Hello,

I purchased the new V200 released this year (37806) and I noted that, compared to the same V200 released a few years ago (39804) which I also own that this one has much less power; while the 39804 could easily push and pull a 8 cars consist the new one (37806) has quite some trouble pushing the same consist (the wheels slide). I was wondering if any of you noticed the same thing.

Nowadays one has to understand that the ref number (37xxx or 39xxx) says absolutely nothing about the motor or the gear of the loco.

The old V200 with 39xxx ref number have two powered axles.
The new V200 with 37xxx ref number have four powered axles. The old V200 with 37xxx ref number have two powered axles.
The old one is a good puller, the new one disappoints according to Leitner's experience.

In my experience many locos with four powered axles are good pullers. But the typical Märklin configuration is two powered axles with four traction tyres versus four powered axles with only two traction tyres.
Four powered axles look superior on the paper, but due to the reduction in traction tyres the locos are sometimes not as strong as expected.

I avoid models that Märklin "downgraded" from two powered axles to centrally mounter motor and four powered axles like the V 200, so I do not have own experience with the new cost-optimised designs.

@Leitner Do the locos have similar weights? Or is the new design much lighter?
Maybe the traction tyres are oily or greasy - this sometimes happens when they are not careful at the factory.
Is the pulling power the same in both directions? Sometimes it helps to reverse the loco.

I have bought a few SBB Traxx locos 36xx series and the same happens with only 2 rubber tyres but I've exchanged the axles with another 2 rubber tyres but there is another problem because the rubber tyres are diagonally attached on 1 bogie you need to buy an extra 2 axles to obtain 2 rubber tyres and this at a cost of Euro 60.00 nearly as much as I've bought the loco for.

John

I received my 37806 last week and was somewhat taken a back by your experience . All locos of that model that I have are fairly heavy and have great pulling power.

I have over 40 V200/BR220/BR221 (granted half are the old analogue models), but I did check my latest Märklin locos and, yes, you are correct they all have four tyres.

So with trepidation a took the new 37806 (with only two tyres) to the club to give it a run, wondering whether it would make our steepest incline at 3.5%.

I decided to give it a real test and had nine Märklin passenger coaches behind it, a mixture of the long and standard plastic coaches, some with lighting and others without (the lighting shoes on the carriages can put a strain on the pulling situation)

Here's the video of the run (I had the CS2 set at speed of '90' - what ever that means )





As you can see, it had no problems what so ever.

So, I'm happy with my model.

Maybe yours was a 'Monday' or 'Friday' model

When the wheels with tyres are in the front truck ?

I also always run locos with the powered bogie at the back and the slider at the front. Everybody knows you get more traction with rear wheel drive than with front wheel drive!