I have said these things before but I am getting older (70ish), clumsier and very deafer. However, life and in particular during lockdown (lokdown?) would be even more boring without my railway room.

So the latest event a loved lok 37326 which has been troublesome not long ago was sitting on the layout minding its own business when my wife tried to fetch a bag of coffee from an adjacent cupboard and dropped it sending the lok flying. It then would hardly go but the lights etc still worked. Si I tried to fix it and in doing so fried the decoder (don’t tell my wife that bit she broke it OK). So what next? No M dealers in the UK doing repairs and the EU doesn’t like us much now so I cant send it back yet.

Then I analyse my M needs. This lok has 18 function of which 14 “sound effects” are almost totally lost on me. In general I like if applicable lights, steam, telex but mainly lights -even basic lok sound especially electrics are a waste on me and just annoy the rest of the house. So I am not about to lash out 100 Euros on a new decoder which if I try and fit I will surely bugger it up and the thought of adjusting decoder function fills me with horror. So I consider a 60760 decoder set to fulfil my simple needs which when I mess it up will only have wasted 30 Euros.

I look in my secret shoe box and see I have four or five loks in a similar state

What are anyone’s thoughts on this issue?

Can I ask why your railway room has a cupboard used by your wife. My room has nothing but railway stuff and a computer for my use to run the household bills etc. Don’t know if it is possible just to get a decoder that works the lights and gives the basis chuff sound.
The Uk is hopeless for HO and in particular Marklin. However we still have the best system with the best products but accidents do happen.
If you have other locos that you are happy running why not just consider this as a write off and when funds are available buy a replacement.

My railway is a life saver at this time and with building Faller kits and replacing my coach lighting will keep my going for months ahead.

Regarding potential problems with shipping stuff from GB back to the EU for repair, I've just sent an MS2 back to the Märklin Reparaturservice. (I recently bought a new MS2 with the latest software so could update my first one. Although the Trackbox updated OK, the older MS2 update started but never successfully completed and now won't boot up - but that's another story).

Anyway, I boxed it up, downloaded and completed the Märklin repair request form and sent it off via UPS yesterday. The tracking status has just changed from "In Transit" to "Clearance in Progress". Hopefully the two hours I spent understanding and completing the customs declaration will have been worth it and the parcel will successfully reach Göppingen. Will give an update on my experience if anyone's interested.

Keith