I don't know what is going on with Märklin or where this brand is going to. I run my trains every weekend. And, sure enough, every weekend, there is a new issue with some electronic component. Now it is my precious weathered 37992 Big Boy. The operating sounds work intermittently or not at all. It may be the speaker in the tender; it may be the decoder. Go figure! Could it be that Märklin only use the cheapest electronic components on the market to fit on their locomotives?

It's a lot of money that one has to spend downstream because of repairs. I am a total layman when it comes to electronics, and unfortunately cannot or dare not do any soldering work. Checking or changing the speaker or decoder demands precise soldering. So I have to ship the locos to some authorized Märklin dealer. And of course, all of this happens shortly after the warranty period has expired.

I don't know how to convey my words of frustration to the would-be Märklin management. Maybe it will serve no purpose. I don't think they give a damm anymore. It is much easier in Germany (or elsewhere in Europe), where you can take your loco yourself to the next dealer down the street and have it repaired. But here in the United States or in Canada for that matter, you usually have to ship elsewhere. In my case, Houston, TX, has no Märklin authorized dealer as far as I know.

I don't have any Roco, Fleischmann or Electrotren locomotives in my collection. I was wondering if those of you who do own locos by other manufacturers also often experience similar problems. I have a friend who has Trix locos and he is very unhappy with some of them. Conversely, he owns some Brawa and Electrotren locos and says that they are excellent.

I don't want to tempt fate, but I have to say I haven't had any electronics problems in a long time.

The last time I had a decoder failure was on my 3782 Br221, which had a 6090 decoder of 1990's vintage. I replaced it with a 60902 decoder.

I agree with Davy that it seems that ESU have been the cause of some of Marklin's recent electronics failures.

Brawa also use ESU decoders, why don't their products present the same problems, or do they? I own some Brawa products as well. My S2/6 steam loco continiously derails. The other Brawa stuff i have is fine.

It is the luck of the draw, sometimes you get a perfect product and other times you end up with a lemon. Which just goes to show that the quality control in the manufacturing plants are not good.

What do we do to object, do we stop buying these brands, to replace them with what? I wish i knew the answers. It is costly to purchase these products and just as costly to send them to Europe for repairs.

Most 2009 new items are completely ESU free (including BR 141, 140, 110, 23, 39, E 10.12, 189, ...).
Time will tell how long those will last.

Many M* locos with ESU LokSound decoders and sound problems have a dead speaker: I don't know if these are ESU speakers. So maybe it's not fair to blame all those muted locos on ESU.

¡Hola Armando!

It would be time to make me a very good price on your Big Boy when next time in Montreal ! I am able to solder ...

Pierre.

Tom. Interesting to note that Marklin newer items are not ESU. In the past ESU has caused a lot of problems with decoders and control systems and hopefully a new supplier will be better.
I expect the speakers will be ESU and supplied with their decoders.
Most of my Marklin has been reliable and I have not had any failures with Brawa (but I dont have many)

Armando. Lots of threads on Marklin quality control over the past couple of years and there is a certain amonut of luck in what we buy.
I might be a good idea to practice soldering as in model rail it is almost essential although you could ask why for a loco costing a lot of cash.

dave

I can't begin to tell you how much I miss not being able to count on your technical skills over here.
(P.S. On se reverra à Montréal en avril 2010 pour fêter mes 50 ans !)

we used to call these "dry joints" it happens in all electronics, it can be a design fault but mostly is the way solder has taken to the board and has just linked and with time a gap develops. So many of these boards human hand never touches them its only when they go wrong that humans look at them.The manafacture and testing is all automated, and if it faulty they just put a whole new one in its cheaper to do that,thats just the way the electronics game works and as fast a problem develops someone has produced something that does 10 or 100 what last years model does, so don't just think it's marklin it happens with playstations, xboxes, Ipods and so on ive seen them all in 25 years in electronics

I must keep you in remaind,that there is severals points who don´t works fine and well.
Marklin and of course Trix did had problems with own cinus motor and PCB onboard locomotivs.
There has been troubleshooting from Marklin company with this kind of "ghost" driving capacity.
It don´t been necessary by blaiming against China,to producing worse quality of models.
Marklin did had own problems byself too.
ESU sounddecoder is not made in China.
It´s all has to do about with bad control quality from staffpersonal.
That´s my opinion!

Well I've got some news for you.
Unless you send the whole loco, they're not going to repair it under warranty.

regards.,
John

I've send my decoder back from an 03 Starterpack) and first they've denied receiving the parcel, than they've denied getting my decoder. the end result was: We haven't received your decoder and even if we would of received it we would not of repaired it.

Yes, this is an example of a 'good' customer service from Marklin..[xx(]

The cost of re-sending the whole Lok back to Germany for overseas customers like us could easily buy a couple brand new Lokpilots - in case of a large item like Big Boy; might as well buy a brand new Loksound.

From my point of view is, well, Marklin screw this one up; rather than playing hard ball with them, I'll buy from ESU instead, thanks.

Marklin seem to forget that they are counted among the largest supplier / manufacturer of loco digital decoders in the world. Naturally they should expect to receive the largest amount of complain of decoder failure - assuming that failure rate of decoders of all brands is the same. Simple math.

All M* have to do upon receiving a decoder from a customer is just to check whether it is legit - came from the model that the customers said it came from. And then check the functionality of the decoder; fix when necessary.

So it is very unreasonable for them to request such from customers.
They must be assuming that either their customers are all;
a. Brainless vegetables
b. Untrustworthy scammers

Of course, it's going to cost them more to re-send the model back to customers (at their expense) as opposed to a single decoder.

Hi Armando.

Have you tried these places? These two are just authorized dealers, and not premier dealers, in Houston:

AJ Model Trains
10910 Katy Fwy #156
Houston TX 77043-4903
P: (713)467-9075
admin@ajmodeltrain.com

Papa Ben's Train Place
2506 South Boulevard
Houston TX 77098
P: (713)523-5600
F: (713)523-6606
papabens@pearlman.com

As for Premier Marklin dealers, that do the repairs, there are two elsewhere in Texas:

Collectible Trains & Toys
13615 Welch Rd. #103
Farmers Branch, TX 75244
800-462-4902
214-373-9469
Fax: 214-373-1622
sales@trainsand toys.com

Annie Jewel & Charlie's Kids
Parker Square Shopping Center
2915 Bob Ave.
Wichita Falls, TX 76308
940-763-2525
Fax: 940-766-2241
http://www.ajckids.com
service1@ajckids.com

Keith.

Hi Stephan,
Yes, I do. I run my trains with a CS2 (latest official software installed). I believe the problem is the speaker that is damaged (cheap and lousy quality component).

Hallo Stephan,
Thanks again for your note. Indeed, I noticed this problem after the latest update. Hadn't thought about it. I could try the loco with my "goody-oldie" 6021 control unit.
I'll report tomorrow.

Hallo Stephan!

I tested the Big Boy with a 6021 control unit. Unfortunately, the same problem persists: intermittent sounds or no sounds at all. It must probably be the speaker - or worst case scenario, the decoder-inside the tender. I will have to ship it to Ken at Walther's for repair ($$$$).
Thanks for your input.

It´s not a myth; The products of excellent quality that they once made, are still excellent! ;-)