Hi guys,

I have my own business and was just playing with an idea of incorporating MRR to it. So I came up with the idea of creating small winter MRR layouts that I could rent to local businesses for their shop windows during christmas time. Not so original idea, but could make a few euros with it and if no one wants to have it, I’d have at least the demo track at home for the hollidays

So what should I consider carefully?

- Definitely analog
- No turnouts
- Only one loco per track
- No gradients
- Timer switch to cut power off during night time

But what to consider with the locos? I guess they would be running 16 hours a day for 2-4 weeks. Can Märklin locos take this?

Best regards,
-Eino

It is true that most of the time, there propably would not be spectators at the model.

In order to minimize point of failures I'd keep it more simpler... maybe just a simple timer that would cut the power with circuit track perhaps for a 30-60 seconds and then the loco would run another round.

Or maybe have a physical push button. This would only work if the model would be located in a waiting lobby or similar. Push button would turn the circuit on and circuit track would cut it. That way the loco would travel one full round with one push. This would however complicate the structure of the layout as the controls could not be physically attached to the baseboard (kids would most likely cause the loco to fall from track if pushed too hard and fighting over who get's to push next)...

Great to hear that Märklin locos could at least in theory take it. Don't know if 30-60 second stops would make much of a difference though.

-Eino

Hi
@Eino: the reason I mention optical sensor is because the vast majority of shops will not accept to have a hole drilled for the cable and how to fix temporarily a physical switch outside?
@Åke I didn't know this. Seems great and fulfilling the need I mentionned earlier.
Cheers
Jean

This is absolutely true.

I didn't really think of putting any interaction, but maybe some rethinking should be in order. In my previous job we did a lot of christmas windows with interaction (though I was not in the electical engineering team, but software). The temperature isolated special glasses in we use in Finland really caused all kind of trouble back in those days.

BR,

-Eino

Some Märklin manuals indicate that locos should be lubricated after 20 hours of use, for some models it is 40 hours of use.
You may stretch those periods at own risk when you prepare the locos carefully.

This applies to older models of the 37 series without wormdrive. But yes, this will reduce the required maintenance.

Keeping it simple I am tempted to put an old 3000 on a circle of M track and just let it run and run.

Maybe I should turn it round every few hours...

I wonder how long it would last?

Hi,

I was digging old Märklin Magazines and found this from 4/1978 magazine.

BR18 (3093) running with wagons for 25 days! 599,51 miles / 964 kilometers a new world record!



Cheers
Åke

Hi Eino,

For the last couple of years I had my winter analogue m track layout displayed at our local library during the festivities seasons. It was incredible popular with both young and olds.

It was put in a display room with front windows to the street. Ran on a simple programmable power timer switch for 10 min every 30 minutes during library hours. You can see it in action here:

https://m.facebook.com/p...ailway/1281279505539512/

However the last Christmas I just put a simple oval track up as it was quite intense work getting it installed ( size is approx 2x1m). I also started getting performance issues and ended up attending to it every 2-3 days...

Some of the issues were:

1. It would need regular cleaning of tracks and wheels every 5-6 days
2. The layout had gradients and occasional a wagon would get decoupled, despite using the reliable Roco couplers
3. I had 2 brand new digital BR-24 with can motors. One of them only lasted 4 weeks and I had to replace the motor.
4. You need to find the right balance in terms of speed (avoid stalling and going to fast and risk derailing). You can adjust cv settings for digital loco that’s running in analogue mode.
5. Despite changing all the small springs in the m track turnout a couple of turnout would get slack and the switch wouldn’t spring back fully after the train had passed.

My suggestion:

1. Use C track if you can. More reliable and quiet. For a shop assistant to listen to m track noise all day can be quite overwhelming.
2. Setup a analogue and simple system with as few turnouts as possible.
3. Avoid gradients and having everything completely flat.
4. Consider getting some fixed couplers
5. Definitely don’t let it run full time. Either use a schedule or some sort of user activation.

By the way, I initially build this layout with the same idea as you, to rent out to businesses. There was a lot of interest from local business but unfortunately most of our businesses that could afford it and had the shop space available was owned by franchises and it was very hard to convince them as they needed permission from the corporate side of the business.

You can find more information on my build here. There may be some good tips you can use including how to make it light weight:

https://www.marklin-user.../posts/t41132-An-Alpine-

Good luck. It’s a great idea and can bring lots of joy.

Best Regards
Lasse

A good idea for a shop window. Anything that moves attracts the people. I have done this. The best engines for running a long time without a service are Roco locomotives. Use C track. On my layout three trains were running on a course with turnouts. Unfortunately I used old M tracks- not a good idea unless you only have train with 4 axle coaches. Make sure that each train has a stop for a moment so the motor of the engine cannot heat up too much.

Macy's train displays are legendary - I love hearing about them.

Lionel trains were not always at the highest level in detail or faithfulness to scale but they were sturdy little beasts that might just run forever. They did some top end models of passenger classics that are marvels to behold. The days of making things like that in America appear to be long gone.

For what it is worth my highly scientific experiment had an aged 3000 run for around five and a half hours continuously at roughly half speed on a circuit of M track.

Then I got fed up with the noise, turned it off and went to bed.

It seems to have suffered no ill effects.

The brushes are fine and look roughly the same length, the tyres are the old clear plastic ones which are rock hard already and when I ran it the following day it didn't complain or make any dry squealing sounds.

The loco is an old 3000 with a revering lever and old style reversing unit with the two click routine. It is already very worn so I made the assumption that having sloppy gears and axles would prevent any overheating or locking up!

Hardly good engineering practice but don't you remember how old cars used to run very smoothly in the final weeks prior to some terminal breakdown?!