Few months ago I saw some shops advertised Fleischmann 2012 new items, and one of it caught my eyes; #437601 - BR 103.1 which was touted as "125th Anniversary of Fleischmann" item, with list price of 125 euro (DC, 2-rail, without decoder). So I thought; lets try how good the Fleischmann now, and I ordered one.



The locomotive is plastic body with metal chassis. Externally it is as detailed as today's modern MRR items, although most of the details were moulded, probably to save cost, e.g.: the hand-rails are moulded, instead of separately attached, even the lower hand-rails below cab's door were not even painted at all. The wind-screen wipers are silver colored, instead of black as on the prototype. And the lights are still using bulb instead of LEDs.
Upon disassembling the body, I started to feel that the build-quality and design is still not in par with Marklin. It is of cheaper design. For example: the screw go directly into plastic thread, unlike Marklin which put metal thread into the plastic to hold the screw (see photo below).



Fleischmann designed this locomotive to sit on two plastic bogies to hold the weight of its body. Whenever the locomotive make a turn, the plastic will slide against a recess on the metal chassis (photo below).


I do not know how long the plastic will last if the locomotive run on a layout, but as far as I know, Marklin always use metal to hold the weight of locomotive's body (although Marklin also use plastic on the bogies, but it has metal structure behind which hold the weight of the body). And I also notice that Marklin use mainly metal gears to transfer power from the motor to the wheels, but this Fleischmann locomotive mainly use plastic gears.
(Well, as this is a Marklin forum, therefore I hope it is appropriate to compare against Marklin).

This locomotive does not come with digital decoder, but equipped with 6-pin connector (NEM 651). So I decided to install a Marklin 60901 decoder since I have a few of them unused (photo below).


There is hardly any space to install a slider under the bogie, so I configured it to take the power thru catenary. The decoder installation was completed without any glitch, and the locomotive is able to run on AC 3-rail layout, passing R1 curves and switches (K and C tracks) smoothly without any problem with its DC-wheel. The motor (and gear) is not silent, but not too noisy as well, roughly similar to Marklin's Re 460 with high-efficiency motor.
But this locomotive is not suitable to my layout, because I use thin wire (SWG #30) as catenary, while the pantograph of this Fleischmann BR 103 is too stiff, exerting too much upward force into the wire causing it to bend and soon the pantograph will stuck into the pole. This problem may not be applicable to those using thicker wire.

Marklin BR 103.1 (#37577) has a list price of 299 euro, more than double of Fleischmann's BR 103.1, but the Marklin is metal-body, include decoder with sound, LEDs, and better build-quality. The Fleischmann #437601 is just a no-frill low cost alternative.

Photo of the cab section. The bogie is nicely detailed, although a bit marred by the shiny collector plate between the second and third axle.


The roof of the locomotive:


Head view of the locomotive, note the silver-colored wipers and the moulded handle. The wind-screen and windows are tinted, a bit too dark. There is a driver figure inside the cab, but hardly can be seen due to the dark windows.



Letter printing is excellent, crisp and clear.


View of under the chassis, showing two wheels with traction tire, and plastic gear on the driving wheels.


Inside the locomotive; a pcb serving as electrical contact point of the pantograph, and two light bulbs at each end.


The motor and 6-pin connector.

Hi!
Thanks for the review.
This is a re-run of an old Fleischmann classic - much like Märklin's blue box editions. This is not Fleischmann's state of the art, this is retro design.

Märklin has made models where the screw cuts directly into the plastic cover (the old BR 110.3 comes to mind).

With new locos, Märklin uses plastic trucks, plastics axles, plastic cog wheels. The BR V 80 and BR 185 are examples for that.

Where the Fleischmann 103 has visible collectors, the Märklin 103 has a visible cog wheel.
Märklin's 103 also is an old design (with some recent face lifts).

BTW: Märklin's model of 103 113 also has silver wipers - and with recent editions they still sometimes install the incorrect wind shields.

hi Tom,

Thanks for your info.
Surely I understand that Fleischmann #437601 is not their state-of-the-art item, for 125 euro I would not expect that much.
In term of value, I'm comparing against Marklin #37577 (which will be released this year). If we take out the decoder and sound, assuming its value is 80 euro, then the Marklin will cost 219 euro list-price. So there is a difference of around 94 euro for the metal body, metal gear, LEDs, and more details. (Marklin #37577 has black wipers and separately attached hand rails)
At the end, none of those two locomotives offer better value, but just a choice of "no-frills" and "full fledges".

Hi,

At the end of the day, suppose it comes down to what can you exchange and what is not exchangable or removable, if you decide to update the loco in question.
regarding plastic cog-wheels I can't see an issue with these as I've converted an old Fleischmann loco for Dusan and there doesn't seem to be any notiocable wear.
Handrails, can be replaced, wipers can be painted black, bulbs can be exchanged.
the question in the end is do you want a Märklin metal body or plastic. My old 103 has plastic body, 5 pole motor, led's sound decoder and all it needs new pantograqphs and the rest is a choice.
As I have never taken any loco up my mountain track, I can not comment on how good the Märklin loco is to pull 13 carriages up the hill and to some degree I don't expect it to fullfiill this task as it has only 2 axles with rubber tyres, so the question can be extended by ignoring both locos and go for a Roco model.
Which ever wway you look at it, for Euro 125.00 it isn't a bad price but than again one can wait for a special to come along.

regards.,

John

Regarding the Roco model, note that Roco models the version with "long" cabs (103.2), while Märklin and Fleischmann do a version with "short" cabs (103.1).

During construction of the BR 103, complaints occurred about to less room in the cabs; so starting with 103 216, new BR 103 were fitted with a longer cab to create some more room.

Regards
Florian

Roco actually have tooling for both the long and the short cab versions of the 103.

For example, I have a Roco 69743 which is a short cab version in orient/ Chinese red,
And a Roco 69740 which is the long cab version in the much maligned Touristik livery.

Best Regards
Ashley

Hi!
They have the same owner, but only for a (relatively) short time. Surely they won't use a Roco mould for a Fleischmann Jubilee edition.
The new Roco BR 101 is 90 % Fleischmann with some improvements (and some regression).
No competition between Roco and Fleischmann: Fleischmann mainly provides H0 models for early eras (the Jubilee BR 103 and BR 145 are exception) and focusses on N gauge, Roco gave up N gauge complete.
Since Roco H0e and Fleischmann N use the same tracks, they also have the same spare part numbers.

Roco makes the BR 103 in both the short and the long versions (as was mentioned before) - and both are too long (Märklin is too short, Fleischmann nearly has the correct length).
The Roco BR 103 looks much more detailed than the Märklin model. You cannot tell the difference between painted plastic and painted metal.
Only locos made of unpainted (coloured) plastic do look cheap.

That would be off topic here, should make an own thread for that (but not today). Models from Roco N gauge moulds are now sold in Fleischmann boxes, the BR 101 from Fleischmann moulds is now sold in Roco boxes. Just like Märklin boxes may contain typical Märklin designs or typical Trix designs ...