Hello all,

Yesterday my friend here in Finland told me that he had bought an Märklin 37668 Nohab Great Northern from eBay. All his locos are and will be analog forever as he likes them that way. He asked from me if I want to change one of my new analog Nohab's frame = everything else except the body to this 37668? I want to do this and can take an analog new frame from my 3143 NSB.

My question is can this 37668 Great Norhern frame be used with older Nohab bodys? I have many of them (two 3066, 3067, 3068, 3134, 3137 and 3143). If I remember right one of my 3066 has ESU Loksound 3.5 and 3067 has ESU Lokpilot 4 decoders.

This 37668 has only horn sound, but good driving charasteristics as it is factory digital mfx. What needs to be changed if I want full sound to it? Some Märklin sound decoder upgrade?

So is this "plug and play" = only swap the loco bodys?

I also got yesterday from him an 5-pole high efficiency motor, permanent magnet and Märklin 6090 decoder when I gave him an like new analog DCM motor as installed into that loco and an like new manual direction changer (some US model Märklin). I installed this 5-pole motor and 6090 decoder into my new 3038 SNCF electric loco. I took off all the analog stuff from it (complete motor with wires + manual direction changer and will keep them for the future).

Unfortunately the yellow output of that decoder (back lights) is not working. Also the grey output works really strange as it feeds current all the time. Not on/off possibility. I then decided to wire it so that both lights front and rear are on continiously (I soldered the grey output wire to feed both ends). Otherwise that decoder works with potentiometers adjustable max. speed and acceleration/braking delay. This one has not the F4 function to disable that delay.

But anyways, it is really cool to get also this beautiful loco running at my layout. It is now the 88th either Delta or Digital loco in my Central Station. More to come very soon and there will be then almost 100! Then around 70? analog locos. It is good to have such a friend who wants to get rid of all digital and want instead analog. That Great Northern looks really good in both digital or analog form for sure.

Cheers,
Janne

Hello,

Ok thanks from the information! What about those snow plows in that Great Northern? Are they attached to the loco body or bogie?

Cheers,
Janne

Yes that is the company which made the "Nohab´s" .

I got the 37668 chassis last friday. It is not a mfx and it is from year 2001. Led-lights can be controlled digitally and also the horn sound. It has also on/off control for acceleration and braking delay. Volume of horn sound, acceleration and braking delay + maximum speed adjustment is made from potentiometers inside the loco and also digital address change with those eight tiny dip-switches.

I decided to give this chassis an nice looking Nohab body so now it has a 3134 (CFL Luxemburg) wine-red-yellow body with darkened roof. I have normal hook couplers and other parts from normal analog 3134 in it. Not the snow plows from that Great Northern. Now the analog new chassis of that 3134 can stay un-used and my digital track will get this beauty running at it. It is now almost like Märklin factory 37669 CFL Nohab, but in my option this loco body looks better and it has acceleration and braking delay over ride on/off which 37669 dont have.

This one is not the only digital CFL loco that I have. I have also Delta 34158, Digital 37154 and 37560 (factory aged version of 37154). Actually I dont have any analog CFL locos...not even that "cheap" 3063!!

PS. As my 3038 has now continuously both front and rear lights on when track power is on I have started to think if I should put something red near the rear lamp bulb to have an effect of red rear lights instead of those white ones. Does that French SNCF BB 9223 real prototype have red rear lights? I have an Swiss SBB 3050 loco that has this mod and it looks great when it is running. It does not matter if there is wrong color lights in other driving direction with this 3038 loco.

Cheers,
Janne