This model of the Ice which I bought as a used model always worked nice.I purchased it over 10 years ago along with 3 intermediary coaches, making a setup of 5 including the 2 control ends.Now as you all know this all came with LED lighting through the coaches via current conducting couplers fed from a pickup shoe at the rear unit.Also the rear unit contained a small circuit board with a cam wheel which set the direction of the head and taillights,depending on direction of travel.
3750 always came with only 1 motor and mine was a little growly so I managed to find the last new motor complete in Italy via eBay and so installed it successfully.It was a lot quieter so decided to add 3 more coaches to the set up to give me an 8 piece train.
Although it looked impressive the entire unit struggled a little up my K track inclines on the wide radius curves so I felt a little deflated.
We don’t have a lot of Marklinists in New Zealand but I reckon I have 1 of the keener ones as a mate and we have a group of a hardy 4 who gather every Friday night for a running session.
Now my mate Kevin said why don’t we report the ICE with Sb Modellbau flat motors,1at each end.I asked’ Is it possible?’
Short answer,Yes it was.I milled out the original Marklin motorbodies with my Dremel tool and milling bit and bingo,job done.
Unfortunately the Marklin decoder that was installed was the old 6090 with the switches for setting the address and the running characteristics were not real smooth owing to incompatibility of the motors.And so 2 ESU M4 V5 decoders went in,each operating the end cabs separately,now as a consist.
What a transformation.After ensuring the 2cabs ran Identical to each other we then had to sort the coach lights and so my good mate Kevin said’We just leave the original circuit board as is with the Marklin decoder as another part of a 3 way consist and with a couple wire swaps on the circuit board,it was done.
To summarise I now have an old ICE train running faultlessly as an 8 unit train which now glides around my large layout with no motor noise and 2 maintenance free motors.

Question for Clarkie. Well done. Why did you use 2 decoders instead of 1. Would really like to know.

Thanks Ross for your link.

I tried to do it in a similar fashion but used the original 2 decoders (with the original circuit board), one in each powered unit. But it would run very slowly and used a lot of power.
I will try again and maybe use 2 LokPilot4 decoders, one in each powered unit. I will assume these 2 decoders will use much less power than the original 2 3750 decoders and maybe the train will run faster.

Please correct me if I am wrong and that this approach will not work to run faster. Would appreciate any comments and feedback.
Thanks.

Hi Bill,

Using the original decoders without load control will fail as you have discovered.

Don't use LokPilot 4 decoders as these run at 40kHz motor pulse frequency and the engine noise will be very loud.

Use LokPilot 5 decoders as these are a great improvement over the LP4 and run at 20kHz motor pulse frequency making the engine much quieter.

If you follow my article you should be successful.

Ross, Clarkie, & Others:

I have a question- I did not see any discussion (maybe I missed it), on how to switch power pickup from front and rear pick-up shoes when changing direction. Are you running the train in 1 direction only and having the power to the 2 motors (front and rear) connected to the front pickup shoe for power.
Thanks.

Au contraire.

Many Marklinists across the world are not only surprised to find that Märklin is well-known in NZ, but how many active enthusiasts there are. Countries considerably larger than NZ struggle to match the numbers.

I lived in Melbourne for two years and despite Märklin having sold well in Australia in past decades, the numbers are much lower. I struggled to get a running session together, finally rounded three bodies up for an afternoon. Fortunately they were all breathing, (but it was getting that desperate!) I think the Sydney club is possibly the largest active group currently?

The Wellington Marklin Club approaches our 50th anniversary next year, and some 20 years ago I did some research on past membership and was surprised to find well over 600 members had been through the club just at that time, when we were around 30 years old. It would easily be another 100 since then as people find us. And we are not a general interest model railway club of which there have been many, sometimes several in a single city catering for European, British, American, non-standard gauges, Garden railways etc, this is a Märklin-specific club. Not that we haven't had non-Märklin members, they are and have always been very welcome.

Auckland and Christchurch have also had specific Märklin clubs and some smaller cities such as Palmerston North also have thriving clubs.

Running sessions as you describe are also not uncommon, sometimes even a small group within a club that meet regularly in addition to club activities.

Last Friday of every month is our regular clubnight, usually with a clinic / event or a guest speaker. Attendance is always strong at around 40 members most nights, often more.

Per capita, NZ has a thriving number of Marklinists. You must be overdue for a visit !

Cheers

Cookee