Hello,

I just got my father a Märklin H0 Crocodile locomotive for Christmas, as I knew he's wanted one since his childhood (article number 39563) and unfortunately we can't get it to work. We don't know if the locomotive is defective, or if we're simply doing something wrong, and I'm hoping someone here might be able to help.

About the locomotive: I bought it online from a small store specializing in model trains. It came without a box and without any documents, but the website didn't mention it was second-hand (other locomotives sold on the website had the mention "second-hand") so I assume it was an exhibition model kept behind glass. The paint is flawless, there isn't a single scratch or spot anywhere, even the wheels look perfect, so I'm pretty sure it was never used at all. If you follow the link above, you will see that it says it's a digital MFX locomotive, so it's supposed to work with a digital train set. The name and article number on the Märklin website match the one provided by the seller, and my father's locomotive looks identical to the one pictured on the Märklin website.

Anyway, we tried using the locomotive with a brand new digital set, which we're both new at (our last Märklin train set was about 20 years ago, before the digital system existed). We're using the Mobile Station #60657.

We followed the steps in the Mobile Station user manual to add a locomotive: my father's specific crocodile wasn't in the database, so we tried adding it manually. We gave it the address 68, which the locomotive's manual said was the default one, but that didn't work. I then tried all addresses from 1 to 255, but none of them seemed to be working either - the locomotive does nothing: it doesn't drive (or attempt to), no lights are on, nothing happens at all.

The tracks seem to be powered because the Mobile Station turns on and the wires are connected to the tracks. Unfortunately, we don't have other locomotives we could use to check that the problem isn't with the tracks, and we don't have access to our older, non-digital train set to check if the locomotive is working properly on that one.

If it helps, here is how I tested all 255 addresses:

1. On the screen where you control the locomotive, I made sure the locomotive was selected, then I removed the "Stop" by pressing the stop button on the remote ("Stop" was replaced by the locomotive's name at the bottom of the screen) and I gave the locomotive some power by turning the red knob (some vertical bars appeared on the left, showing how much power it was supposed to get).

2. I then went to the locomotive's settings screen by holding shift and the locomotive button, then I entered the "Address" menu, set the address to "1", and confirmed by pressing the button next to the checkmark on the screen. The text "Programming locomotive" appeared for a few seconds, and I was automatically brought back to the locomotive's settings screen.

3. During this entire process, the bottom of the screen displayed the locomotive's name instead of "stop", as well as some vertical bars representing the amount of power the locomotive was supposed to receive.

4. Since address 1 didn't work, I repeated step 2 above multiple times, increasing the address by 1 each time. Note that every time when I was brought back to the locomotive's setting screen after changing the address, I didn't go back to the locomotive control screen (maybe I should have?); since the locomotive wasn't reacting at all, I immediately went back in the address screen to change the address again. Proceeding like this, I tried all addresses from 1 to 255. As I said previously, none of them worked.

My father and I will go to a nearby store that specializes in model trains, where we hope they might be able to help us. In the meantime, I was hoping somebody on this forum might be able to help as well. Does it sound like we've done something wrong or missed something? Is there anything else we could try doing? Again, we're totally new to the digital system, so we have no idea how to proceed.

In a last resort, if it seems the problem is with the locomotive, I'll contact the seller about having it repaired or returning it, although I really hope it doesn't come to that.

Thank you in advance for any help!

Thanks a lot for your response, Mike, I wasn't even aware there was a switch to choose between track/catenary power! According to the locomotive's manual, it seems it was in the catenary position. I'll need to test the locomotive again in the morning to be sure, I'll provide an update once this is done :)

So unfortunately, flicking the track/catenary switch didn't solve the problem. I tried all addresses again, and left the locomotive on the tracks for several minutes to see if it registered automatically (I deleted all locomotives saved in the Mobile Station beforehand), but nothing is happening. Same as before: the locomotive is completely inactive, no lights or sounds, the engine isn't even trying to spin.

We'll take the locomotive and Mobile Station to a local store in the next few days (hopefully as early as tomorrow), hoping they'll be able to tell us what's wrong. I've also contacted to seller of the locomotive by e-mail and am waiting for a reply. In the meantime, if anyone has more ideas or suggestions, I'd be grateful for the help!

@Copenhagen: thanks anyway, I really appreciate the intent!

If you are buying this Loco as new it should come complete with box and any paper work including the warranty from Marklin. I would return it to the seller for a full refund as the model is not complete (no slider). The model is now not available from Marklin.

Your Maerklin rails, or tracks, have a middle rail - which shows up as a series of contact points on top but underneath you can see a solid metal string. The two outer rails, for the wheels, have the same electrical phase (neutral or ground) whereas the middle has the power. Therefore there are only two wires feeding the track

Ah, thanks to both of you for these explanations. Indeed our tracks look like the middle one in the picture above, and they have the dots. I can see the dots are part of a long thin rail underneath the track.

Thanks to everyone for the help, it seems my father's locomotive's problem has been solved. We'll get a new slider tomorrow morning, and get it tested at the store while we're there to make sure it works!