Hello Manuel,

Is the "CCS 800" lettering on the cab painted silver or gold or something else? According to your description, I think it is a version 7.

Paul

Jacques,

I think your theory might be correct about the pantographs, but if they were supposed to be copper pantographs, then would the CCS800 in that version have the tongue-type pickup shoe "Bogenschleifer" from 1951-1953. In my opinion, it is much more difficult to replace a pickup shoe than a pantograph so I would judge the version based on the pickup shoes more than the pantographs. Although the transition from the solid rails to the studded rails might have required the owner to upgrade pickup shoes....it is really hard to say without a photo!

My guess is still Version 6/7.

Best regards,

Paul

Thanks for the replies....
Sorry for not adding the photos, but I can add that the CCS800 is blank (no paint), and it is dark green, not olive.
Besides the intriguing screw and nut on the pantographs, and since I read somewhere that the BK4.2 couplings were possible up to 56, this is probably a version of that year, it is also compatible with the pick up shoes. And also it seems that the small type 6 pantographs were mounted with green plastic insulators after 55?
When I un-mounted the pantographs to clean them, the plastic insulators were glued to the paint, and I am convinced that they were never removed before. Is this some original mounting from the early times of this type of pantographs, later changed for the regular one?
So... ha sanyone else seem such a way of mounting this pantographs?
Regards,
Manuel

Ola Manuel!
Never did I see the pantographs mounted like that on a ccs 800, but does it matter??
My take on this is simple: users do things to their loks in good faith, not always thinking of preserving "originality" but rather enhancing functionality (and the CC was a real pain to work on!!!)
So there is probably no point trying to solve a riddle..
The insulators are glued?
So what does it prove??
It was never a factory privilege to do so!
Why would'nt an intelligent private person think of simplifying his life saying: "this will work better"?
It may even never have been glued: the original paint aging can produce exactly the same effect...
I have seen time and again on many locos in the 60 odd years I have worked on Märklin engines!
If the owner decided it was better to do that, and simplify his life with subsequent pantograph changes,more power to him!
The key is that he did it properly without unrepearably butchering the loco!
Without at least a few pics we won't be able to tell you what really happened...but is it important?
The engine is not disfigured, is it?
I think the color of the marking (gold, silver, etc) like Paul suggests is a much more telling indicator.
And if you'd like to do so , after we determine exactly which year your loc is from, there is no obstacle to bring it back to 100% original-like.
Relax, we are here to help!

Hi Manuel
If you asked me, that is the way I would have mounted the pantographs anyway on any Märklin locos from that era!
Changing anything like brushes, bulbs, inversion relays, pantographs etc. was such a pain in those days( too many screws, too many loose wires!!) that any chance to simplify would have been welcome.
In fact in my early days with Märklin (early 1950's) it was always dreadful to have anything done!
I had to bring my (only) loco to the dealer, and it would usually consume all my weekly allowance, just to change a bulb!
That is why I decided to learn to do it myself...and for my friends at school who were in the same predicament.
After I was able to fix an RE 800 that the dealer had given up on, I knew I had something going for me!
This is how I started collecting Märklin: when my friends at school got tired of playing with their trains, and after I had repaired them too many times to their taste, they ended up selling them to me...!
There is, so far, no Marklin lok from that era that cannot be repaired!
Cheers