Hey y'all!


I'm a complete novice Marklin owner with an old blue 220v Märklin Super transformer, and I think I've messed something up. I'm running a little 89028, and it was working well, but my lovely girlfriend pressed in on the control knob a few times in rapid succession in an effort to reverse it. Well, it went in reverse, but immediately stopped being able to move forward. Now, it can neither reverse nor go forward. When I give it juice, it just buzzes.

I whipped out another analogue loco, the incredible (to me) 44 690. Now this one A. lights up, so it's definitely getting power and B. can reverse without any issues at all, but it still can't move forward.

I did a lot of forum lurking and found some info about possibly a too-tight spring that makes it easy to reverse but difficult to go forward. I've tried unplugging and replugging, checking all the connections that I can find, tidying up the locomotives themselves.

The transformer, track, and locomotives are all fairly old and haven't received the maintenance they deserve, so there's also the possibility it's some hardened oil or something, but it's really puzzling to me that the 89028 was working so well before our reversal of fortune (get it?).

Any insight or ideas would be appreciated!

There a couple of possibilities with both locos.

First the field coil on the motor consists of two windings which have a common connection that goes to one motor brush, and the other two connections go to the reversing unit. It is possible one of the windings has gone open circuit for some reason, which will result in the motor turning only one direction. There are several possible reasons for the open circuit, but common ones are the wire breaks where it comes out of the plastic bobbin it is would on, or breaks where it is soldered onto the reverse unit.

Second the reverse unit could need adjustment. If it is the type that has a rotating assembly the contacts that make the switch on the side of the rotating piece can need (careful) adjustment to make proper contact. This can be verified by gently pushing on them to see if that helps. if it is the type of unit with a yoke that toggles back and forth then sometimes the yolk piece doesn't settle back to make contact with the fixed contacts.

But I would suggest you look at carefully cleaning and oiling both motors and gear trains. As these appear to have been out of use for a fair while the oil is likely to have dried out and a little lubrication will go a long way to helping it run. It doesn't need much, just a drop here and there.

IIRC there is a PDF of a Marklin maintenance guide on this forum. Perhaps someone has a link to it, which will help you understand what is required.

Doh, why didn't I remember that

The relevant manual is 0733 towards the bottom of the second post.