I am in the process of preparing a review of Maerklin/Trix's new T-3000 container cars. I would have loved to have them in Hupac livery, but the first release only included DB, Wascosa and MFD Rail. I decided to order the Trix DB one, which came with LKW Walter trailers. The Maerklin version came with DB Schenker trailers. Both Wascosa cars come with 20 foot containers from the Swiss company Bertschi. As I have mentioned in other posts, the Wascosa cars will inherit the LKW Walter trailers from the 24470 as well as trailers that I ordered from kistenschieber.eu (division of Kombimodell). The DB car will be running with Pe.Tra and Mainsped trailers from that site as well. The tank containers will be assigned to some of my other container cars (T1 4744X) and (Sgns 4705X) type. I already have quite a few of these Bertschi tank containers from my 47456 Hupac T1, 47097 Hupac Sgns and 47802 AAE Sgmrss80 cars.

From the start, I would have loved to see these cars come with some 45 foot containers. So far, I only have the 47051.00X Samskip and Geest ones (Dutch Special models). The same can be said for 23 foot swap containers (tank containers).
For 2025, Maerklin announced two new models (1 Maerklin, 1 Trix) of the CFL with trailers from MARS Logistics, which go with the 47472 MFD Rail one from 2024.

My collection is based on Swiss trains. I have seen a few MFD cars in photos and videos. I don't know if I have seen any CFL cars. Most of the ones I have seen are either VTG (AAE/Nacco), Wascosa, Hupac, Ermewa and a few lesser known ones, including MFD, Railrelease and others.

I am hoping that we will soon see some Hupac cars with loads that correspond to trains running on the Gotthard and Loetschberg routes from Germany to Italy and back.

Please check back here for a full review and comparison of the Maerklin cars and Piko models. I did not include the Roco models, because they have that in-house fixation system that only works with Roco containers. I don't mind that on the cars where the pins go directly into the container, but it looks bad on the ones that have the plastic bridge on which the pin is placed. I am still trying to get one Roco T-2000 to work using pins that they describe as working for other brands. So far, most of my 45 foot containers (Herpa, Kombimodell, etc) have been limited to the handful of Kombimodell T4s in my collection.

Based on my initial experience, I recommend the Maerklin/Trix T3000 for modellers who want to have modern container cars in their collections. Come back and read my review when it's complete to find out why.

Regards

Mike C

Edited by user 08 March 2025 01:49:42(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I have a train of the T-3000 all in DB livery as follows

Marklin 47470 with 2 HERPA DB Schenker trailers
Piko 24619 with 2 HERPA DB Schenker trailers
Piko 54771 with 2 HERPA DB Schenker trailers
Piko 24619 with 2 Kombimodell DB Cargo trailers

I have the latest Marklin 47477 version on order and I am thinking about the Trix 24770 version and order a couple more Kombimodell trailers. I am very impressed with the Kombimodell trailers and a few containers I have from them, and would recommend them.

The T-3000 wagons, there are small differences between Marklin and Piko but I think the Marklin version is slightly heavier and slightly better detailed.

Best
Adrian

For the purposes of this review, I have taken my Piko and Trix Wascosa T-3000 cars, both of which will be running with LKW Walter trailers as loads.

Piko:
Car Unloaded

Car Loaded

Bridge between halves

Fifth Wheel Mount

Container Mount Fittings


The Piko T-3000s all use the same prototype with 4 folding pins per car half. This means that you can seat a pair of 20 foot containers on each car half for a total of four.
I have found that there can be some difficulties mounting Herpa or Maerklin containers on the Piko model. The pins do not perfectly match up with the mounting holes and the folding pins may not always work properly as seen here:


Maerklin/Trix:
Unloaded

Loaded

Bridge between car halves

Container mounting pins


Fifth Wheel Mount (Not fully installed)

Maerklin (L) and Piko (R)


I had no problem mounting the four 20 foot containers or two 40 foot containers on the Maerklin car. I also tested it with the 45 foot containers from my 47051.001 Samskip cars (no photo). The 45 foot containers use the same fittings as the 40 foot ones. I did have some issues with the 45 foot container from my 47051.006 Geest car, but it seems that there is a problem with the container pins on that model as it also was problematic with the original car.
The folding pin mounts seem to be better designed on the Maerklin model. The mounts have to be clicked into place, but once set, they remain in place. This is a better solution than the pop-in clips used in the 4744X T1 type car.
I don't know if I would mount 23 foot swap (tank) containers on this model, as all of mine (Maerklin/Herpa) have sockets and require Herpa's 084192 Adapter to be used with Maerklin cars with sockets. I am not certain how well the sockets on the Maerklin T-3000 will work with the Herpa Adapter in terms of holding the load in place. I trust it more on the flat surface of the 4705X type Sgns car. I will try it at some point and will update at that point.
The Maerklin Wascosa and MFD Rail cars have some differences from the DB one. They come equipped with four folding pin mounts per half car or 8 per side. This means that there are additional mounting possibilities not feasible on the Maerklin DB or the similarly realized Piko model, including 30 foot containers:

I will also update the report with a photo or two of the Maerklin/Trix cars once accessories have been mounted.

I have not given either of these cars any significant run time at this point. One of my Piko cars came from the dealer with AC wheelsets. The second one still has the original DC sets.
I will pay attention to this and will inform here if I discover any issues similar to the one mentioned by Mario above.

I decided not to order any of the Roco models, as the Roco design for mounting of containers is problematic and I would not have been able to swap containers for trailer loads (other than Roco's own)

Regards

Mike C

I did look up MARS Logistics. The company is not really known for traffic on the north south axis. They do a lot of traffic between German ports and Bulgaria/Greece/Turkey.
I don't know why Maerklin seems to focus much more on the east-west traffic than they do on the north-south axis.

I would love to see Ferrymasters, Ambrogio, Samskip, Geest, Rinnen, ECS, Eucon, Unit45 and other loads rather than always the ones that may be more common on the Geislinger Steige than the Gotthard or Loetschberg.

Regards

Mike C

The only one that I know about is the Barilla train (GTS containers) that runs from Italy to the north. I don't know what the Ambrogio trains carry, nor the numerous LKW Walter trains going north and south daily. I prefer cheese from Switzerland, Olive Oil (not Olives) (Greece/Italy) and my Turkey from the supermarket.

Regards

Mike C

Can anybody who has these new models tell me whether they have had any issues putting the models back in the box and how they store them with the parts mounted.

Regards

Mike C

A very similar model was announced from Maerklin and Trix for 2025. I don't know how many T3000 that CFL Cargo actually possesses.
I have the T2000 and T3 cars from Roco. I don't like the Roco exclusive design for the fixation of trucks and containers. I have to see if these cars can be adapted for use with containers with sockets (rather than the Roco ones) as I would love to be able to swap loads to suit whatever train I wanted to run.
For example, I have containers and trailers for Ferrymasters, Hangartner, LKW Walter, Samskip, Geest and other unit trains, but need to be able to swap the loads in many cases.
I read that Roco's recent cars can be adapted to use NEM standard loads in addition to their own. I have experienced issues with some brands where the spacing between mounts does not fit other brands even if they claim to follow NEM norms. I have also seen some containers that do not match the standard spacing either.

Regards

Mike C