My son and I talked about solenoids in Märklin M-track turnouts and we came to the conclusion these solenoids were the best and reliable and over the years newer versions just haven't been up to the reliability as these have been.
one never had to send them back to Märklin to get fixed but with later versions e.g. K-track (separate solenoid motor) and C-track solenoid motors.
with other words in all these years we haven't seen an improvement.

John

Absolutely, John. I still have M track turnouts working like new that were bought

In 1964! Cheers, Peter.

On the C track motors the weak spot is the end shut-off micro-switches. On the ones where I have bypassed the switches I have had no more problems.

Agree. But bypassing a new turnout fresh out of the box to work fine is not what you should expect from a manufacturer like Märklin.

Regards
Carlos

you're right with the attached solenoids earlier model k-track turnouts


John

But I think this is the vital point, Märklin m-track turnouts never failed and the ones which you have to attach to the turnouts have failed as you rightly pointed out.
I think with today's model railway expectations the M-track turnouts could also be converted to shut off the power.

My observation has been that since 1964 (Peter pointed out the year)) the old m-track turnouts had been solid and 100 % reliable and as technology has improved and gone forward Märklin has failed to come up with a better solution and in my opinion has actually gone backwards.
Some designs by Märklin had been excellent (ICE or Senator) and an other failed design had been the K-track turnout it self, I feel a simple solution or design is far better than having x amount of parts to get a turnout tongue moving from left to right and the earlier design had also the heart section moving., ( I don't know whether that was prototypical) and this has been deleted in the newer versions. also the rails which formed the tongue had been spot welded and the little pin usually broke off (front or rear) to hold them down into place.
I've noticed other manufacturers have a simple arm going sideways to shift the tongue left to right without all these thin plastic parts activating the movements and most modellers use a servo motor these days for reliability.
My way of thinking has always been if it doesn't work try a different way of solving the problem and this has been a successful story with mounting ball bearings into the motor.

John

so if you have to make a bypass on the micro switch to fix the problem, why can't M do that in the factory? So that they are sold with that feature already done to make them more reliable.

with all respect my topic wasn't referred to contact or switching tracks, reed switches etc etc. just the point motor themselves.

John

Not sure how many I have exactly but probably around 30. Only one failed and that was after many years. I make sure I can lift C track turnouts and give the motor etc a clean and a drop of wd40 once every 18 months or so. I like C track as the old M stuff is way out dated and looks it. K track is probably best but for me the ease of use with C track is good. Everybody has their own preferences but it does surprise me with the number who have turnout motor failures.
The three way turnout is a different matter and I just don't use them as they do appear to cause problems.

Hi Ray. Your track does look good compared to my C track but of course it does make it more difficult to get at motors etc.
I have probably been lucky but I do keep them clean as I said in maybe that helps. I gave up my three way turnouts a while back as they did not always work although the motors and decoder were OK. and they don't look great.
Hope Brexit will not make a lot of difference where you are when getting Marklin stuff.

Ray,

sorry to hear about your failed motors and trying to lift them after you've ballasted it.
I've done the ballasting similar to you but left a -mm gap between ballast and track (it wasn't glued to the track)
part from re-organizing the track work couple of years ago we've re-used the old K-track sleek turnouts and double switches but over the years I have been filing them down with a diamond sandpaper, it only takes off the top of the middle stud to regain proper contact and I have replaced most of the motors with ESU servo motors and they work fine.
I have a small section made from C-track (former M-track) as I already had cork strips glued down onto the board and I didn't want to rip them all off as well, so I just removed the M-track and replaced it with C-track, most of it worked or fitted into the open spaces left over from the M-track. I had one motor that didn't work and it wasn't that hard to remove the sleek turnout as all tracks had been fitted between the cork strips and formed the ballast. the turnout itself one of the circuit board strips was broken (new) and I re-soldered it and it works fine since than.

another thing one could mention, with the K & C track turnouts lantern and lights this is an extra one has to purchase which adds to the price again.

John