoother low speed.

Next came Vero board, decoder ( sits under the board), front and rear red/white change over LEDs ( common anode type), front cabin light and interior roof lighting.


I believe the railmotor has a trailer which I don't have so I mounted a small external light on the tail end for red/white changeover.

This is how it ended up. I love the model, now it runs smoothly and quietly on digital (thank God). A bit too much guts showing through the windows though.


A short video.


Was a bit shaky after that coffee!
Thanks for looking.
Howard.

Hi Howard,
Thanks for showing us the conversion.

I like the Jouef stuff, I have about 6 pieces of 1960s rolling stock which I have adapted with Marklin couplers and wheels.
However, I would not be able to convert any of their locos like you did.
So I am happy to go with French versions of Marklin German locos.

regards
Kimball