Hello,

I have an old Marklin DB Class V 200 locomotive. It is probably 60 years old and comes from my grandfather. It has been converted to digital 25 years ago with a MM decoder but the motor is very noisy and not very smooth. So I would like to renovate it.

I plan to use a LokSound v5 decoder but I have no idea what motor I should use. Marklin is selling some upgrade kit for motors. Are they good or should I look for alternative ?

I also plan to change old bulb light with LED. Do you know any kit I can buy with white/red LED ?

Any other advice ? It will be my first locomotive renovation

Thank you for your help

There are LokSound decoders that support mfx and will register automatically. Many Märklin locos were sold with factory-installed ESU LokSound decoders before/while Märklin developed the MSD.

There are several things to look out for:

a.) yes a 60944 high efficiency motor
b.) ball bearings on each side (front 4mm x 1.5mm x 2mm), rear: 5mm x 2mm x 2mm), how ever you need a tool to do this
c.) make sure the brushplate brushholders are resting on the brushplate and aren't raised (this also makes the loco run rougher and slower)
d.) Led's: this is a personal choice, whereas you drill holes for the marker lights and insert 2 leds: 1 white, 1 red or you can use the current bulb holder and get an insert into the bulb holder and use a led's white/red, the insert led holder has 2 holes for the led's and has also 2 empty holes whereas you can put the 3rd wire through, you need 2 resistors (1k),
e.) with the loksound 5 you have 2 options I would recommend: 21 mtc adapter plate or a Plux 22 adapter plate. ( it gives you 8 Aux functions) whereas the 8 pin will give you 6 Aux functions ( but you need an 8 pin wire harness for it.
f.) you can also add 2 cab lights but when you do this I would recommend you fit the Led's head/marker lights onto the housing and use a plug whereas all the wires from the led's (head/marker and cab lights are combined) and use a spare spot on the frame where you can fit the socket.
g.) there is heaps of room for the cube loudspeker
h.) choice how to program the cab lights: use the Aux function to be inserted at the "stop" for forward and reverse,
i.) use the light function: neon light, and add a cut off time for the cab light (when the loco stops the cab light will come on and when the loco is in motion the light will go off depending on the timer.
j.) motor room light could also be incorporated with the head/marker, cab lights.
k.) progtramming the motor: under motor you have a variety of different motors: use the Märklin highefficiency motor or leave it at default settings.
l.) to have a slow start reduce the minimum speed from 3 to 1
m.) if you want to go ahead with the ball bearings I could do this for you but you would have to send me the motor and the brushplate (not the perm. magnet)
n.) or the choice of a Faulhaber motor (SB Modellbau)

John