Another continent, another world almost.. but hey, a locomotive! Finally got my Marklin switcher after a rest at Larry's lair (my little workshop, is what he calls it) for a while. Larry worked an amazing project on an upgrade for the classic Marklin V60 switcher: new chassis with prototypical axle configuration and a functioning counterweight with its own axle (what's the english name for it?); a new can motor; reworking cabin (meticulously fra sed off the height of the drivers housing - Marklin made it oversize to fit the original 3-pole motor...) and a finescale roof. And look at the brakes: no z scale locomotive I know of has such small margins between wheel and brake shoe. Oh, did I mentioned: new wheels? He researched the whole thing, made prototype with high precision lathes and whatnot; had casts made, had new casts made, etc. etc. He offered the project to z-freunde forum members and I believe over 100 participated. So he had 100+ locomotives sent to him, which he then gave to full upgrade. Thank you Larry!! So, now of course there is always an oddball. Me, in this case. My v60 is the Belgian edition. The NMBS/SNCB national Belgian railways had several in use, registered 80 series. Marklin also made Belgian version. Being a Dutchmen, I like the railroads of both our neighbours Germany and Belgium, however, I have a small bias towards little Belgium. For one thing, Flemish being very to Dutch makes it easier to read and talk about the Belgian railroads. Anyways, I got my package from Larry last week. Gave it a little paintjob on details and took these photos. I am very happy with the looks and how it runs. The original: Matt
Matt the locomotive really looks good seeing the prototype verifies that! But I also am impressed by your ballast and track Very clean!
Staying Busy... While I am waiting on an order of Andrews Trucks, I am assembling MTL 903 couplers (So far I have assembled 36), then I grew weary of doing those ( I have about 100 to do) and went back to assembling all wheel electrical pickup Doghouse Tenders for all my Marklin Mikado's.
Matt, Very nice locomotive! Great details! I remember Larry posting a link to videos of him making the wheels for this loco. Rob, Looks like tedious work on those couplers. The tenders are coming along nicely. Scott
Ditto --- nice loco Matt, but also the rest of the layout -- ballasting, background buildings --- great stuff everywhere..... In fact it makes me want to fly to Europe and stay at your place to take in all the Belgium railroading you speak so fondly of....
About 15 years ago, I was able to order 200 or so worth of parts for a hefty discount, and all I have to do is assemble them, so I DID BUY! I have been consuming them at an alarming rate since I retired and have used about half of them so far. I bet I have saved a few hundred dollars off the already assembled 905's, especially considering today's discount price $7.50 for 2 pair. I can knock out 2 pair assembled in 5 minutes, having gotten very good at tiny assembly in my retired years.
Well I'm testing all the stock ready for Carnforth show with Shasta and for the most part it has all gone well. A lot of the ones that were flagged up as 'Bad order' cars are now behaving themselves, which is nice. But five years in storage has not been kind to a couple of AZLs. The CP GP 38 # 3134 seems to have a serious case of Mazak rot on the chassis . Distorted and two lugs that hold the circuit board have disintegrated. I could do with some advice as I'm sure I'm not the first to encounter this. As the circuit board serves no purpose should I hot wire the chassis to the motor terminals ( I don't need the lights as it is not a lead loco on the lashup)? The Budd RDC CP rail also has issues. If the motor gets current the lights don't work, If the lights work the motor doesn't. Pehaps another one to wire from the pickups direct to the motor? Neither are reliable enough to use at the next show as they stand Kev
AZL has an exchange on these loco chassis, just gotta pay for shipping. I've got 3 replacements I've never used. Should be on the AZL website how-to.
I received my Andrews trucks Saturday, removed the plastic wheels and rusted some metal wheel sets, and finished my set of 10 NP stock cars:
