Hello friends of the old time Märklin products,
I have uploaded a couple of pictures and additional information on the topic of the 1950ies first Märklin stud contact tracks, the model track series 3900 (1953 until 1957) here:
Märklin ModellgleiseHave fun,
and many regards,
Hans
I edited my posting because for some reason I found that the original link did not work anymore. I have no idea what kind of mistake I had made there ....
The Marklin Model tracks 3900 and 3800 came out in 1953 and were the first stud tracks (Pukos - Punktkontakte) from Märklin. By 1957, the tracks had disappeared from the catalogue, they had been replaced by the Märklin m-track which you all know, series 5100.
There are two different kinds of power joints: one is copper, slightly reddish, the other one looks silverish and is broader.
It is pretty interesting to see that Märklin used a whole array of different labels during this relatively short period. Here you can see level crossings 3900 K with three different labels.
Another glance at the boxes and their different labels.
Now every now and then a model track can be found on Ebay. Sometimes it is hard to find out whether it is indeed a modeltrack or somebody just cleverly photographed 5200 curves, especially with the typically blurred and dark Ebay photos.
To give you all a little help, here is a picture of the main kinds of track.
To the left there is the standard curve 3900, which actually is the LARGER of the two radii. 3900 A 1/1 alongside 3900 A 1/2 and 3900 A 1/4. A 3900 A 1/1 curve has 32 sleepers which of course means that the half track has 16 and the quarter track has 8.
Next to it you can see the parallel inner curve 3800 A 1/1 and 3800 A 1/2. There was no quarter length available. A 3800 A 1/1 has 30 sleepers and the half track 3800 A 1/2 has 15.
Then there is an assortment of straight track. Full length were called 3900 D 1/1. Accordingly the smaller types are called 3900 D 1/2, 3900 D 1/4 and 3900 D 1/8. And the pretty important extra track piece 3900 D 1/7. Sleepers: full length has 32, and accordingly the others have 16, 8 and 4. The 3900 D 1/7 has 5 sleepers, and I apologize to having messed up the picture as I just found out ... It is the top one of the straight small pieces, it should indeed have 5 sleepers. I will take another photograph.
Next to the straight half track is another one of approximately the same length: this is the complementary track 3900 DE which is 3 mm longer then the normal half track. It is needed for any turn outs included in the layout. The three millimeters are gained with a slight distance between the two centre sleepers, I hope you can see it.
quote:Originally posted by Bigdaddynz
I can smell those boxes from here Hans! Fantastic!
Are you going to make up a layout from these items?
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Cave Director, Webmaster extraordinare, Southern Hemisphere Moderator, EUEB (Ex unemployed Bum), Chief Cave TWIT
Yes I will !! It has grown into a rather good amount of track given the fact that horrendous prices are being paid on Ebay (ten pieces of track for 85 Euro the other day) and I do not need much more really. maybe a little, one always needs a little more, don't we? And one can always use normal M-track anyway alogside it.
Turn outs here. "Model switches 3900 MW", that's how they were introduced by Märklin.
A view towards several possible usages of the turn outs. By using different small pieces like the 3900 ZD, ZR or ZL parts you can reach different distances between parallel tracks.
Distances here: 50 mm, 65 mm, and 85 mm. Remember that normal M-track 5100 series has a standard distance of 77.4 mm between parallel tracks, so a much narrower roadbed can be created here (Distances measured as always between the two center stud lines, which leads to a clearance between tracks of around 1 cm in the narrowest case).
What can be seen here is the standard switch combination of 5117 with two standard 5106 pieces as everybody knows them (above). Distance from center stud to center stud is 96.4 mm and clearance is 58.0 mm.
Below you see the model track switch combination with two turn outs and, easily to discover, the complementary track pieces 3900 DE. Clearance, as told before, 10 mm, distance between the studs 50 mm.
Here is a fine example that shows that the old myth that the Modellgleise 3900 were a failure because of too much need of space back in the restricted times of the 1950ies might be just a nice invention. Indeed you need LESS space here ...
Edited by user 10 August 2014 00:44:42(UTC)
| Reason: The old link did not work anymore.
