Greetings all.

I'm finally getting into this game and have a specific vision of which trains/locomotives I want running on my eventual Era III/IV/V system.

Of the starter sets, the ICE starter fits that Era V slot perfectly, but I'd like to expand beyond the basic 3 cars that are in the 29790 ICE 2 starter set.

So I do find some non ICE 3 individual cars out there on some websites, but there seems to be an issue mixing these cars because of the specialized couplings. How can I get up to speed on which cars and trains have which couplings?


For example: the 43713 car or the 43703 car (1st or 2nd class) or more importantly, the 43733 restaraunt car - do they integrate with the ICE 2 starter set 29790 or are there coupler problems? If so, can those be overcome?

How does one make sense of this confusion? I'd hoped that least if I purchase only Maerklin trains, the integration would be simple, but its rather confusing to me. Help!

Is there a guide for this?

Or is it just :ICE1 cannot mix with ICE2. But then why sell the ICE2 starter sets and no good extension cars (resteraunt, etc) And why does that ICE2 starter set seem to have passenger cars without a 1st or 2nd class designation on them?

Here I was almost ready to buy a starter set, and now I'm rethinking the whole thing. I may just have to piecemeal the entire thing together after all as I don't really want to buy anything thats not going to be in my final layout some day, be it the controller, cars etc.



Looking at things, the ICE 1 sets have all the features I want: 1st class, 2nd class, Reseraunt car, and the old style engine-at-end system. I actually rode on one of these or the ICE 2 (saw the ICE 1 getting ready for service in the summer of 1991, and road one in Dec 1994). For the ICE2, the cars have no class designation... I guess I need to research, but that seems odd. The ICE 3 sets again have the 1st and 2nd class and reseraunt car (and for less than the ICE 2 starter set), but I've not actually personally been on this variation. So the ICE 1 seems right - but the price is insanely high compared to the ICE 3 and even the 2 starter set. Is this the mayhem of building a collection that I'm going to have to get used to?

Minok:

The new Marklin ICE2 starter set (29790) comes with high efficiency propulsion and the mobile station which is a great way to start. As Nevw indicated, these sets do not have interior lights. These sets will have the latest DB paint scheme with the solid red strip. Marklin has released an add on set 78056 which includes an additional car and 24 sections of C track.

If you get an older ICE 2 set, it will probably be Delta and have the dual pink/red stripes. I have one of these and I am not happy with the motor and plan to upgrade it. Also, you will have to really look around to find the extra cars for this as they are no longer manufactured.

r/mark

Hi Minok. As mentioned in your other thread I have the ICE 2 Train from the 29790 starter set. The train runs well, in fact it can be made to 'go like the clappers', yet I've never had it derail. It looks good, but the 'horn' sounds more like a 'constipated cow' than a horn. As others have pointed out, it doesn't have the interior lighting like the other sets do. I also purchased an additional car from Hobbyco in Sydney, the 43713, which has the same couplings, but also has the interior lighting. I have also ordered one of the 78056 add on sets as well. As for retrofitting interior lighting, well there is no official Marklin kit to do this, but I reckon some of the LED lighting kits that are available off eBay may be able to be fitted, and powered from the rear car, which has a centre rail pickup. I just need to figure a way of passing power from one car to another........Hmmmmmm.

Why do I take this particular track?? Well it's because of cost. The ICE 2 cost me $NZ320 as opposed to around $NZ1200 for the full set.

Hi Minok, yes you are correct, there is no class designation on the starter set coaches, which bugs me, but not so important as to justify spending the extra $$$$ (for me anyway). Cheers.

As to the missing class designation, wouldn't there be some manufacturer that offers suitable decals? If not, you could spend a limited amount of money on a decal sheet and print them yourself. Decal sheets are offered for laser printers as well as inkjet printers. Prices vary, but in the Netherlands I bought some for ~$5.

Jeroen

I'd love it if that worked, but my fear is that the look would not be right. In a hobby, where the aim is frequently to resemble the real environment as much as possible, just scaled down, if I ended up with a coach that has a class designation of 1 or 2 that doesn't look right, could just be worse than no designation.

The class indicators are white on the glass, so its not as simple as printing a black laser printer image.. one would need a white decal, and if the decal is too thick, it just looks goofy.

Does someone have an example, having tried this?

Hi all, this is my first post



I have a 8 elements ICE and I was in trouble with power consumption of lighting, each time I turned it on voltage on track dropped noticeably and trains slowed down.
My solution (still under construction) is replacing lamps with white LEDs. Taking advantage of the good light diffuser of ICE coaches, I'm just replacing each lamp with a couple of high brightness SMD LEDs, mounted back to back and inserted in place of the lamps. I made some changes in electrical circuit, electrically the four LEDs of each coach are in series, high digital voltage allows it, and are fed through a rectifier bridge.

This is my first result: coach on the right with LEDs draws 25 mA from a 16 V supply (like a decoder function output), the other still with lamps draws 140 mA. I think it's worth going on.
Kind regards

Another question about ICE. I found that the ICE2 in start set 29780 is mechanically different from all previous ICEs: center motor with cardan transmission on all axles. Any experience with it ? Does it run well ?
Thanks

Mario

Hi Lutz
thanks for your kind reply



I have the same problem, and I'm solving it this way.

