Hi Luis,
Wellcome to the Marklin-users.net my Spaniard friend, many of your doubts have been mine before. You´re in the right place to clear them and to make new friends. I´m going to try help you although there are several friends here wiser than me that undoubtly will help you more.
[1)Where to buy. Thanks to this webpage I have found two German shops that seem to have amazing prices, even when you add up the transportation costs, when you compare them to the prices in the two or three Marklin dealers I have visited here in Madrid. So firts question: Do you guys purchase over the net? If this is the case, Would you recommend any specific retailer?]
I´ve experienced purchases in Lokshop and Reimann, (also in Ebay auctions), no problem at all, all of them were formal, clean and (if possible) quick. Something you have to know is that some shops, like Lokshop, charges you shipping and insurance costs. Some others like Reimann, don´t, if you buy for more than 350€. If they have the items stocked, you´ll recieve them within 4 to 7 days with standard delivery, less time with premium delivery. A very interesting advice is that you should make some calls to Barcelona ("Gotthard Trens" for instance), you´ll be surprised by prices, they are quite good, in many cases as in Germany. Email me and I´ll give you addresses, phone numbers and contact persons.
[)Turnouts and lights. Any opinion against investing in motoring and digitalizing the turnouts? I think I have read somewhere here that it is a waste of money to digitalize turnouts when you also plan to use traffic lights (as is my case), so I would like to hear your point of view. As to the lights themselves, I have not been able to understand how they work (even in the Marklin manual that I downloaded) but it seems that if you install them properly the trains will stop when they go red. Do they need special tracks or you achieve the desired "stop/go" effect by simply the correct wiring and connections? Any manual on signals for dummies you may be aware of? Just for your information my plan is to add around 12 turnouts and 4 traffic lights.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I´m making all turnouts work digital, if you plan to buy Intellibox and use memory functions, this would help to stablish itineraies. Lights will play just the way you say with proper decoders and relays. Take a glance on "Digital corner" and "Operation related" in this site. If you´re going digital, there´s no way back, you´ll go for more, so try to make some previsions.
[All of you here seem to be mad about a device called Intellibox, which seem to include all the functions of various Marklin components at the same time (if I understand correctly, the Control Unit, the Keyboard, the 80f control and the Interface). I obviously have the Control Unit, so would you still recommend me to go for the IB? If yes, is it easy to install for newcomers to this amazing world? And what should I do with my Control unit? Can I control a third locomotive with it? Can I power one of the circuits with it? This is probably one of the biggest doubts I have.]
I´ve got one Intellibox Control Unit, that has all those features you´ve written down, but you can control many more than 3 locos at the time, up to 80 digital addresses in Märklin-Motorola format and to 9999 addresses in DCC format. I bought an Intellibox Switch too, that has Keyboard functions (more than Märklin Keyboard) and Memory functions. I´ve got a Power 3 too, that is the Intellibox booster. My layout is divided in two circuits, one fed from the Intellibox (IB) (This one has a trafo), and the other one fed by the Power 3 booster (with another trafo). Your Control Unit is fully compatible with IB, you can use it as Slave of IB, for instance. Or you may sell it in Ebay (they are easily sold)
4)Will I need an additional transformer? Any other comments you may consider of assistance?
You´ll need another trafo if you have two circuits, for the booster, I think you can use your Control Unit as booster, but I´m not sure, I´m sure many friends here will help in this. What I´m sure is that you can use a cheap Märklin Delta control as Booster (the booster replays Control unit orders, and feeds a second circuit). I´ve got two Titan Trafos, powerful, not expensive, for my layout. Kevin recomended them and it was a wise advise.
Take it easy, you´ll reach where you want in the hobby, cause there are lots of helping hands here.
PS/ Do you know "Lista de Correo de Trenes Märklin" (LCTM), email me and I´ll give you details.
Best regards, enjoy
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Juan Carlos
