It just took me a few minutes to work out that a 215 is actually the 218 on the ESU website . Looks pretty good. Real life Smokey Loco's do occur especially anything out of the ALCO works in the USA , big 4 stroke motors notorious for imitating steam engines when under load & known to start Bush Fires in Australia with their carbon output . Now to check out where in Oz they maybe obtained from . All good ,available from Train Trader at Pymble , just a 3 hr drive from me if they are available.

Cheers Tom in Oz

Truly universal they are. I ran this one on my buddies 2 rail layout from an Uhlenbrock operating system. Only difference is that on DCC there are about ten million extra features. In AC mode you have all the sounds and the smoke and lights. In DCC there are the shunting lights and what seems like variations of the sounds we as ACeists have available. Different station announcement and radio talk and all that. Like I said Jacques, my track has steep inclines and a loco needs to pull its weight. This one came from nowhere and simply by gelling with it a bit, it is now performing on par with a Marklin. Don't know how you feel about that, but I suspect, like me, there is a certain attraction in being able to customize a locomotive perfectly. I haven't had this much fun with a loco in ages.

Do it! You will not be sorry. Wait for that V200 though.... I think it will be spectacular.

Just 1 question, are the AC models 2 or 3 rail before I start looking for the hammer to break open the piggy bank.


Tom in Oz

Hi!
AFAIK truly universal wheel sets are possible if you exclude M track and two-rail track with very low profile.
And ESU do not promise that the locos run on M track.
They promise compatibility with K track and C track (with centre rail slider clipped in) and with common two-rail track system (after removing the centre rail pickup).

@Tom:
"AC" is used as a synonym for the Märklin three-rail system, "DC" is a synonym for the two-rail system.
With digital operation, both track systems use neither pure AC nor pure DC.

ESU have made both the BR 215 (this was the first loco from ESU) and the BR 218 (different body, different trucks, different roof).

Their V200 is on my radar screen. It looks like it will be nice.

Dave, keep in mind out of 1402 items advertised on ebay, johnvandamme has a total of 3 ESU items on offer, one could get the impression this dealer is not interested in ESU (3), Fleischmann (0), Roco (0) or Brawa (0) products.

400 products including Märklin, Trix and minitrix,
98 products from Viessmann
794 products relating to figures, buildings and scenery material

anybody can make up their own mind on the data above

although I don't have any ESU locos myself one can assume, unless the locos are produced under a subsidy scheme from the income of their digital components, they have extended their product range in the last couple of years. they had some troubles earlier on regarding the distance between wheels.
another function is raising the pantographs on electric locos but the pantographs are not connected to any electrical function and if I would buy one I would have to explore how one can get them electrically connected.

Personally I don't care where they are made so long they perform and the product is not suffering from zinkpest or corrosion and the finished product is delivered in a high standard.

John

He usually has more quantities of ESU than that, you might have caught him at a bad time with low stock.

Just a quick question, when the loco stops on the helix, is the sound/smoker on? Next time, when it stops, just switch the smoker off and you will see it pull away cleanly. It is not a traction issue. That smoker takes a lot of power. Now, in the Lokprogrammer, I made the controller influence maximum and both K and I stronger. The loadcontrol of the loco will be less laggy and it will respond quicker. On my CS1 I then set the acceleration delay a little longer. Turn the maximum speed down to 150 or so, and it will be much better. More power to the motor from the decoder, quicker. I am planning to play with it a little more over the weekend. It is NOT traction.... you will hear a humm when it stops. The decoder battling to supply power to the motor with all the features on.

You guys are much smarter than me when it comes to electronic stuff like this. Keep me in the loop, maybe you can get even better settings than what I did.

As for the Van Damme dude.... I don't care really what he says, just open the flap on the box and peek inside. There is absolutely nothing commercial on the market in the same leaque when fit and finish are concerned. I man-handled this 215. On and off the layout, body off to peek inside.... back together again, running it over dirty track and she is on 45 hours now, and running as we speak. Nothing broke off, no mold seams.... no plastic solid steps..... Rather you get photo etchings of steps.... brilliant detail on metal bogeys..... hair fine window surrounds, detailed interior, see-through grids...... and suddenly the other manufacturers' stuff looks dated.

I am sorry, I am sure as hell not going to let even Jean Claude van Damme tell me that this is rubbish. It is the evolution of the hobby. Reason why everybody is low on stock, is that ESU can't supply. I am sitting with 9 on pre-order and nothing happens. They are flying of shelves. I am getting a V60 from Kramm. It is a lot of money for a shunter, and that scares me a little, but the customer will decide in the end if I am going to bring in more.

Long story short, does not matter where it is made, if I put a loco on the track, and run over it with a highly powerful digital camera, and I light a cigarette and go sit down and look at the images on a big monitor.... I want to see a train where it is obvious that someone made an effort. These ESU's scream EFFORT. Paint and finish.... detail.... crisp.

Oh... and Dave.... make the turbo a bit louder hehehehe, sounds mean. Another thing, take that pipet ESU puts in the box and throw it away. Good old fashioned syringe, because even the slightest bit of smoke fluid you might mess, runs down the sides of the smoker and straight onto that front bogey. Which renders one traction wheel useless. I think you mentioned that sometimes the smoker only lets out smoke off one stack.... it is air bubbles that cause that. With the syringe I had no problems.

Oh.... hehehehe, and go play a little with the smoke. You will need a solid ten hours inside that decoder. I haven't had this much fun with a locomotive ever.The result I hope, will be a model customized to exactly what I want.....

That is priceless.

Riekus, Dave, another option you have by increasing the voltage of the motor, have a look at what voltage the loco is programmed to.

