Thank you so much !

And thank you to all those who took the training

Best Regards
Joël

Hi Jacques,

Thank you for your kind words,
it is such an honor to have congratulations from an expert like you !!

Well, I did not know about the gears manufacturing.
Thank you for sharing this very interesting thing.
So that's why some of my locos are "almost silent"
and some are growling much more, even after oiling.

You have watched the video very carefully to see the spark
under the first coach when passing upon the wide radius turnout.
You can only be right. I will check that axle.
By the way, on these old tin plates recently received,
I still have to adjust the coupler height, another sparks source upon turnouts...





As you said, I'm really glad I did this job...
Now I can show my loco to my Christmas guests.
See how the happy loco makes blinks again after all this time:



I love these lights and the Buzz of the reversing unit


But there are still small things to be done to refine the work.

I have to find the missing parts for the catenary connections under the roof.

The wire from the pickup shoe is way too short, I have to replace it,
this will give me the opportunity to unmount the contact plate under,
and maybe the axles.
I have just now noticed that sometimes, the big wheels of the second axle without gear - a second axle again ! -
were not not turning so well. I think the axles have to be oiled a bit by the inside, or some old dust to be cleaned.

I'll check it soon, when unmounting the pickup shoe, the contact plate, the shortest wire...

And also the pickup shoe, I'm sure it will need some fine tuning to slide smoothly upon M-track turnouts...

Best Regards
Joël

Thank you Jacques for this link with a lot or treasures .

Well I started today to check the axle that was not turning so well,
in fact this axle can move a bit vertically, as it is "clearly" written in the 1958 catalog:
"Swing link suspension to the second driving axle
to take up track irregularities and keep both wheels on the rails"
In my case there was no "suspension" .

So I decide to remove the pickup shoe, then the control plate,
and for this to unsolder the too short wire that brings current to the loco.

I discovered a great quantity of dirt that was blocking the suspension.
So I cleaned a bit this part of the body, and it solved this problem.

After having re-assembled every thing, no more short-circuit !

Thank you for these helpful tips .

I started to insulate the "solder" side (right side) of the plate.
But the short-circuit was also on the left side.

I suspected the plate to have a weak point at left to be almost cut, this giving it to much flexibility.

But I will try your advices soon !

I totally agree with you John.
I will try to find a thin insulating thing to put in between.
I really don't understand why the engineers had choosen a so thin and bendable and fragile plate.
This is the Achilles' heel of this so strong loco.
In this so solid chassis, there could have been room to put a thicker bakelite plate,
at least as thick as the one used for the pickup shoe .

Best Regards
Joël

Soooo,

Every E18 brings its own stories and tales,

This blue one is in perfect condition and runs OK straight from the no-box.
Just a few oil drops to add...

I've heard, before, about the problematic relationships between 3023/3024
and the M-track turnouts. I had no problem with the old green 3024, after
bending up a bit to the chassis, on each end, the pickup shoe,
to give it an almost invisible kind of "banana" shape,
and after adding some spring pressure on the small back and front wheels.

But This shiny blue 3023 surprised me derailing every time on only one of my layout turnouts .
After 30mn of tests, the problem was solved .
It was indeed a relational problem, in this old time of great tolerances

the context:
the loco comes back to the turnout, from the deflected track.
the turnout is well positioned.




When the logo goes upon the turnout, the small front wheels pop off the tracks without any reason !!

The solution is there:
The big wheels of the loco, with its huge weight, give some pressure on the moving parts of the turnout.
And you can see the rails moving an pushing the front axle aside !

The proof:
Just press lightly to this point of the turnout,:



And you will see the rails moving !

So after bending back a little bit the rail at the problem point, no more problem !

Salut Joël!
Just looking at the last picture of the blue loco passing on the switch, it looks as if the front axle/pony wheel may have some gauge discrepancy.(?too narrow?)
If you can, using a caliper ( aka in French "un pied à coulisse") measure the inner spacing between the wheels .
It should read 13.8 mm. A little more is acceptable up to 13.9, but less than that becomes a problem very easily on M track switches
Let us know!
Cheers

Bonjour Jacques.

You are absolutely right, as usual !
the inner space of the wheels of the blue loco are a bit less than 13.8, and this is valis for all wheels of the loco !
I have trouble reading on the calliper, but lets say about 13.74 so just a bit under 13.8.

So I've compared with the green one, and this time the inner space of the wheels is more than 13.9. and also for all the wheels. Maybe it was adjusted to run better on 3rails DC tracks.

