I just purchased a Marklin "Start Up" BR 74 which had been parted out from a starter set. It is equivalent to a 36740. There is also a version of this lok with sound. It low cost, but surprisingly well detailed. I am guessing made in China. The shell is plastic and the details are cast on. It is meant for the younger entrants to our hobby. I don't mind this as I as my hands are not as dextrous as they used to be and there is no fear of breaking something off when picking up the lok.

The lok runs very smoothly and is quiet at lower speeds. At the highest speeds there is a whining noise, so I will open it up and see if lubrication helps. It is quite light but has no difficulty pulling 4 three-axle coaches up the grades on my layout. I might also add some weight if I can find room.

The lok is advertised to have an MFX decoder. My central station (Intellibox) does not have the MFX protocol, but I was expecting to be able to control the lok with the old Marklin/Motorola protocol. The documentation hints that the address is 78, and I was worried when this did not work. I was going to try different addresses to find the correct one, but on a hunch I put the lok on the programming track and tried to read a DCC address. Turns out it did have a DCC address (3) and JMRI identified the decoder as a mLD/3. I then changed the DCC address to 74 and proceeded to adjust acceleration, braking, top speed to my liking, using JMRI to make the changes. I also enabled the shunting mode, a feature that was not advertised. I am now controlling the lok with DCC. Bonus!