Delta IS Digital.

The term refers to the marketing subset aimed at those "transitioning" from analogue to digital controllers.
The main original difference being the ability to run on an analogue controlled layout by setting the address switches appropriately.

Technology and royalty demands have moved on and all modern decoders have the ability to auto-detect analogue or digital mode from the signal on the track.

The other , usually more obvious, limitation is that the decoders were constructed with 4 address switches (or solder pads) instead of 8 - thus limiting the range of addresses to 15 of the 80.
(some basic surgery can be used to access the full range 1-79)

So to make a "delta" loco work on a digital layout just set the address to anything but the analogue setting.
Because of the age of any delta loco you acquire you may find that the running characteristics are less than optimal but that is a motor/driver issue not a digital control issue.

I sometimes see a lot of uninformed talk about Delta, even some calling it Marklin's greatest flop. The truth is quite different!

When Marklin came up with the digital system in the mid '80s, digital locos cost about 50% more than the equivalent analogue ones. Add to this the considerable cost of the digital controller, and we were looking at a rather heavy investment.

In the early '90s, Marklin decided to try to minimise the cost of making the jump to digital. Delta did this by addressing the two main costs in the process, the controller and the loco decoder.

Essentially, Marklin looked at delta to provide the essential function of a digital system, to be able to run more than one train on the same bit of track. To do this, they came up with the delta control, which allowed you to control 4 (later 5) locomotives digitally. Four addresses from the 80 available in the digital system were allocated to the delta system. Any digital or delta locomotive could be assigned those addresses, which meant that a small to medium layout could easily be run digitally with the delta control. To keep the cost down, there was no provision for functions, computer control, etc, although the last incarnation of the delta control, the 4F, had the F0 function button, allowing you to switch the loco lights on and off.

On the decoder side, they again looked at keeping the cost as low as possible, and the original loco decoders had 4 switches (or solder tags on the earliest) to be able to select one of the four delta addresses. In fact they also allowed another 11 possible addresses which could be used with a full digital controller. The lights could not be switched except on the very last series, the 66032. No other functions were provided, except that on the last models there were connections for Telex couplers.

As for the standard of control and running qualities, there was no difference between a loco with a 6080 decoder controlled by a 6021, and a Delta loco driven by a Delta control. The main limitation in both systems was the poor low speed running of the AC motors under digital control, and the lack of load control on the decoder. To address this, Marklin came up with the 6090 decoders and 5 pole DC motors in their 37xx models, which ran just as well on the delta system as on the full digital, but were obviously more expensive.

For me personally, Delta was a great success. By buying a starter set with a Delta 4F controller, I got into the digital world relatively cheaply, and eventually I made the simple upgrade to a 6021.

Delta locomotives, which cost no more than analogue ones, were a good choice for expanding my loco fleet, and even though I have converted many with high efficiency drives, I still run quite a few with their original delta decoders.

I am a firm defender of delta from it's critics, and this is because for me, as I'm sure for many others, it allowed a transition to digital which I might not have been able to afford otherwise.

Ray

I have an Re 4/4 IV (3323) converted with a 66032 Delta decoder because I couldn't get hold of the 60760 kit at a sensible price. It runs very sweetly indeed, and the slow speed isn't much of a problem for a long-distance loco.

I do have a couple of shunters with Delta decoders that are horrible - they either crawl or take off like rockets.

Same here, and some of my Delta locs are harder to control via the computer, they don't seem to receive the signal as quickly and also need more power to climb a grade and then runaway going down a grade. Makes running in an automatic mode difficult. I had a type BR41 that I had to convert for this reason.
Also Deltas draw more current do to the field coil on the motor, so that will limit how many Locs can be run

Just like a real train !

Cool! So i can use Delta in my layout and use de MS to control it! Great.

And on your MS you will be able to add NEW Lok from data base and enter the model number. And it will show up on the screen with the correct Icon and name.

Darren,

Thank you for the tip.But this is the process that i use for the FX locs, right? Like the set with to BR18 that i recently bought.

I'm curious about the BR 18. I've got a BR 18 Rheingold if I'm right, but I think it's digital. But it should have the same drive. What's so special about driving this engine? My experiency is that is not a good puller of heavy trains, not even the Rheingold it came with.
It's a beautiful engine anyhow!
R., Henk

Don, thanks for the information,I just went up to the package of the Rheingold and you're completely right about its features. It is indeed a BR 18.4 (not quite familiar with the specific differences in this family), with a he 5* controlled motor (set nr 26750). I could get it to stop on a downgrade, I believe.

What about your idea of using the motor as a brake, it's quite different from a Diesel motor brake. But you could use an electric motor as a dynamo and as such as a brake if you use the proper steering electronics. In fact, most Dutch (European?) 1:1 electric trains and trams use this technology by feeding back braking power to the net.
Regards, Henk

Henk,

I should have been more specific. Almost every diesel locomotive that ever operated in the US was/is a diesel-electric, and ALL the currently used locomotives are diesel-electrics. So, quite a lot of them use regenerative braking on long downhill grades by feeding the current generated by the traction motors through a heavy resistive load on top of the loco.

Diesel-hydraulics never caught on in the US, but a couple western US railroads experimented with a few Krauss-Maffei imports.

Don