I just received my 37473 Re 421 in the special livery advertising the new connection between Zurich and Munich. The SBB RABe 503 (ETR 610) are rolling directly between Zurich and Munich since December 2020 and a number of Re 421 bore this special livery in 2020 to advertise the new service.

The flagship of this route was the EC "Bavaria", consisting of one or two SBB Apm, one of the SBB's Apm Panorama coaches, a WRm restaurant coach and four or five of the Bpm coaches.

The model is my first Re 4/4 class locomotive with the new centrally mounted motor with cardan drive to both bogies. Compared to the older models, this new one has only two traction tires, one on each bogie. The older Re 4/4IIs/Re 421s had four traction tires one one bogie.

The new model has some interesting lighting functions. You can have the regular Swiss headlight functions or select either one or two red taillights. There is for the first time cab lighting and compartment lighting.

The model has a route specific station announcement. Train to Zurich Flughafen, St. Gallen and Munich.
This is interesting in that the only part of the trip for which this announcement would apply would be for Zurich HB and for Zurich-Oerlikon.

Maerklin has included a conversation between two passengers, one speaking "Bayrisch" and the other speaking "Schwyzerdüutsch"
Why a conversation within a train can be heard from far away from the train is beyond me...

I'll let you be the judge.


He is talking about how you can get from Zurich to Munich in 3.5 hours, but that connection only applies to the new service which started after the Re 421 to Lindau and diesel from there to Munich was replaced by through trains with the RABe 503. I also have a feeling that out of politeness, people talking to each other would try to use Hochdeutsch rather than going on in their own dialect...

Regards

Mike C

Actually, they are speaking Hochdeutsch, but each of them with his/her own accent. If the Swiss person were speaking in broad dialect, nobody would understand it.

But it also beats me why Märklin includes such a discussion in the sound emerging from the loco. Rather a useless or even childish feature.

David,

I really like some of the newer Roco models with sound (ICN, Taurus, Vectron, etc). Even Roco's newest Re 460 have improved sounds.
The older models (Re 4/4II, Re 6/6 and Re 460) have a very generic sound that does not sound like what I remember hearing in stations.

I think that gimmicky sounds are very tiring. How many times do you want to listen to the same conversation over and over again.
Whether it be a restaurant coach where the cook keeps burning the oil or this stupid conversation about how fast a connection between two cities is that did not even exist at the time of the conversation...

I would rather have announcements with the ultimate destination, ie "Eurocity nach Zürich", "EC nach München" as well as local and regional ones that leave options to use at different times.
My Roco BLS Re 4/4 has a nice one about a train to Domodossola with through coaches to Milano at the head of the train.

Roco Taurus (Leosoundlab/Zimo):



That's Cool!

Zuba Tech Re 460 (says ESU):


Here's the 37473 in flight Re 421 Zu-Mu.mov (5,172kb) downloaded 11 time(s).

Regards

Mike C

Märklin Re4/4 I 10044 TEE from 26604 Rheingold set has a nice feature, F11 activates a destination announcement that changes at each step following the Rheingold route.
So it says (in German)
going forward : next stop Basel SBB, then Basel, then Lausanne, then Bern, then Geneva.
Going backwards : next stop Geneva, then Bern, then Lausanne, then Basel, then Basel SBB.
Strange order.

Regards

It's really nice! I'm happy you were able to find one! Every place I've shopped is sold out. They have the plain red SBB livery, and red/blue cargo, but I want this livery, so I have pre-ordered a Roco. One shop also has the SBB cargo RE 620.

and now a little more about the model...

This is my first model of a Maerklin Re 4/4II with the new motor driven by cardan shafts. The model has a new chassis. The location of the mounting screw has changed, so it is no longer possible to swap shells with Maerklin models with the classic motor.
One thing that I have noticed is that the couplers seem to protrude more than the earlier models, which creates a greater space between the loco and the leading coach.
The model is not equipped with a close coupling shaft and the coupling shaft is still attached to the bogie.

Mechanically, the loco is nice and smooth. I cannot speak to the longevity, as I have only had the model for a short time and it has only run a few times.
The start up and stopping is nice and smooth. The loco runs very quietly. I don't think it will be as easy to maintain as the classic Maerklin motor.
Some of my newer models require the removal/detachment of the circuit board to lubricate the cardan/gear box. The classic design was simpler and IMHO safer to maintain as there was less manipulation required.

When I look at the advances in LED technology and how some of my models have red taillights at the outside, the 37473 has a variety of light functions (single white taillight, single red taillight, dual red taillights), but the red LEDs illuminate the entire headlight and not just the outer side, as it would on the prototype. They could have developed this a little more.

The cab lighting, for the first time, has about the correct intensity for a model. On a number of my Re 460s (not just Maerklin), the cab lighting gives off more lumens that the headlights on the model, so this was a pleasant surprise. The motor compartment lights are ok, but I have not seen enough images of the prototype to see whether this is prototypical and whether it can be seen more on one side than on the other due to the layout of the internals.

My other question was about the pantographs. When compared to the Re 6/6 (620), where the most recent models have had gray painted pantographs, this model once again has metal coloured pantographs. It might have been a nice added feature to have this rendered prototypically.

The final test, which I have not done, would be to pit the new model in a test of strength against another model, to see whether it can drag a loco pulling in the other direction or push a loco that was pushing towards it. I am a little hesitant as there is some concern that the cardan drive may not fare as well when head to head with another model.

That said, I got this model to have because A) I wanted this locomotive for my SBB EC consist, B) I love SBB locos in blue, C) I wanted to have one model with the new motor and D) I love this shade of blue.

I am deciding whether I want to order the Roco model too. I could use the Loco one with my 1/87 models and the Maerklin one with the coaches from my 43672, 42174 and 43065.
Either that or one could be dedicated to freight traffic as they have been since December 2020.

Underside with Slider. You can see the drive gears behind the slider and note the single traction tire on the rear wheel (top left)

You can see the new position of the screw for the shell, next to the Maerklin sticker.

Here we have a clear view of the underside of the bogie, with drive gears and slider clip slots. You can again see the single traction tire (bottom right).
The new bogie pieces have a lot more plastic than the older models which were largely made out of metal*.

Here you can see the top view of the model. The roof details are nicely done. The silver area is exactly as seen on photos of the prototype.
I have already addressed the issue of the plain metal pantographs. The wires on the roof are black on the prototype and not red as on the model.

The real loco: https://www.bahnbilder.d...macht-auf-die-neuen.html

* The classic bogie design: https://assets.catawiki....51-b31c-31ed3f1a809d.jpg

Regards

Mike C

Yes, I saw that, thnak's! There's my dislexia! I got my 29000 MS2 set from Canada last spring and shipping was an outrages $62.00 US dealers charge about $15.00

MY 37473 RE 421 is on it's way to me from Texas!!!!! Woweee cab lighting too!! The only feature on a locomotive I am missing is operating moving pantographs. I do have a TEE dining car with one. I have no current plans for catenary though.

There may well be no icon for it. Marklin have not done icons for every loco.

Ok, what is the lady saying on the short passenger dialogue? Eh, dis ist et
farchen or farchtung? This is a warning? I don't know the difference in high middle, nor low German, and neither does Google translator.

Well Adrian, one might possibly be myself!!