Hello Everyone,

I finally finished placing the catenary on the layout (altough not yet firmly fixed to the table)... And it works great but not like usual so,e things are not working as planned. The first issue is as followed:

My marklin 3044 (ea dhg500) doesn t seem to run very well on some parts of the catenary. I have already tried cleaning sleeper part of the pantograph, cleaning the catenary wire on those places (other loco s run well on those places, even the on sleeper point panto on the marklin 3322), but to no avail... When I switch the loco back to track power pickup it runs great. The pantograph look like it s new and the springs do their job well (or it looks like it...). So here I m dazzled??? Does anyone know what can be going on or a solution?

This is the loco I m talking about:



Another "issue" I have is with my marklin 3322, Db br194, where the sleeper point of the pantograph tilts backwards. On it s own it s not a big issue, but when reversing it bumps into everything on the catenary since it doesn t tilt to the opposite direction... Is this regular for that type of pantograph (hope not, because this is really stupid) or does something have to be adjusted???

This is an example on how it looks:



All help and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Kind regards,
Kristof

Hi Kristof,

How many power feeding catenary masts you use and how long distance from each other? Is the problem areas with EA 800 (3044) from long distance away from power feeding catenary mast?

Just some thoughts if it has something to do with it... As this EA 800 is so lightweight and ground contact can be worse from wheels to track and that pantograph type will not maybe give the best possible contact vs. "normal" pantograph.

Best regards,

Janne

have a look A.) the pantograph itself a little CRC may do the job and B.) clean the surface of the wiper.

Kristof,

If you have your feeder masts every 60 cm, then that must be very good. With newer Märklin catenary recommendation is every 2-3 meter between feeder masts, so yours are 3-5 times nearer each other which must be ok for sure.

By "normal" pantograph I mean the types that are regular, not single arm like this 3044 has. Normal like in Märklin locos for example 3022, 3034, 3035, 3036, 3037, 3038, 3050....

PS. CRC is sprayable oil (actually it is brand name, but if you say use CRC it means sprayable oil that is same than WD40 for example).

Best regards,

Janne

Yes, better to have more than less current feeding points at track and catenary. I have eight current feeding points at my layouts upper level approximately 2-3 meters from each other. I used thicker (larger) wires also. I will have later catenary to my upper level outer main line and feed between every 2-3 meters. New type Märklin catenary has good contacts as it has soldered mast arms. I will only use it to power my analog electric locos which are not so demanding for perfect current supply than Digital locos are. For my Delta and Digital electric locos it is only for looks, so this 2-3 meter distance between feeder masts must be enough for me.

Janne

Hey Janne, Dr D & all the others helping to find the solution,

First off all, the 3044 runs ok now, we recleaned the wire and altough it looked clean, it still was dirty... how looks can be deceiving. I also guess the 3044 was the loco the most vulnerable to the situation?

@ Janne: Thanks for the clearifaction, I didn't knew that brand, but wd40 is well known here. I m curious, do you have an example of the wire used? I also only use the functional catenary for the analog layout, the digital -to be build- layout will only have it for optical purposes, just like you say...

@Dr D.: Shouldn't it swivel back then when changing direction, because that is not happening.

Kristof

Ps: how is the wiper part called correctly in english?

Hi,

I think river6109 suggested CRC contact cleaner, and not CRC oil ?

Fred

The small shunter uses the old 7219 pantograph. These were notorious for not remaining flush to the catenary wire, which caused poor connection. You may wish to consider replacing the pantograph with a newer design from Sommerfeldt or Maerklin (if there is an updated model). This might require carefully separating the plastic base plate from the pantograph, so that you can reuse the feet for the new pantograph.

As far as the 194 (E94), you can try lubricating the spots where the wiper is mounted onto the pantograph, which might help the blade remain in better contact with the catenary. If this does not help, you can definitely look at replacement Sommerfeldt or other pantographs which are available for this model.

Regards

Mike C

It is either called the wiper or the blade.

Regards

Mike C

Hello everyone,

Thanks for the lot of replies :-). I 'll try to respond to them all, hoping to not skip over anyone.

@Janne: Halfly replied in the pb, they are the dhg500 (ie: 3078, 3080, 3144), dhg700 (ie: 3088) and of course another 3044. The new hobby models have different wheels...

@Mike C: That s a good thing to know, I ll suspect the pantographs first next time. This is the first time I really use working catenary, so I ll learn a thing or 2 on the way. Also since I m using this loco for my vintage layout, I really would like them to have the same looks (sommerfeldt would look to new, as would maerklins). But it s a handy tip, thanks. I can be of use for my modern rolling stock later on...

For the br194, the panto s are nearly new, so I really first am going to try to make these ones work and if that doesn t help, I m going to replace them. I still would find it a pity to replace new pantographs...

@Dr. D.: I would, if I knew how. I ll first try to lubricate it, like Mike said... Thanks for the link!

@Kdfvwmann: Everything is clean, and after cleaning the catenary the problem is fixed, at least for now... But thanks!

@br01097: I did clean off some of the dirt and plating on some of the catenary, which did a marvelous trick. I didn t knew that new catenary could be so hard to get good contact from...

Do you have an example of those height limiters? I m really curious about what exactly you mean...

@Mike (hennabm): I switched 2 wires on one place, without doing anything else and the problem was fully gone there... Really strange. Well I don t have the luxury of much spares, but will get some when the chance arrives.

Everyone, thanks for the help and good suggestions, I have learned a thing of 2 about catenary and the related issues

Kristof