John

Ha.... I have got it. Dave, this will work.... First off, for some or other reason, straight out the box, there must be some setting where the locomotive looses a lot of power. So much so, that even with the lokprogrammer on the large scale connections, the locomotive will trip the cab ride when everything is on. On my CS1 I saw the Class 66 pull very close to an amp with everything on. Trust me, I have set EVERYTHING, and with my temper...... I said some hard words. The loco would get to an incline, and a funny hummmmm will make it stop dead. This was blatantly obvious on the test stand as well. No settings seem to have given it enough juice. Like River said, I even set the voltages to max.... hum just gets louder.

At one stage, for some reason, I went to the ESU website to see if I couldn't download another file from a Marklin in there. Which I did, and immediately the train was better. However, the smoker on F3 would not operate unless you assign it. With this setting written down, I reloaded a BR215 v16 file from ESU's website and rewrote the decoder. Guess what..... the hum was gone! I also saw that the settings on the file from the website was completely different to the settings that were loaded on the decoder from the factory.

Back to the layout..... now she could pull 12 coal hoppers up my inclines with just a slight hesitation here and there. At one place it would still slow down to a crawl, but go over. I took a multimeter, and checked my track voltages...... at some points I was down to 12.2V. I checked all my feeder wires, found 2 that were not making contact, fixed that, and the loco performed faultlessly. Lesson one in ESU world..... make sure you have enough juice on the track. This locomotive will tell you very quickly exactly where the low points are.

Right..... so with the track fixed, the train would storm over all my inclines with 28 axles behind it. I started adding wagons.... 18 or so is my limit, then the consist starts pulling the front wagons over. I added bolts and nuts to certain wagons, and added even more wagons. 16, and it would not wheelspin, but just stop..... the hum now barely noticeable. So, I wondered if I could get it to break traction. The 215 only has 2 traction tyres.... how difficult can it be?

Back to the test stand..... Now, if you want to see what an ESU 5 pole can do, put these settings in and be blown away. The motor in the ESU is extremely powerful! It broke traction with 22 wagons behind it. And that is not nice.... trust me. Do not let only two traction tyres fool you. When it does break traction, the whole train shrieks and vibrates..... desperately seeking bite. It is a very good chassis this. Those two traction tyres work at 100% of their capability. As a guideline, I hooked my Marklin MFX BR218 to the same consist.... it also broke traction, just with less drama. It just stopped. In the end, the Marklin could pull exactly the same amount of wagons, with 4 traction tyres. And my Marklin BR218 is the Cine one. 20 hoppers is the limit for both the Marklin and the ESU. My V160 Lollo with 5 pole and MFX managed 15 hoppers. So the ESU is right up there with the best of them traction wise. I am impressed.

I took the class 66 I have on test, and out the box that was even worse. It managed to pull a mere 8 wagons and then break into that dreadful hum. Without touching anything, I just reloaded the ESU class 66 file from their website, and immediately the hum was gone. Funny thing is though, with the class 66 file from their website, you will only have the left hand side headlights working. You need to change the light function in the menu from AUX to front headlight. Weird.

Back to the track.... pulled 20 wagons and slowed down, but did not stop. So, on the test stand I put exactly the same Back EMF settings as I did on the 215...... stand away my friends!!!!!! Take that BigBoy out the way please hehehehe......

Let it be known, that there is only one locomotive in my collection from Marklin, that will pull with an ESU class 66, and that is the V188 double diesel. I have to go clean up still, because with 32 wagons behind it, bolts everywhere to give the wagons extra weight, it pulled the consist over on my one ramp. Without even stopping, it just pulled the NEM coupler on the front wagon clear out the pocket!!!! The motor in the 66 is one helluva torque monster. I am in love.

Right, so here goes.

First off, load the file for the specific ESU you have, straight from their website. Now, do not touch any of the voltages in Driving Characteristics. Leave that as is. Go to motor settings. Use the standard curve and make the minimum speed 3 and the maximum speed 120. Set the regulation reference to 140. K slow to 48, I slow to 0, reference K to 48 and reference I to 32. Controller influence to 255. Switch the rate of back EMF off and set the sampling rate to 8. Go to the smoke unit..... make the fan value maximum and the heat value 89 which relates to just under 70%. Now go see if anything can stop it hehehehe.

If it slows down, you have a track voltage problem right there. Add a feed to the buzzwire. If that is too much hassle, and you just want to test, bent a little single core wire over the centre pukos either side of a track joint. See if it is better. If you drop under 13V it will affect the train.

Now, with that out the way..... the ESU 215 I have is a mule. I want to see what breaks and when. So, it is running close to 24 hours a day. It clocked 389 hours last night at six. It lost a rear buffer somewhere, but that is it. The pick-up shoe makes a distinct line down the middle, I do not know how long that it still going to last. The surface is still smooth, no indentation, it just discolors. Well, the thing still goes, so I will advice on when that packs up. Smoker is set to switch off 40s after it is empty. When I am here, I keep it on and full. When my wife runs it or through the night when I go to bed, it is switched off. Smoker is sitting on 211 hours..... no problems there. The SCNF class 66 is next. It has done about 15 hours this far, and within the next hour it is going to join the 215 in the marathon.

Lastly, as soon as that ESU V200 launches, I am replacing all my Marklins with them. Frankly, I appreciate effort and will pay for it. There is nothing on the market that has given me so much fun as the ESU. There is just something about a fully customized train, to my taste, that cannot be beaten by a train that runs well out the box. It opens a whole new world and I have learned a lot. Thanks ESU.

I totaly agree that Märklin neds to use these "engineering" features in its models. I am very tempted to buy ESU E94 or T16.1 this year.