I mentioned in ‘Show us your locomotives’ 2 days ago about the BR280 I had just bought that morning and its disappointing performance. I thought I would run it in on my Noch Tessin as my smaller Noch layout didn’t agree with it - it needed constant nudging and when it did go kept derailing.
Yesterday I tried it on another test board - an oval using 145mm curves with a simple turnout and a switching track in the straights. Whilst as with its brother the V80 the speed is lacking it did work ok around this flat circuit in both directions, but at anything lower than max speed the switching track will stop it.
This morning I got the Tessin out, the 280 won’t go around the inner circuit without derailing on the sharp curves and simply stopping at random - it doesn’t have the speed to carry it across dodgy bits. It crawls around the outer circuit in one direction but the rear bogie derails every time it encounters a curved turnout in the trailing direction.
Off came the body to have a look at why the bogies/trucks do not easily turn to find that they don’t have the traditional method of securing them with a pin. The wires coming out of the trucks are impeding their movement but when running it without the body it does manage both circuits with just the occasional hesitation.
This 280 along with its brother the V80 are both real turkeys and I was mad to buy another. Unless you have a dead flat layout with no points or circuit tracks you should avoid both unless you want it as a static exhibit because they do look good.

The red 103 (88545) which arrived from Germany the same morning is super which has made up for some of disappointment.
ChrisG

Also loving my 88545! Too bad about the other…

Has anyone here seen this kind of arrangement in any other Z scale locos? I think Arnold use a similar arrangement in N, but I've not seen it in our scale. I'm wondering if Marklin have bought in a third party design and, if so, whose?

Cheers


Chris

Hello. Hope all is well.

It is surprising to hear disappointing news about this model. I thought it would be a better operating model by now.

Stiff bogies might be a sign it was not assembled correctly. My Br100/212 model are like that. When not assembled exactly, the bogies are stiff moving and do not pickup correctly or negotiate curves. Now before finishing up work on this model I check for this problem. Could this be a problem similar to what you are experiencing? Looking over the parts diagram it seems a new design was adopted.

Just a possibility. I don’t have experience with this model. A 103 is a fantastic model, even the older ones.

Take good care.

Dwight

I can’t believe it’s me who’s relatively happy, for once!

Looking closely at the coupler, I see it is without the chamfer that characterises modern Marklin products. The coupler is actually very reminiscent of the Rokuham arrangement.

Do you think this might be a Rokuhan designed chassis? I don't have any proper Rokuhan locos to compare against.

Cheers


Chris