Welcome to the forum   
Welcome Guest! To enable all features please Login or Register.

Notification

Icon
Error

Share
Options
View
Go to last post in this topic Go to first unread post in this topic
Offline alistairiancampbell  
#1 Posted : 15 June 2018 03:19:19(UTC)
alistairiancampbell


Joined: 16/11/2014(UTC)
Posts: 33
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
I was running at the Adelaide Model Railway Show on the weekend, and I was given a small parcel of Lilliput and Fleischmann trains - a small rake of suburban coaches, a BR 51 (Fleischmann) and BR 78 (Lilliput).

While the coaches run fine, the 2 Loks are both 2-rail and the BR 78 does not have a motor installed.


They are both a bit older, but very nice models nonetheless, however my Marklin experience to date has involved buying MFX Loks, and when I have bought second-hand gear, they have been from fellow Club members here in SA and registering them on my CS2 has been easy with the former owner there to help.


In an ideal world, I fit both with digital-decoders and sound, convert to 3-rail, and install the newer motors in the loks. I've had a bit of a look online at the pricings of the decoders, sliders, motors, and second-hand Marklin versions of these Loks and feel that if I can get them running on my layout for less than 40 Euros each, and upgrade them to digital from there, I'd be happy to take the risk.


I've attached photos below of the loks with their tops off to start, if anyone can help point me in the right direction to start that would be greatly appreciated


Fleischmann BR 51.jpgLilliput BR 78.jpg
Offline jvuye  
#2 Posted : 15 June 2018 23:20:22(UTC)
jvuye

Belgium   
Joined: 01/03/2008(UTC)
Posts: 2,881
Location: South Western France
Hi Alistair

I have these loks from Fleischmann in 3 rail versions (Back in the 70's they made a few of them too originally, with electromechanical reversing units)
I have the BR 50, BR 50 kab and a BR 01 220
The biggest problem if you want to convert these to 3 rail /digital is that you need to insulate both brushes from the chassis. The old Fl motors of those days had one brush always "grounded" by design.

Not simple to do because the brush holder itself is riveted in the (metalic) flange.
Having access to machine tools, I was able to mill away on the inside of the plate, remove the brush holder, enlarge the hole, machine and install an insulating bushing (in teflon) and reinsert the (now insulated) brush holder. Super glue was a big help. Wink

I will have to check but you may still be able to purchase the insulated version of the whole plate that Fl introduced later, that would save you the aggravation! .
Fl is doing OK with their spare part online purchasing system, although I'm not sure about shipping to the Antipodes. I'd guess that small packets would probably shipped at reasonable cost.

Then the next problem will be to create (=machine again) some space in the ballast piece on the loco to make room for the decoder. That's a simpler task today, recent decoders are much smaller than when I did the conversions to digital 20 years ago.

The rest is relatively easy, one side of the loco's and tender's wheels is already connected to the chassis, you just have to "ground" the insulated side wheels' pick ups.

Give a lot of "play" to the wires between lok and tender, and use nicely flexible ones because 5 wires are needed (2 wires power to the motor, plus the rear light supply and return and a "ground" connection. (You'll have to insulate the bulb socket or, like I did recently, replace the incandescent bulb with LEDs.

While at it , exchange the adherence tires for Märklin ones! The original semi-transparent plastic ones are totally useless.

Hope this helps, but don't hesitate to ask !

Cheers
Jacques


Jacques Vuye aka Dr.Eisenbahn
Once a vandal, learned to be better and had great success!
thanks 4 users liked this useful post by jvuye
Users browsing this topic
Forum Jump  
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.

| Powered by YAF.NET | YAF.NET © 2003-2024, Yet Another Forum.NET
This page was generated in 0.342 seconds.