FD and I made a deal not to buy any more "Marklin stuff" in 2016 until I had sold off 60 items from my collection. For various reasons this has not happened yet, but I did manage to convince FD to let me order the 37604 + 43114 set on the condition that I add another two items to the sale list.
Specifications- mFx+
- length with 43114 set is just over 1.5m
- 15 functions for eCOS users and 16 for CS2 "World of Operation" users.
- LED lighting in all wagons except the two powered cars, but there are headlights/tail lights on these cars.
The very first thing you notice about the VT 11.5 is that it is heavy - very heavy. The wagons are cold to touch - that metal cold - so they are metal too. Very unusual in a railcar set - the Thalys, for example, is mostly plastic. This is a quality product - Marklin at its best. Not perfect and I will tell you why later, but a really excellent product none the less.
One of the really nice details are the fans on the roof of both powered units. They don't operate, but they look like they might work. Perhaps something for Marklin to work on when this next returns to the product line in a few years,
This train has the loudest and clearest sound of any train I have ever purchased from Marklin, which is great for me as I am almost completely deaf, but I can hear the station announcement clearly. I expect that most people will have to turn down the sound. Of the 14 functions , 12 are sound functions.
Other nice features are the inter-wagon covers, which are designed to hide the electrical connections between the wagons. In this set the are many as there are two rows of pins that connect between each wagon.
It runs beautifully at low speed and the lights do not flicker - not even over my lumpy 5207 turnout.
M-trackAnother user on the forum mentioned that m-track running was poor, especially over the double switches. I am pleased to report that this is not the case for me. Below is a video of the 37604, without the 43114 wagons, running over two sets of 5207 turnouts in both the "straight" position and the "turned" position. Further, there are absolutely no problems with the curved turnouts either. Here is a short video of the testing I did on the double-switches.
I should also mention here that the first 5207 needs panel beating and is not in the best condition, but I have not repaired this on my layout as I find it is a good test for new trains. Here is a couple of images showing the problem areas on this turnout.
Things that could have been improvedI have a few if these late model railcars and all of them include an option to randomly switch the table lamps on and off. Strangely, that feature is missing from this unit. Further, only the 43114 has lamps that light up, while the lamps in car #VM 11 5404 do not light up at all.
In the promo images for this set, the powered cars show lighting, but the delivered set as no lights in the powered cars. See this youtube video from Marklin as an example -
see post #3 - for some reason you can't have two youtube videos in the same post..Do I have any regrets?Hell no! It is a beauty. Here is a video of the complete train running through the 5207 turnouts and over my bridge.
See the video in post #4Highly recommended- Technical features
(get those table lamps blinking for that 5th star from me)
- Children test (I think that this is too heavy for young children and I am not confident that they can couple and decouple wagons without doing damage)
Edited by user 26 July 2016 04:45:08(UTC)
| Reason: Strange You Tube problem..
