This level of speed is set from Marklin,you can change it.The type of the motor each loco have is not the same,so you can see many
differences between the locos.I hope i help you a little,wellcome
to the forum,you gonna find answers here for every question you
have.

Yes the bell sounds when in when in shunting mode, I guess they thought it was only used for moving cars around. All though in most US operations it is also used when entering and leaving a station, and thats when it would be nice to have the smooth breaking and acceleration. It was a way to get more out of a cheaper decoder.
try to set the speed faster, mine seems to run at a decent rate, not out of scale fast like my old analog BR 24 that I converted to digital but it is has a good rate. its one of my favorite models.

Welcome to the forum, Harold. Mikado may have a few quirks compared to other M* locos, but she is also a favorite of mine. Enjoy her!

Hi!

With a soldering iron you can disable one of those two functions ...
... or asign the bell sound to a different function output.
I daren't do that.

Maybe add a second decoder and switch the bell sound with a secondary address.

Welcome to us, Harold.

Hi Harold - here come your manual, ready to go ...
Since she isn't that fast you can set top speed to MAX, anyway. Definitely prototypically [^]
And please don't mind about my address #6 (since she's an H6 that address was just logical ...)

Welcome to the forum, have fun
John

post scriptum: Sorry for being late but we've just returned from our vacation

hjq2y and John Black, well done and nuf said. I raised the speed of my Mike after the first run. It was a little slower than I was used to. I also always change the code to fit my system. However, the real Mike is also a little slow in reality. I've worked and been on one and it's a beautiful little steamer and is also quite strong. bob

In the diagram that John posted under the adjusting the volume section it has a note that says "Adjusting volume, the circuits in the tender can generate a certain level of warmth without damaging the latter."

I wonder what that "certain level of warmth" limit is? I always fear cooking down a circuit board.

Hey John, re: my experiences with the real McCoy (Mikado) During the 90's I was able to help out at the Sumpter Valley RR in far Eastern Oregon. It's a tourist road that has been in existence for over 30 years. It originally was a logging and mining RR from around 1889 to 1940 or so. By 1970 or so the local restoration group had been able to find some of the original stock, in different parts of the world, and bring them back to Sumpter for rebuilding. Much of the work has been done by volunteers at their local shop but the #19 Mike was rebult in Portland at a cost of several hundred thousand. At that time it was converted to an oil burning steamer. When I first saw it, # 19 was a rust bucket sitting in their yard. Mike #20, still sitting in the yard, is awaiting restoration.

My favorite is the wood burning 2-truck Heisler and much of the work on that was done locally. I believe the 2 Mikes were found in Alaska rusting away after long service in the Yukon. The Portland shop did a beautiful job and many of the parts had to be fabricated as most of those old locos were scrapped during WW11. The #19 Mike is used considerably during the summer season as it's very reliable. I worked as a switchman and brakeman mainly on the Heisler but was also around the Mike in the later years. I pretty much rode in the caboose where there was a pot bellied stove for keeping warm on cold days. Sometimes I was able to ride back in the cab. What a thrill that was watching the fireman stoking the fire with wood. You don't need a stove to keep warm in there. I worked there occasionally over a period of 3 or 4 years until I found it too hard to drive over there. It was a thousand mile RT from my ranch here in Northern California, which is a lot for a frequent weekend trip.

The site is an old gold mining area and piles and piles of rock from one of the dredges can still be seen covering the whole valley. As a boy in the late 30's, when the arrival of the train was still a daily event, I always waited for that shrill steam whistle, which bounced off the mountains, every afternoon when I would run down to the depot and watch the train. That whistle sound still haunts me when I hear it today. It was an amazing sight for a 9 year old of that day. Sumpter, them, had a population of about 200 and most worked on the gold dredge or the lumber mill up the road. Mikes and Heislers and other wood burning steamers were the main stay of that era. A lot of Shays were used too. My mother and grandmother, who lived in a gold mining camp, used to ride that train, over the mountains, a distance of 120 or more miles to go shopping in Baker City, the only city of note, population of ~5k. That was in the early 1900's when there were very few roads for cars, and not many cars either. It was stil the horse and buggy period.

If any of you get out to the western US some time, and since you're into trains, be sure to look up the Sumpter Valley RR in Sunpter, Oregon, USA. It's in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon and operates every weekend for tourists during summer months. You will never forget the ride. I've seen many Europeans on those rails over the years and they always seem to be able to find it even though it's way, way out in the boonies as it is. The scenery is spectacular also and an authentic gold dredge (restored) is located at the end of the run.

By the way, I have a Mike a Heisler and a Big Boy in my Marklin digital collection. The Heisler is a beautifully done Riverossi model converted to Marklin digital. Those 3 steamers are always the favorites of visitors to my train room. I also have a large number of PA's (both double and single) and a F7, a GP35 (converted to Marklin digital), and finally a DB ICE train which doesn't fit my western motif, but it has it's own track and I like it anyway. Bet those folks in my fictional "Equity Junction Nevada" get a little confused everytime the ICE train comes to town. Bob

Great job you & the other guys did, Bob. Thanks a lot for your report !

Here is the Mike coming into the mill loading area at Equity Junction, NV

Excellent! Many thanks for the information about the Heisler. I consider to run such a Heisler on my own layout, but I have no clue about how to mount the slider under the very short trucks.
My other option: to leave the Heisler as a 2R model, and install an extra layout module with 2R section. So it won't be able to run on my main line, but I suppose this forest railroad loco did prototypically almost never run on main line tracks.

Regards

Hans Martin

Very nice steam, rhtastro.