Hi all,

I'm the lucky owner of 36120, Thomas the really unuseful engine. I know there have been a lot of threads on Thomas in the past, but I can't find one with quiet the issue I have. First off, my Thomas was purchased new...but its never run great, always been a bit jerky and occasionally derailed on my old layout. I have oiled him a few times to make sure everything is good.

Last night I was driving Thomas using MS2, and he stopped dead. Nothing would make him go again. I put him on a different section of track, tried under analog control, gave him a break for a couple of hours and tried again. No luck. Other locos of course are fine.

If I turn the motor coil by hand, the wheels turn without binding. I also took the motor off and everything in the chassis turned freely by hand. I think for this reason there are no split gears as I have previously read about. With the shell off, it does not appear the motor ever attempts to turn when powered. This would lead me to believe there is a motor failure or possibly the decoder. When attempting analog control, if I send a reverse pulse I can hear the slight buzz the decoder makes receiving the pulse.

I'm a bit at a loss as to how to troubleshoot this, can I test the motor with a 9v battery? Is there anything I can do to test the decoder with MS2? Is there some common problem with Thomas that I should look for?

Thanks in advance.

-Brandon

Edited by user 22 November 2013 14:38:48(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi Brandon,

My sons have also this 36120 Thomas. It is definitely not a very good running loco, but the more it has been run the better it has got. Have you tried to reset the decoder first? CV 8 and value of 8 should reset the decoder. I don´t like these new can motors. For me they look like very cheap toys from the 1980´s. But this is how it goes when everything has to be made very cheaply.

Cheers,
Janne

Edited by user 26 November 2013 10:36:11(UTC)  | Reason: typo

Hi Brandon,

I'm glad that I could help you . You can configure 36120 Thomas top speed and acceleration/braking delays (not separately though) as it has basically same features than Märklin 60760 decoders. As it does not have lights it is a bit more difficult to configure them if you do it like I do with CU 6021. But with CS2 it can be done more easily, I think... I will try to find it's box and instructions and see what you have to do...

I think the jerky running is caused from bad ground contact through the wheels. Our Thomas became a better runner when we just adjusted it's CV values. Here is how we have the settings (written with iPad that messes up the form I wrote it to, like you can see) :

Parameter: Register (CV): Value: We have this value:

Address 01 0-80 1

Acc/Brak.Del. 03 01-31 31 (max.)

Max. Speed 05 01-63 30 (enough )

Reset to ser. value. 08 08 -


Now it looks better as there is really some acceleration and braking delay and maximum speed is enough and it looks like "prototypically" maybe around 70 km/h. I also modified speedo for this loco to 0-75 km/h so it i nicer to drive it when there is not a speedo with 0-350 km/h. I actually always modify speedo for all my locos.

Try these settings and report if it runs even better then. It looks much better now when running, but I like to look more my steam locos than this one... But my sons like it also. Mostly nearly 3 year old one, as soon our 6 year old son likes more "the real like locos".

Cheers,
Janne

Janne,

Thanks for these suggestions. I adjusted the acceleration and braking delay CVs, Thomas runs better. I found for me that around 15 for acceleration and braking care good. It's much smoother with your values, but drivers with little hands don't understand acceleration/braking delay that well yet. :) I am guessing the longer delays hide the (probably) poor running characteristics of this particular motor. I figured how how to program CVs manually (as with the reset), but I also saw with MS2 that it is very easy to set max/min speed, acceleration and braking delays, volume (if applicable), etc.

Since these changes are stored on the decoder, do they impact analog running mode? It seems like Thomas runs a bit better under analog control as well, although it could be my imagination.

A generation question: Is CV8 generally the reset value for this type of decoder (60760), or with all decoders?

Thanks,

-Brandon

Brandon,

I´m glad that you got yours also to run better . Yes, max. acceleration and braking delay value of 31 may be a little too much for young drivers as they want to change loco speeds all the time and control it more directly. In this loco it is not possible to take the delay off, so your setting is easier for your kids. I have learned to my oldest son (soon 6 years old) that real trains are so heavy and it takes some time for them to accelerate and brake. Because of this also our Märklin models have some delay to simulate the prototypes. He understands this, but he has also been running many of my own locos with many functions and used to this delay already.

I also think that the longer delay hides bad running charasteristics, but this 36120 improves much when delay is programmed. I know that some locomotives can have acceleration and braking delay also in analog mode, but I don´t know if this one has as we have only run it on digital tracks.

As far as I know CV 8 with value 8 should be generally the decoder reset method for programmable Märklin decoders.

Cheers,
Janne

Before they decided to go mostly/all CGI these days...personally I enjoy the old Thomas episodes more. At any rate, interesting fact...I did not know that!

-Brandon

It seems like the sounds are very important to my sons also. From our around 150 locos only around 10 have running sounds or full sounds. Then many others have some whistle, bell or horn etc. I can understand that kids like the sounds, but for me the sounds are not the most important thing. I like the looks of the trains and also the scenery. I wish I would be better to do it. It is a many years learning process.

Today I was watching when my son was running locos on temporarily built M-track layout in our livingroom. He was driving green S 3/6 3092 pulling nine 24 cm long tinplate cars. He was driving with good old Märklin Super transformer and controlling by himself the "acceleration and braking delay" with the control knob . He said that the trains has to accelerate and brake slowly. Sometimes he speaks from scales, pantographs etc. to our other relatives. I just wonder WHY?

Cheers,
Janne