Hello everyone!
I'm new here.
Sorry for my English. I am writing through a translator.
I have very little information about Marklin in my country. Therefore, I will sometimes ask you.
I hope not to bother you too much.
I need information about steam locomotive 37558.
Is it possible to manage it with Mobile Station 60657?
Is it possible to add to this Loko, a sound decoder?

Edited by user 13 March 2021 16:17:02(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thanks! I didn't expect such a quick response.

Soft drive was the second sinus motor design. A can motor with a sinewave core. Marklin has since discontinued both in favor of conventional can motors like Piko and Roco use.
If you would like to connect with a felllow Russian collector/modeller via Instagram, one is Anton EEP. He works in a rail museum in St. Petersburg. His English is very good, so he can translate. I myself know zero Ceryllic.

That is the third generation of brushless DC motors used by Märklin. Quiet motors with ball bearings, maintenance-free.
AIUI those brushless motors are used quite often for aviation models as they offer very high efficiency. However using them for analogue model trains leads to problems.

The real DB 05 003 was used with short trains only because it was not as strong as it looked. The model should do well with short trains even on inclines.

Hi guys!
Thank you for answers and advices. Where can I read a review about Marklin motors? I don't need old versions, only 2000 + enough.
Yesterday I received my first locomotive 39460 and a set of track + Mobile Station-2.
There are still locomotives, wagons and additional tracks to arrive ahead.

Hi guys!
I renamed this topic because I have significantly more questions. The further I dive into the Marklin theme, the more interesting it becomes to me. I have already bought several locomotives and some wagons. Something I have already received, something else on the way. I made my Instagram page. @marklinfun I hope I can fill it with interesting content. From time to time I come across questions and try to look for answers myself, but sometimes I need your many years of experience.
So, tell me please: what is the difference between cars 40500,40501,40502,40503 then cars 42862,42272,43305?
Märklin Start up are full-fledged locos and wagons or a stripped-down version?
What is the best choice?
Another question: what are transparent C-rails for?

The transparent tracks were produced primarily for shop displays on glass shelves, as far as i can work out. But many shops also sold them. they were never officially advertised by Marklin as a catalogue item that I am aware of.

Certainly a display with the transparent track sitting on a glass shelf, lit from below looks quite something.

I found it! These parts are available on eBay.
No. 299800
No. 701370
No. 315660
They are slightly different . It remains only to find out which one I need...

Marklin takes too long to answer questions.
And isn't there a website with PDF manuals for cars somewhere in the network? Like for locomotives.

Hi people!
Help me please with advice.
Some time ago I bought 18 pieces of Electric Turnout Mechanism 74491 on eBay. When I first connected them, half of them twitched instead of not working properly. I wrote to Marklin twice in the hope that they would respond and change the non-working mechanisms for me. But Marklin just ignored me.
Tell me please what should I do besides picking up a soldering iron and removing all the limit switches from the Turnout Mechanism myself?

Hi Maxxx (Max?)
Welcome to our forum.
Yes Märklin switch motors 74491 have frequent issues with end switches.
Yes, something purchased on ebay has no Märklin warranty unless the seller gives you the purchase receipt to a Märklin dealership.
In my opinion, you better get a soldering iron (see USB soldering irons from 6€), a long nose plier, open the motors and short-circuit the end switches. I have done this on all my 74491 because until recently Märklin never solved this issue.
After you have done this, operation with a digital decoder (60832 or equivalent) is perfectly safe
In manual operation, you must push the buttons only a short time (less than a second) and then all is OK.

Cheers
Jean

Hi John
This problem on switch motors is an old one and I have personally experienced it since 1975 with Fleischmann and some Arnold in N gauge switch motors and with all Märklin HO ones in C track since 1996. I read that also Roco users complain about this. You didn't have the problem with M track (No switches).

I tried to repair or replace the micro switches, very delicate and wasted time and money. The switches are destroyed by the spark caused by the solenoid and the high current. Märklin obviously worked on this for years (at least 4 generation of switch motors: one switch, weak motors, 2 switches, stronger motors, new electronic components to limit sparks, etc.

