Welcome news for Marklin C track lovers!

The missing C track piece is finally here from Märklin.

I just read it in the Märklin Insider magazine that I received yesterday.

Most of us picked up on this from the Autumn New items ... about 2 months ago.

Well, there are links to downloadable PDF copies put on this forum, and there was some discussion about it at the time.

Uh oh I realized I used the wrong emoji instead of as this is wonderful news!

Edited by user 10 January 2023 15:56:10(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi

Yes the flex track is difficult because of the C Track extremities, molded in hard plastic but companies like Faller mastered the injection technique of different plastics in different places.
Never underestimate human ingenuity.
Jean

Just construct the studcontact on the underside like an infinite connected Z or reversering E:s (similar to how it's done on K-track) and it could be easily bent and still maintain it's place.


It's the rails that will have to be able to either be cut to length or be able to slide into each other.


Great news the slim double slip finally is comming.

Märklin applied for a patent for flexible c track years ago..

If i find my copy of the application , ill post it hete.

Henrik

Hi Henrik
Very interesting indeed but, the patent dates back in 1989 when the C Track was being finalised.
It does not show - I think - a proposed solution to include a flexible rail segement compatible with a normal C track

In my opinion:
- Märklin is definitely working on this
- the difficulty is to mix flexibility (use of elastic and soft material) with the extremity connections (hard plastic).
- the possibility of cutting such a flexible track and still being able to connect it to other C-Track elements is imperative
- One possibility for Märklin is to provide two components: (a) the soft, flexible track as we know it today with other track types and (b) an extremity piece to connect to a C-Track element.
- so the extremity piece must be compatible with a perpendicular cut of the flexible track (if possible, self connecting and self attaching). Tricky but not impossible.

Just my opinion
Jean

I wonder when Märklin will start to sell the slim double slip.

I also wonder how they are going to pull the rails into the right position with just one standard motor.

It is due in Q2, so by end of June.

U2, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for…

On Stummi forum there now are some pictures in this thread.

https://www.stummiforum....leis-Revolution-100.html
Stummi, C-Gleis revolution

"Joe's Modellbahnlaedle" is now showing double digit stock of the 24720

My preorder with lokmusuem is now showing a percentage allocation for me but i was quite late to preorder.

I’m currently testing the 12 degree slim double switch.

So far most locos run well or very smooth on this new switch. No problems with newer Märklin locos or the Dekas TMZ and TMY. Also Roco Swedish Rc and Dm3 runs nice as well as both the G6 and MaK1206 from Piko.

The mechanism works very well!

This is a very nice piece of track and the Trix version will look better.

The long time for release is most likely linked to the newer history of Marklin. First the older owner failing in economic control and leadership over the firm and Märkling focusing on really odd models and economic decline followed. Then the takeover of Märklin by a cash-grabbing firm with less interest in developing, and declining quality control, and then later the sort of chapter-11-bankruptcy and finally the takeover by the current owner Simba-Dickey-group. The current owner decided it was time to go back to model railroad basics and halt non-profitable projects.

The development of more C-tracks was likely deemed too risky a project that did not show enough short-term profit.

Around 2016, Märklin brought the R3 curved turnouts, with big development costs. It was likely very difficult to get it compatible enough, specially with all the older stuff. Pair this with the overall downturn in model railroad sales.

Maybe the curved R3 sold better than anticipated? Maybe it sparked more interest in a wider radius? Maybe Marklin (and Trix) started to notice lost sales lacking the slim double slip compared to the other brands?

The coronavirus lockdown increased interest in model railroad, so maybe it gave that little extra push?