Yes, I picked my new train up today.

Good things, bad things:

Bad:

1 - interior detail of the carriages is not worthy of that name. It's ridiculous.

2 - Lok's windows are blanked. Worse, they are painted violett, instead of at least black. Evidently, no cab interior is depicted;

3 - carriages have moveable skirts to clear the bogies;

4 - no interior lighting;

5 - long distance light is just a LED, no brighter than the headlights;

6 -With a Mobstat, the lok seems to jumpstart, pretty much as the BR05 Insider does;

7 - Warning in the Manual, stating that if one sets the Volume higher than 70% (factory setting), the decoder blows up. This is ridiculous. Sounds like a beta software manual warning;

8 - Only one geared axle.

Good:

1 - No Alzheimer noted (this is actually the first mfx lok I've seen with this handy characteristic);

2 - Very good external finish overall;

3 - Usual M good running characteristics, except for 6 above.

4 - I love it.

Couldn't test it in slopes, to check if it does what the BR05 does.

Another mixed feelings M product.....

Luis

Not so good[xx(]

Hmmm, maybe they have been reading our pages here about all the sound decoders that blow up because of sound volume ?

If you set the sound to a higher level than 70%, which is factory setting, this would blow up the decoder ?

Strange,,,

Why not let this volume be the max volum then, so Märklin don't have to change all those decoders and also would get more happy customers,,, Strange policy,,,

Very good, sounds pretty realistic, like all other Loksound3/Loksoundmfx based decoder we have been getting recently.

Luis

Just make those violet windows visible for those who wonder what it looks like (yeah, got it today too...).

Even black had been better for the windows...

It seems to have the same chassis as the BR05, with those linked front & rear boggies to keep them inside the skirts...

One thing that puzzled me was the look of the slider... Is this some kind of Märklin "silent" slider? Looks quite fragile to me... Luis, what is your opinion on this one?




I must say that I think this set is way overpriced, especially with the plastic coaches with plastic boggies... They look nice though... The print quality on the loco, I then mean the black signs on the side with silver letters, is not as sharp as expected... Also the end boggie wheel arrangement is offset too much compared to the original loco due to the fact that the driver wheels are a tad to small or too tightly spaced.

This is a model for the die-hard Era II M fanatics, but not for those who want perfection in detail. You cannot hide everything under a skirt...

Just to explain what I was talking about regarding wheel arrangement...

The M loco compared to the drawing on dlok.de for BR61.001:



But since I am one of those die-hard Era II fans who have been waiting many years for this loco, I like it anyway - even if I am grumbling a bit... Kind of looks like something Lima have produced. However, the body is all metal and looks nice - I am just a bit annoyed by the way the undercarriage is built...

Agree, Juhan. It looks like my Rivarossi one I converted to Lopi with a 7164 slider. The result is completely useless in M track, derails everywhere.

Looking at the outline, it seems as if M has copied the wrong shape of the LimaR/ivarossi, with a way too plunging short nose.

I have yet to check one against the other, as soon as I find the Riva, in the mids of my just completed house move boxes.

As to the slider, there are two versions, as you have seen. The one installed is for K and C, the one extra, taped to the styrofoam is for M track.

As for the shape, to tell you the truth, I can't make much out of it. It reminds me of the one my Brawa S2/6 has. But Brawa had a good reason to do it, it is for clearance reasons (its thinness, I mean). It doesn't look like the case of this BR61, since there's plenty of room for a standard one.

The result is pretty silent, though, so maybe we're looking at the onset of a new slider era.

BTW, in that respect, nothing beats the Roco silent slider. I've recently purchased 20 of them to convert my M loks.....

Luis

clearly cutting costs in production/engineering (taking shortcuts I mean, not necessarily labor force reductions) instead of cutting back what is probably a bloated and over paid upper-management.

rebel against this movement to degrade product quality - don't buy this set, or refuse to buy if you did send in your insider certificate. If you did get one, be sure to tell marklin your thoughts. I had planned to buy one (I sold my Lima one on ebay last spring - should have kept it after all). maybe the price will then drop commensurate with the lowered quality of the offering. at that point I might scoop one up, and I would mill out the windows and kitbash the thing to put some semblance of a cab in, I don't think it woudl be possible to fix the trailin truck. I don't have an issue with the moving wheel skirts, otherwise you would need a huge radius to run it. It should have come with lighted interiors however. Metal coach bodies would have been nice, but that is long gone.
the frame/undercarriage is probably just a recycled br 78, which is why the trailing truck is too far forward.

Does the M-track slider look like the traditional slider - Any chance of a photo of the M-track slider?

Thanks

Hello,

not every critisism of Märklin is always justified. In fact, your point is actually something positive regarding prototype similarity !!!

Because in real life the boiler from BR 41 was taken from BR 03 ... which only shows that they are pretty clever at Märklin sometimes ...

Regards,

Hans

Thank you for that very interesting comparison, Webmaster Juhan.

My questions:

Laalves said: "Looking at the outline, it seems as if M has copied the wrong shape of the Lima/Rivarossi, with a way too plunging short nose." The "nose" seems indeed pulled downwards too much when looking at your photo ... Is that so ??

And: what about the windows at the entrance door on the side ?? Those look way too small compared to the drawing ??

I wonder why these details are so hard to realize ??

Thank you,

Hans