Jean, thanks for your kind words. I don't have the goliath so I can't compare. Judging from the size and construction, I suspect the goliath has higher lifting capacity. I recall that is rated at 250g but the steam crane is not rated.

Agree the fast crane rotation is a drawback and it is hard to align the crane with the centre axle.

I prefer era 3. I have a small setup and Ardelt 57t fits well from size standpoint.

Change gears. Still no one can spot what is wrong in the accessories kit?

Bingo. That hole allows cylindrical magnets to pass to secure the crane support arm on the ground. Need to get a replacement from the factory.

Mikael, as posted earlier by bph, there was a batch of cranes that had decoder issue and returned to factory. Yours may be among that batch and similarly inflicted.

When you remove the crane from the packaging and place it on the track for the initial registration, did you support the boom on the flat car?

Sebastian

Sounds like your crane is a dud. I would have thought your dealer would test the crane before delivery.

My dealer tested the crane with me together for 1.5h before I took delivery.

I have one option to have a dealer check out my models before they are shipped to me, but he is in Canada and I live in the US, so the costs are too high.

Mine all come straight out of the shrink wrap now and I just cross my fingers and hope. My 49570 looks lovely but has not yet been powered, and it looks like I need to find the time to do that soon. I will post what I find.

Thanks! I hope to test it out soon, although layout running is months away for me.

So just registering it and watching it put on its show should be pretty cool for starters.

assuming that it actually works at all of course, which is not always the case.

We have some killer heat coming about midweek - sounds like a good time for the old timer to stay indoors and just meddle about with his trains.

So does it work ok?

The short answer is yes. It registered perfectly and all of the functions appear to work correctly, so I don't have the problems that some have had.

My biggest complaint is the same as yours if I remember correctly, in that the crane body rotates too quickly and can't be stopped precisely. I have tried several times and I can not get it lined up properly with the frame of the crane. It is close enough and probably would run on my track with the lateral play in the boom. It sure would make it tough to do any work with it though and so far none of the parameters seem to change that behavior.

The CVs are actually pretty strange. They list acceleration and braking delay as well as maximum speed, but changing them does not seem to affect the motor operation and they really don't make a lot of sense. The boom raise/lower speed is good, as is moving the hook, but not the body rotation. I suppose they might have set separate constraints on the three motion functions and maybe I will eventually load the program for that decoder up in my programming environment and take a look. Unfortunately even if I can find a way to alter this behavior the chip might be locked, making it difficult to change things. I do know some tricks to bypass the locks but they are not for the faint of heart.

Then there is the obvious one, which Märklin calls out in their literature. The hook, to be correctly sized, does not have enough weight to lower by itself when you slack that cable. Not only does that prevent totally remote operation but it seems like a great way to screw up your lines if you are not careful. The next time I run it I will try hanging something heavy on the hook and see if that does the trick. I went back to the videos I watched before buying and I now see that they never show several of the more problematic operations and now I know why.

I operated it briefly without the outriggers deployed and found that not to be a good idea. I will set those up properly before I use it again. I do not see it spending too much time running on my layout, but rather staged where it can do its thing, at least as far as it is able. I have always wanted a crane that I could remotely operate and maybe that is just too much to ask in HO scale. More and more I am thinking that I need a lot less MRR stuff but really quality models in 1 gauge. But I have a considerable investment in HO and it would really cost me to change now. Still I do think about that from time to time.

Yes, the rotation speed is clearly a design flaw and compromises the actual use of this model. I have only briefly tested it but I had one instance where I could hear the hook line unspooling and not only didn't the hook lower it wouldn't budge even when I tugged on it. Not sure what was going on but the next time I test it I will have the boom raised enough that I can observe what is happening.

That is an interesting observation about the lines not being able to support loads. If that is true then none of the other issues matter because you couldn't really operate it anyway. Märklin does not really specify what a reasonable lifting capacity is for this crane, but perhaps they should.

So if it does not run well on the layout and can't actually lift things, I have to wonder what purpose it serves beyond sitting around in a yard and looking pretty. It is indeed very pretty but quite a lot of money for a paperweight.

I held out on the Goliath crane because of the many people with issues and by the time I finally decided to jump in they were all sold at the dealers I use. I really should have waited longer to see what people thought of this one, but I guess that I finally have buying a Märklin crane checked off and I doubt that I will be tempted again.

I don't have Goliath, but judging from videos their lines look tougher than the one on Ardelt. I wonder why that is the case. I could be wrong. That said I was able to lift loads with the Ardelt and it works well so don't despair. You just need to be careful when operating it.

Given the relative size, I have no illusion it won't have the same load capacity as the Goliath.

Thanks for the encouragement. I will give it another go fairly soon. But I just don't see it being used much because it takes so much manual intervention and fiddling, which was not what I was looking for.

It will at the very least be a pretty addition to my layout and probably cause less frustration the fewer times I try to actually use it.

Thank heavens for that then my Fleischmann set from the1980/90s with two rail wheels which tends to not like any turnout on earth which was rescued from the remainder bin in Beatties model rail shop in London for about £40 for the four car set never leaves it siding so it is strangely prototypical. Not sure I would feel the same way if I was 900 Euros poorer!

Sounds like batch issue. Now you may have to wait another couple of months for the missing piece to come through before your crane can lift any meaningful weight.

The wait continues...

Feel free to check out my YouTube posted on Marklin user-net FB site. Many videos showing my Ardelt and Goliath lifting various loads. The Ardelt can lift a V60 shunter weighing 204g. It definitely is not an expensive paperweight.

My point is the 3 piece side may be intentional to simulate the sag, but that is an optical illusion as the top surface looks level.

I appear to be fine with the latest potential 49570 issues.

My stake car looks flat to me, although I have not put a straightedge to it to check and I do have all of the correct parts for the outrigger bases.

My layout building phase should end within a few weeks and I can set mine up and finally see how much work it can do!

Great news. It is time to put the crane to work and move some loads 🤗

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Don't lose hope. Running on R1 is challenging, but otherwise I am fine so far. I have my crane packed, but just to make room for other rolling stock.

Cheers.

Haha

Thanks for the information and helping to point me toward what might be causing my cable problem.

I suspect that something like what you describe might be going on with my crane as well. The next time I operate it I will have it set up so that I can see exactly what is happening with the cables and the drum, which I have not yet done. That is a big part of why mine is boxed up again, so that I can eventually take the time to see what the problem is and correct it before it causes more permanent problems.