I put two white LEDs in place of one lamp, leaving the distribution lenses. The last coach in the picture is left with lamps, there is little difference in brightness but current drawn from the last coach is higher than that of the rest of consist.

I would like to replace also the lamps in headlights with the new arrangement with LEDs of the 29790. Do you think it's feasible ?
Thanks
Regards

Mario

Hi Ross
I'll be pleased to share all details. I have two coaches still to be modified, I'll take pictures of details.
One more question about ICE : what is the real arrangement of the consists ? first class - restaurant - service car (4372) - second class ?

Regards

Mario

Hi Mario,

unfortunately I cannot see your pictures; the server doesn't seem to respond. Can you please check your picture url. Do other users have the same problem (I've unsuccessful tried it with IE and Firefox)?

I see only the picture published above (on 2007/04/09 @ 20:47) (using IE 6.0).

A little off topic but I have the 5 unit 37783 ICE. Like Bigdaddynz I am amazed at how fast the thing runs without derailing. I added the add on car 43744 which has sound (horn only) and noticed that it runs 10 MPH slower at the same setting on my 6021. Not a problem but only an observation. I guess I was surprised it made that much difference.
Eric

Are the clips available as spare parts? I guess you would also need some kind of sleeve to go in the female coupling, for the clips on the male coupling to make contact with.

Still waiting for my 78056 add on set, some 6 months later, though I hear it is not far away. Apparently they went on backorder from Marklin,
and since NZ will be at the bottom of the heap delivery wise from M (small market), I'm still waiting...

Mario, your pictures can be seen OK, at I can see them. Just downloading your movie file to have a look at that as well.

Thanks alot Mario! I can see them now too.

Maybe it was really just due to this wonderful "Alice" (assuming they advertize their products in Italy similar to Germany - probably just different models). http://www.alice-dsl.de/...resources/gfx/header.jpg

It's not that they don't pay attention to these details, it's a simple matter of cost. Leaving/reusing the existing LED pcb doesn't cost more, but having to mount the light reversal and wiring thereof is a manual work which is way more expensive.



Please keep in mind that #36711 has a different light pictogram than #29790. The description also states "two driven axles". We'll see what surprises this train offers once it's delivered.



#37554 (catalog 2001/2002, pg. 56); this minor printing mistake was corrected in all subsequent publications. At least on their product web page, the symbols for the two locomotives you mention are correct.

As promised, this is my way of improving ICE lighting, step by step
This is only for digital operation.

At first I removed all electronics. I found that it was causing noticeable voltage drops. I replaced it with a Lokpilot decoder, maximum voltage across motor increased by at least 30%.
Function F1 output drives the coil of a 12 V relais which connects the light feeder (yellow cable crossing all the train) to pickup shoe, so that a lot of power is available for lighting without loading the decoder.
Current return is through the wheels. In this way lights shine much more than before but current consumption is terrible, ~150 mA per coach. Each time I turn on lighting all trains on the layout slow down, particularly the ones with C-sinus2.



Then I replaced lamps with white LEDs.
Two SMD LEDs are placed on both sides of a 0.7 mm thin pcb (hand milled with a Dremel). These are high brightness (>700 mcd, 120 deg angle) LEDs in PLCC2 or PLCC4 package, beware of the PLCC4 padout.
The LEDs are connected in series, see the jumper between the two sides.



The assembly is placed in place of the lamp, but the lamp socket is used only as mechanical holder, there is no electrical connection between socket and LEDs (cuts on the LED pcb).



I removes the metal sheets across the lamps, could cause shorts, inserted both assemblies and closed the diffusion lens.



Connected the two assemblies in series



The supply voltage is now a digital signal with alternating polarity, I used a full wave rectifier and a constant current regulator, so that light is constant even with changing voltage on rails.
Connected the rectifier input to yellow and brown wires. If you want a simpler solution just use a ~500 ohm resistor in series to the LEDs (after the rectifier of course), otherwise, for electronics minded people,this is my complex solution:
a constant current source based on a current mirror.
FET BFR30 keeps current in right arm nearly constant at ~6 mA, which is multiplied by the mirror by ~ R2/R1.
If you put a trimmer as R2 you can adjust LED current. Why this arrangement ? It keeps LED current nearly constant with a minimum voltage drop. Here R1 = 10 ohms, R2 = 39 ohms, so that LED current ~20 mA


This is the result : five coaches draw less current than one with lamps



If you don't see the picture, try again later. It's the wonderful Alice, you can't disturb a lady...

Regards

Mario

Great work,Thanks for the information.

Hi Mario, Thanks for supplying the information required to do this great upgrade.
Regards Ross

The ICE 3000: http://www.mmrc.org.nz/mmrcG_ICE3000.htm

Per.

[Edit]Since the above link on the MMRC site has disappeared, I'll post the photo directly into Per's post. /BDNZ 12082021

Edited by moderator 12 August 2021 07:41:23(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Cool site.