But what works then?
The electronic components used by Märklin (and others) to switch on and off the solenoids (MosFET) withstand the current and the solenoid inductive load. I have over 60 of the 74491 motors and failing happens rarely now.
I have shorted the end-position switches on all my switch motors before they fail so that I don't have to crawl and work in impossible places (switches in intermediate or lower level of my layout). The result is great reliability, especially with recent decoders 60831 and 60832 because no matter the digital signal, they will switch OFF the solenoid after 200 to 500 mS. Earlier decoders (6083) were waiting for the switch-off digital order which, if missed would lead to the certain destruction of both the motor and the decoder.

Note: I have tried the early generation of Viessmann motors (4554) and they were noisy and all failed rapidly so I went back to Märklin.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Cheers
Jean

Bridging the contacts on the 74990/74991 micro switches will work but it does result in removing any cutoff protection.

I think the better solution is to replace both micro switches with resettable fuses. I've done a few point motors this way and they work fine, hopefully it works out to be a long term solution as well.

I used these fuses, obtained off Aliexpress - Resettable Fuses

As John suggests be careful when desoldering the switches as it isn't very hard to break the pcb tracks.

This issue was caused by a design fault. The original design did not have any capacitors to mitigate the back EMF when these little limit switch contacts opened on end of travel. The result is burnt contacts caused be the electrical arc created on opening. So after a few cycles there is enough of a burn to raise the contact resistance sufficiently to create an open circuit. I repaired all of mine by putting a 0.33 ufd surface mount capacitor across the outside terminal of the micro switch. Just cut out the unused center terminal of the micro switch and the capacitor fits in the space. I also added a 0.1 ufd capacitor across the coils. This required some very thin wire across the coil as there is no room. I also replaced the bad micro switches on mine. I still have all my original switch motors. Have never had a problem since

Hi
Sorry not to agree but those tiny components Märklin added are surge suppressors (supposed to short electrical signal past a given voltage).
Turns out the life of the micro-switches is not noticeably increased by it. Buy 20 of these switch motors, use them for one year then how many are still working at the end? Certainly not all.

The component discussed before is a thermal protection wired in series with the solenoid to protect. This takes much more space, requires to be thermally connected w. the load to protect. Works absolutely fine.
Cheers
Jean

Hi Kimball
"Have Märklin actually modified this system in the 74491 product to alleviate the problem?"
To be fair, they tried many times (at least 4 generation of 74490 / 74491 / 74492) and they improved the product but it is still not perfect. Märklin is not the only one to have this problem. The make the problem worse, Märklin should develop a smaller motor if they want to finalize the sleek double slip switch in C track.

How to cure the problem?
- in digital operation, shorting the micro switches solves the issues because decoder can withstand cutting off the power and because recent decoders have a local duration security (factory-set to 200mS). I had only ONE problem since I did this 20 years ago on approx 50 motors).
- in manual operation, shorting would work but not against "heavy fingers" (pushing the button for more than 1 second)

Note: the thermal cut-off switch works perfectly but its size makes it difficult (impossible?) to integrate in the flat casing especially if you attach the component to each solenoid). I have personally used them to my entire satisfaction in large solenoids (but not 74491).

Note: In manual operation, there is a method I did not test: to insert in series of the switch motors, a large capacitor (at least 220micro F) with a resistor (1 K) in parallel to discharge the capacitor. But most large capacitor are POLIRISED (they cannot stand a reverse voltage) so it must implement while using DC to drive solenoids

I wish I could have a simple solution for you but alas I have none. Sorry
Jean

I have these, but are first issue, not a set. They derail at will, depending on room temperature, speed, even on a level flat turnout or a C track radius 1,or 2 curve. It doesn't seem to matter wether I use the drawbar current couplers, or the current conducting close. The whee sets have also fallen off during operation. Sad because I installed led lighting kits, and they look nice with figures.

Dumb post and off topic removed.