Do you know if I can move the wheels without damage (bending wheels or axles) by hand, or do I kneed a special tool (like "the Puller") .

I will see if I need to do something, because for the time, I have not yet noticed any derailment problems associated with these non-compliant tolerances.





Thank you again for your participation. It's a great help for me .

Best Regards
Joël

Hi Jacques.

Thank you for this great link. I will see if I have to make this investment,
I think it will be absolutely necessary if I continue to get old locos.

But I was so happily surprised to see how both green and blue E18 smoothly ran on the C-Track part of my layout,
despite their bad wheels space tolerances, that I wonder if I will not rework the "historic center" part
of the actual layout and renovate the rails ...

It's so nice to see these locos running fluently as in the previous video , as they were made for this ....

I had planned to extend the section with C-track and to keep about only 50 percent of the M-track M part,
Now I'm thinking to keep 0 percent of it

We will see...

Best Regards
Joël

Salut Joël
I confirm: it's apparently the "official" set up for the overhead connection.
My 3023, 3024 and MS 800 all are fitted in the same way.
And from memory, all those that passed through my shop for repairs and conversions were build that way.
Hope this answers your question
Cheers
Jacques

Hi Joël
I don't know for certain why someone would remove the connection between the pantographs, and we don't know the whole life history of your loco either, so we can only speculate.
In any case at least one pantograph would be connected ( )
If it was assembled from parts of the series that Märklin put on the market in the late 70's and that dealers assembled (my dealer in Brussels assembled hundreds of them, and still today has a few 3047 and 3046 on inventory! !) , maybe someone forgot to put that wire.
I confess it's perplexing since earlier locos like my 1951 RSM 800 had an etched connecting plate between the pantos , mounted with a layer of insulation already.
Luckily this slimper solution has no detrimental "cosmetic" consequences .... it's still a pretty loco, (at least IMHO) and that's the only thing that counts, really.
Bon Dimanche
Jacques

The green one has a "convex" left buffer and a right flat buffer.
The blue one has two flat buffers.

The green one has no silver paint on the body
The blue one has a silver line on the bottom of the body, and the "E1835" is silver painted.

Green one= original, assembled @ factory. Never had silver paint
Blue one = From parts, assembled locally. Always had silver stripes.
But doesn't matter. They are both beautiful

Hi Jacques

For sure they are beautiful !

Thank you for your analysis.

Best Regards
Joël

Now let us see what differs inside the two locos:


inside the 1959 green 3024




inside the recent blue 3023 see how the motor cover is completely different






inside the 1959 green 3024




inside the recent blue 3023 the choke (UKW Drossel) is also different
and we have a nice view on the gears !




Best Regards
Joël

Since we mentioned the MS 800 and its differences, here are a couple of pictures.
Major difference is that all 4 axles are powered, although only the external ones carry the weight of the loco.
No flanges on the middle drivers, this long loco negotiates the 360 mm radius without any trouble.
Also note, under the brushes, the friction driven switch that performs directional light changes.
It is driven from the central gear shaft in the lower part of the transmission.
From memory that light inversion gizmo was first used on the CCS 800 in 1947 , then on the RE 800, TP 800, TT 800, ST 800, DL 800 and DT 800.
I haven't found/seen evidence of it on any other loco since.
Maybe someone knows?



All driver axles powered, you can barely see the "friction gizmo" on the other side of the big central middle gear



Heavy equipment!



And the original connection between pantos. Note the little piece of insulating cardboard on the contact side..



Cheers

Jacques

Very good observation Joël!!
At the time when I replaced the front pony wheel (because of creeping zink pest) I didn't have the right one, so I used one from a steam loco valve gear set !
Time for a small correction of this capital sin!!

Thanks you for being so attentive!
EDIT: Fixed !!

Hi Joël
Yes good observation.
The main reason is that the MS 800 was originally fitted with "spoon" type pick ups, designed to work on the continuous central solid rail.
When came the time of the "pukos" , I picked this slider because it fitted the length, but the chassis was not designed with enough space to accommodate the ski's rounded edge.
The 3023/24 were in theory designed to avoid this, but as you and I know all too well, it's sort of "hit and miss", particularly on C-track where pukos on the double slips seem to be a bit higher.

Wonderful, it is a pleasure to watch the old lady cruising on the twisted and folded dogbone course. Regarding the passenger cars: I always liked the green shorties with the indented doors. And only now I realise how drastically you altered the “historic” part of your layout. Chapeau !