HI,

When this loco was announced I was initially not too excited as the cost seemed very high for such a small loco.
But since then I have been warming up to it, and am now thinking it might be a nice addition to my E44 fleet.

My question, if you have this loco, can you share a pic of the loco with the Pantograhs retracted.
reason why I ask, I have the BR144 37443, which also has the digital Pantographs, and the retracted position is too low, the arms touch the front of the cab roof, sagging downwards appearance.
It looks rather unfortunate..

Thanks,

An interesting and enjoyable video which unfortunately highlights a personal annoyance about some of my Z gauge min-club locos.
Having spent most of my working life in various rôles with British Railways and it’s successors the idea of having taillights illuminated on anything other than the last vehicle in a train is anathema to me.
Can’t speak for other railway concerns but the idea of a taillight is to indicate that the last vehicle is there and therefore the train is intact and hasn’t become divided. In places where traditional ‘block signalling’ still prevails the signalman (now renamed ‘signaller’) has to see the taillight before considering ‘train arrived complete’. Continuous track circuiting or axle counters nowadays usually perform this function.
Whilst numbering amongst the many gee-gaws that Märklin H0 locos currently sport, that is in this case the ability to turn off and on the white and red lights on the locos, there is a tendency to get full value from our purchases and have as many of the functions as possible working at once. Here I tread on dangerous ground and re-state that I keep the annoying sounds firmly switched off on my H0 stock - one initial admiration of the melodic strains is enough for me.
However with my mini-club locos it is not possible to to turn off the lights so when the loco is hauling, the front of the next vehicle is bathed in a bright red glow and, when propelling, the rear of the adjacent coach is floodlit by the headlights, both unrealistic.
Just as well that Märklin no longer produce British outline models since headlight configuration changes according to whether it is dark or light and when shunting is being performed and I can’t envisage how this could be replicated.
I bought the first Märklin H0 loco which featured the ability to raise and lower the pantographs remotely when it first appeared- a class 103 I think- and admired the function but since I had no catenary the pantos stayed fully retracted thereafter anyway.
Just my two pence worth.
ChrisG