Hello, Everybody.

I have just come back from Italy and bought in Rome a vintage 3035 loco (same one as in my bandana above) made in 1961. I paid 110 Euros for it ($150.00).

It was advertised on E-bay Italy as being in great conditions. I met the vendor, he ran the unit on two feet of track and seemed to be OK. Got home and it works badly. Has hiccups, feels as something is holding it back and sometimes stops altogether until I push it. It is not fast, as was advertised.

When I bought it, the vendor tested it with a dark orange/light brown transformer and M tracks. Sometimes it seems to run OK, albeit slowly, but when I start it up again the next day, I am back to square one.

I gave the loco oil on two occasions, to no avail.

The vendor says there is dispersal of current on my tracks, but all the other locos work just fine...

If anyone has any idea as to what I can do to fix it, other than take it to a Marklin dealer, I would really appreciate it.

Ciao

Also I would recommend changing the brushes but it will be all reveled when you take the motor apart.

John

Thank you for the information provided. It is appreciated.

Unfortunately, it seems that cleaning the loco is a VERY involved job. Does anyone know of a site where it would explain the process step by step?

Thanks.

Silvano

From what John said above and by referring to the exploded parts view in my first post, follow along. We will get you to the point where you can clean the drive chassis.
• Remove two screws (item 7) that secure the locomotive shell to the locomotive chassis item 24.
• Remove the screw (item 32) that secures the coupler to the drive chassis item 8.
• Remove the coupler, item 31.
• This will allow the plastic bogie frame (item 30) to fall free of the drive chassis slightly and by moving the plastic frame toward the center of the locomotive, the two tabs will slide free of the drive chassis.
• Remove the screw and metal bracket (items 29 and 28) that capture the drive chassis to the locomotive chassis.
• The drive chassis should be able to lift away from the locomotive chassis at this point.

It may not be necessary to unsolder any wires. Instead:
• With the drive chassis free from the locomotive chassis, use tweezers to pull up the brush spring wire just enough to slide them to the side and remove the two brushes item 19. Notice the orientation of the brushes to the brush holder and armature item 16.
• Remove the motor shield screws item 18, and remove the motor shield item 17 from the drive chassis.
• Now remove item 15, the motor magnet from the drive chassis. Item 16, the armature, may also be removed and placed to the side.

At this point, the drive chassis with drive wheels/gears should be free to clean.

Assembly is in reverse order.

Please, if you have any more questions, do not hesitate to ask. We are here to help.

Also, please post some pictures of your 3035.

Some close-ups of the drive bogie and electrics.

I am overwhelmed by the responses I got. Thank you all very much.

Here are some pictures of the loco. The size is small, but the originals were too big, over 3 megs each.

Hi again

I'd also have a look at that screw in the middle of the reverse relay it may be fouling or rubbed into the coil.

It looks like he gerry rigged something to keep it in place.

Good news. The loco works better now, albeit still with problems.

I gave it several good runs at very low speeds. Yesterday, I actually had it run for hours at very low speeds with the cover off. Today, it still acts up in reverse (but maybe it's in forward, I get mixed up with the position of the shoe), in any event, in one direction has improved substantially, at times I think it may be close to normal, until I try to reverse the direction of travel and the loco does not move at all in either direction.

Overall, though, I think it is better now than before and my next task is to get the COURAGE to take those screws out... and risk having nothing more than a useless hip of metal

Is anyone out there residing in the GTA? If so, I would be willing to pay for being shown how to do it, so that I can repeat it as well to my other locos. Incidentally, what do these darn brushes do? Are brushes for such an old loco still available?

In any event, I want to thank everyone who gave me all sorts of great suggestions and advice. I REALLY mean that. I will have to win my fear of mechanical things (in my life, I deal with paperwork...) and will report in due course with my successes (hopefully).

Silvano

Hello,

Many times when loco stops running and lights still go on the problem is that reversing unit (direction changer) has to be touched and after that it works ok. Your 3035 is so old that this is even easier as it has a manual reversing lever which does the same without any need to open loco body for this.

If electric loco stops running and even lights don't work then usually the "problem" is that the switch to change power supply from track to catenary has been moved accidentally to wrong position or in the middle position where the loco won't get power at all.

I hope that you get your loco now fixed.

Cheers,
Janne

Brushes can also be the cause, but my experiences are from many locos having problems with their mechanical reversing unit. Reversing unit don´t move to right position and the electrical connection is not ok. When pressing reversing unit front lightly to make a manual direction reverse or by using the mechanical reversing lever the locos started working again ok. This happens sometimes and after that manual fixing loco can work for a long time after. Normally if the cause is reversing unit that don´t go to right position the spring adjustment can help. When the reversing unit don´t get to right position loco makes some brrrzzzssssbbbrrrrrzzz noise and lights goes brighter when voltage rises, but loco don´t run.

Regards,
Janne