When I was a teenager I had a large Marklin train set. I stopped playing with it when I went to university. Now, 25 years later, I discovered a box full of Marklin equipment on my parents' attic. Having two children with interest in trains, I am keen to set it up again and start building a small model landscape. My train set is HO and uses I believe M tracks.

I have a few questions:
1. since my stock hasn't moved for a long time, should I oil the engines and wheels? If so, can you point me to any tips and guidance on where to apply the oil and what type of oil? I am a real novice when it comes to electrics!

2. To what extent can I extent my M tracks with current Marklin products? Can I connect to C tracks for instance? I am keen to buy a start up kit for my 12 year old daughter and she likes the ICE C track kit.

3. Can my stock work on C track?

4. Are there any UK based retailers? When I search on their website I can't locate any?

5. Can my stock be converted to DCC and if so, what is likely the cost as well as any UK locations where this can get done.

Any other useful websites or forum articles you can point me to would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Frederic

Hi,

welcome

There are quite a few topics here:

1) For the servicing, Martin, a member of this forum did a video, It covers the basics.
2) You can connect your M-track to C-track using the 24951 C to M track.
3) Your stock will run on C-track, it is the same scale and power feed system. As you are talking about conversion, I am assuming you have blue transformers and analogue locomotives. Digital locomotives will run in analogue mode, but you have to pay particular attention to the type of transformer you have. Very old blue transformer (for example Marklin Super) can damage the digital components of newer models, best is to replace such unit with a white unit (reference 6647).
4) The main distributor in the UK is Gaugemaster, and they are keeping the prices high for the whole UK market. Most of us buy our stuff directly from Germany, either by Marklin themselves, or retailers like Lippe, Kramm, Lokshop or Lokmuseum to name a few. There is of course also Ebay...
5) Most analogue locomotives can be converted to Digital, I cannot recommend anyone as I do this myself. I am sure other members will be able to recommend someone.


Hope this helps, have fun!

I'm in agreement with the previous replies. Here's some unasked-for advice since I've done essentially the same thing you're contemplating and would do some things differently if I could. My old Marklin set was passed on to me in the early 60's and has some rare equipment and houses in great shape, and I decided to make a larger layout, about 4 by 8 feet, and stick with M track. I ended up buying lots of replacement track and switches and catenary from eBay, and looking back I didn't spend much less than if I'd started fresh with M track. If you're into catenary, which I think looks great and really improves a layout, some of the parts are very hard to come by and not cheap in price.

In part due to some elevated sections of track, I had a lot of issues with derailments - I also had a number of problematic switches as I was trying to fit as much as I could into a limited space. I know there are some people who do stick with M track and they make it work, but I don't think you'll spend a whole lot less by adding C track into the layout. I practically never have derailments or power issues, and it is a much nicer-looking track, again in my opinion. The newer catenary is better looking, but I've mixed it in with some of the older stuff here and there.

One other piece of unasked-for advice - I was tempted to sell my old equipment so as to finance the new stuff or convert it to digital, and I'm glad I didn't. I have a 1955 TT800 loco that runs like a dream and some same-era Faller houses, and they fit in nicely with the new M track layout. The TT800 is probably worth $500-$800 US, and it won't run unless I switch the power to analog, which I never do because analog gets old pretty quickly for me once I experienced using digital. The TT800 will run fine around the Xmas tree using my M track, however. I did convert over a 1970's loco that is commonly sold on eBay and not worth that much.

Cheers, John

Thank you all for all the good advice and tips. So much to take in and read up about. I ran my trains last night and 3 out of the 4 work well but my switching rails (to change directions) are not working anymore with my exchange boxes. Not sure why. I have also a Marklin direct box which allows controlling several trains at the same time. But only two seem to work with it. I guess I better refresh my memory how that worked.

Many thanks. Unfortunately the link to the video is not working

Regards,
Frederic

Hi Frederic,

I'm not sure what you mean by "direct box." Are you talking about some kind of digital controller like the 6021 or a delta unit? If so not all locos are wired to work with these and will need to be converted to digital.

As for the points, make sure you have the yellow wires connected to the yellow output on the transformer, the blue wires connected to the rear outputs on the 7072 switch panels, and the 7072 switch panels connected from the output on the side to the brown output on the controller.

regards
Peter

You are making progress, well done :)

As you have light on your switches, your transformer is working properly and your switches are getting power.

First of all, I would test the switches themselves: take one of the blue cables, and touch one of the rails with it, the switch should buzz and open or close depending on the cable. if it buzzes and doesn't change direction whatever the cable, it is likely the spring is gone, or the the switch needs cleaning. See another of Martin's video:

If nothing buzzes, you might have some cable cuts somewhere, or a burnt solenoid... I think this is unlikely, It cannot be happening on all your switches at the same time...

Assuming your switches work fine, have you connected your "switch box" to the brown circuit? The brown circuit should be connected to the side of the "switch box".

Hurrah! Switch rails are working. Completely forgot I had to also hook them to the brown circuit.

Another question, my daughter is eager to buy an ICE train set from Marklin. How would that behave in my track with Delta? Would I be possible to link it to one of the 4 trains I can independently control?

Thanks

I notice that the lights on my locos are opposite of the direction of travel. Surely, they are meant to be in line with the direction it is driving? Any idea why this is?