I have bought MTL turnouts, because I did not like the Märklin ones. I expected flawless operation, but found out that some turnouts cause derailments. And I can understand that a steamer with its tiny front wheels can have some problems, but why does a MTL diesel derail??? It seems that some turnouts have irregular swich points which causes the front truck to be lifted. This is quite frustrating. I don't see how to fix it. Any suggestions? Is there an easy way to fix this problem? Or should I return to Märklin, or shift to Rohukan?
The MTL turnouts have a history of having issues. We identified these issues in 2005 and what about them in our review in Ztrack Magazine. There are a few factors that affect the turnouts. One, the tolerance between the rail and the inside plastic guards are too tight. Locomotives must have very exacting wheel gauge to function properly. Otherwise, these guards will lock the flange in place and force the flanges on the other side of the loco to ride up and over the frog. It can help to file down the plastic guards to increase the gap. The frog is a cast piece that is glued in place. We found some frogs are too high, others to low (cast thin). We have not found a real solution for this. While I do sell the MTL turnouts in our store, I recommend the Rokuhan turnouts. They are far superior when it comes to operations. Overall, the Rokuhan line is a superior line for pure selection of track segments and operations. Where MTL track stands out is the appearance has the tie size and spacing is much nicer. I would recommend going with Rokuhan. There is nothing wrong with the Marklin turnouts, but my opinion is the Rokuhans are still better for operations and look as they don't have the black box attached to the side of the turnout. For sake of full discloser, I am the Rokuhan Distributor in the US. But I am a Z scaler first. Rob
I have 10 Rokuhan turnouts and they have been flawless as Rob says. I have not used MT, so I can't compare. I really like the Rokuhan track though. So many litttle things can cause problems in Z scale and the Rokuhan track makes one less thing to worry about. Good luck. Trey
As Rob said MT turnouts have a history of being unreliable. I replaced all my MT roadbed track and turnouts with Rokuhan Simply put Rokuhan produces a better quality and more reliable turnout than MT does.
OK, that is not pleasant.... Now I have Märklin and MTL track that I can't use Costly hobby, model railroading... Is it possible to combine MTL and Rokuhan? Do they match technically? It feels like a waste of money to start alle over again with new track...... If I could replace the troublesome MLT turnouts with new Rokuhan turnouts, it would save me a lot of money. And the regular MTL trackpieces look fine to me.
Thieu, First of all you don't necessarily need to scrap the MTL turnouts, particularly if you have only one or two problem units. Check the coupler clearance, also underside clearance. An incompletely installed fuel tank or sagging couple will cause what you describe. Over the years I haven't had many problems with the MTL turnouts, maybe 1 out of 10, but I haven't purchased any recent production. And sometimes, you do have to ask MTL for an exchange. If you find it is the turnout, I would encourage you to contact MTL: they can't fix something they don't know is broken. It's not hard to mix track Märklin, MTL and Rokuhan track...with a bit of caution. Rokuhan make at conversion piece: A014, that works with Märklin and MTL flex track. You can use MTL roadbed track if you remove the roadbed joiners. There is a height difference, but you can fix that with just about the thickness of 4-5 sheets of paper under the MTL: On my new layout, I'm actually using all the track mentioned: Rokuhan turnouts and double slip and some sectional, MTL flex and sectional for the U.S. prototype look and Märklin for their contact track sections. Hope this helps, Mark BTW: Why haven't you 3D printer folks created an MTL to Rokuhan conversion roadbed joiner?
Hi Thieu, Relax, you have the best track ever made for Z, the MTL track. One day you are going to start counting rivets, and the MTL track, with the smallest rail thickness, is the most prototypical of the three tracks you have/are considering. Points have bedeviled model railroaders since the first switches were made in the early 1900's. A frog is simply one of the puzzles you have to solve to attain a smoothly functioning layout. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater may seem like the easiest solution, but every track maker has their own issues, you are just buying in to a whole new set of 'em if you change horses mid stream, and lose money to boot. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to make your railroad run. There is no turn-key solution.
Although I am an N scaler and although I generally don't like track with built-in ballast (Uni-track just looks so fake), I have to say the MTL Z scale track looks the best, by far, of those three. And I agree, it is very seldom you can take any commercial switch and have trains run perfectly over them without some kind of tweaking. That's just the way it is and has always been. In fact, a lot of times, it's not the switch at all but the wheels of locomotives/rolling stock. Gauging everything, including every wheelset on locomotives/rolling stock is THE key. Doug
Thieu, Try and determine what may be causing the derailments. Above comments are a start, but lets break it down into categories: Loco or rolling stock? or, both. If rolling stock, roll it thru the turnout by hand, looking from the ground level, with GOOD lighting. If locos, either run then slowly or manually try and slide them thru. Is it the points that are the frog? MTL made quite a few where the Guard rails (the thin plastic next to the outer rails, opposite the frog) that were just a bit too close to the outer rail. We have used SMALL jewelers files to slide between the rail and plastic, pushing on the plastic side wall. About 1/2 as thin. This is a problem for under gauged wheels. Do NOT cut them out, as these are just like prototype turnouts: helping assure that the wheel on the other side does not catch on the frog point. Some of the Points were bowed inward on the straight side. This is a problem for over gauged wheels. If the locos, then above comments about the fuel tanks, bottom of MTL SD40 truck and screws on MTL F7's, pilots (snow plows) on some models can be right at rail height. Again, look closely by running through, looking at 'ground level' (rail height), with good lighting. Lastly, check your wheel gauge. I would say that 99% of the problems are the locos, where wheel sets are pressed on to gearing. This is what we have found over the years but seems to be MUCH better with recent locomotive releases. Many of them. We prefer the MTL flex for prototypical look (of wood ties). Their turnouts work well, once checked. Rokuhan offers a ever growing variety of track, including the crossings and wider tie spacing is more suitable to non-US, except in Concrete tie routes. But they are not fault free either.
I am an N scaler too and use Peco. That is really a forgiving kind of track: no matter how bad you lay the tracks, the trains will run flawlessly over it. Mārklin Z was also quite OK, even the large steamers had not too many problems. Thanks for all the advice you guys have given me. I will first isolate the turnout(s) that cause problems, and then I will try to solve the problem (guard rail, frog etc). I intend to stick with MTL because of its great appearence (and I don't want to spend a lot of money again on track). My layout will be as large as a Ntak module, with a little bit of switching, but mostly it will be for trains running around. So, I do not need complicated trackwork with dozens of turnouts, but it would be nice to have no derailments on the few turnouts I use.
MT track is pretty good. I like the appearance and I have had great results with paint and ballast. As for the turnouts, I have had issues with both. Basically in Z tolerances are tight so there is always troubleshooting. The good news is most of it can be corrected with some effort. One thing I will say is this, having played with both brands of track, stick with one. Yes you can mix but I find both operate better when used together. Just my two cents.
I think that it works now. Modelrailroading is sometimes very mysterious: one day, you have no problems, the other day the engines derail..... I have tested the track with an MTL Geep and two Märklin steamers and faced no big problems. Next step would be: installing the track. I plan to do this one piece at a time and be very, very carefull with laying the track down. But first, I have to put the bridge in place. Since I had no good model of a bridge, I decided to scratchbuild one.
The bridge will fit exactly between the two river banks, so there will not be any height to compensate. Of course, there will be some gap between the bridge deck and the track (giving the fact that I am always a little bit clumpsy with measuring things), but I can fix that with some gravel.
