<font face="Times New Roman]</font id="Times New Roman]Dear Marklin Forum. I've recently gotten my layout partially wired-up and ready to run. After running a 3003 steamer with a set of passenger cars on my new layout, I noticed that it was encountering a lot of slippage. So, I checked and one of the rubber traction tires had broken off and was nowhere to be found. The next morning, I called several distributors in the United States to see if they sell parts for my Marklin 3003 steamer and others. Nobody had basic parts! I called two places, "Discount Trains and Hobbies" and "Reynaulds' Euro-Imports" and I had bought the engine originally from Reynaulds. They had no parts, and I don't know of any dealership in America that has replacement parts for Marklin engines. I live in Arizona and out here there is no decent hobby shops that stock Marklin equipment of anykind, and nobody I have contacted has even a basic inventory of products to sell, and they give me this tap-dance that they cannot even get parts or an inventory from Marklin USA and they have to order everything directly from Germany, and it's usually a four month wait minimum to get anything from there! I am asking you members out there if you know of anyplace whatsoever that specializes in European trains that might stock an inventory of Marklin products and basic replacement parts. Now, my father said a place that also does repairs might stock a decent inventory of basic parts, but I know of no one in the continental United States that stocks anything. Reynaulds is worthless, because they don't even have an inventory of engines and rolling stock let alone replacement parts, and they do not do repairs. It seems everywhere I call I get this same tap-dance that they have to order everything directly from Marklin in Germany! Four month wait minimum, and it isn't worth their time and effort to order just a set of traction tires for the price it's going to cost them in shipping overseas like that! So, please contact me and tell me if there is anyplace whatsoever that stocks an inventory of products and repair parts. Thank you very much! Good-bye for now.[:(!]

On http://www.maerklin.de you will find the "Explosionszeichnungen" at http://produktadmin.maer...les/1/pdf/3003_explo.pdf . According to this, the rubber traction tires are N.o. 7153 (Haftreifen). You can order these e.g. from http://www.lokshop.de , the cost is 1.65 EUR (i.e. less than 2 USD). However, they will add charges for freight etc., so my recommendation is that you should combine this purchase with other supplies from e.g. Märklin. It's not always need to have a reason to buy M.R. stuff from Germany...

Peter

Mate

You can get the basic part numbers from the Marklin Service Manual - coded 0733.

You can download this in e-format from Marklin.com.

Any decent shop should have these basics.

The traction tires are a generic part, just a few different ones fit all the M-loks, that's why it's a 4-digit number (7153 is the most widely used one BTW). The true replacement parts are 6 digits and are not part of the regular catalog program.

www.modellbahnott.com sells the tires and other generic replacement stuff light lightbulbs online (some parts are Brawa substitutes but they are OK.) www.curthel.com is a repair place in Wyoming that seems to have plenty of everything for lok service on hand. Their labor rate is very reasonable too.

I'm looking for parts dealers in the USA, not Europe or Australia. (I should've specified that.) I have the part number, I'm just having trouble finding a dealer with an inventory of parts in stock. Everybody either has to special order parts from Germany, or they give me a tap-dance saying it's too much trouble. The part number is no problem. It's just finding the parts I need in-stock and ready for shipment. Okay? So, I hope that gives you more information. Sry I didn't reply sooner. I just got my comp up and running, and it was down for about a week. Thank you very much for your patience.

I can recommend www.curthel.com. I bought my first new lok (3322) from him back in the 80's. He has since retired (Ha!) and moved to Wyoming. I think he now does outsource repairs for US shops.
His web site has a number, give him a call.

Since you live in the US - at least ask Jacques for parts, as mentioned before.. (He lives in California) Then compare his prices & availability with the others...