Marklin HO rolling stock

[YmeBP]

This may be a stupid quesiton, but does marklin HO stuff fit and work on standard ho track w/ athearn and other HO rolling stock?

The funniest part of standards are when you have a choice of 19 "standards" for the same thing.

 

[shaygetz]

Yes it does but, because Marklin is built for three rail AC, the cars will create a dead short across the rails of a standard HO DC or DCC layout.

 

[60103]

I would say the other -- no, it won't work.
The locos need an extra rail down the center for power. The wheels on the cars will short out a 2-rail layout. I think the wheels may give problems at North American standard switches and crossings. The power supply is AC, not DC. And the couplings are different (but you may be able to change them to Kadees on the newer cars.)

 

[YmeBP]

I would say the other -- no, it won't work.
The locos need an extra rail down the center for power. The wheels on the cars will short out a 2-rail layout. I think the wheels may give problems at North American standard switches and crossings. The power supply is AC, not DC. And the couplings are different (but you may be able to change them to Kadees on the newer cars.)

Gotta love standards . There was a box car that i wanted but it was marklin oh well....:cry:

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Gotta love standards . There was a box car that i wanted but it was marklin oh well....:cry:

The problem is that manufacturers only voluntarily abide by NMRA standards. I don't know what sort of wheel sets the Marklin cars use. You might be able to swap out the wheel sets for a type that is compatible with ho dc track.

 

[Triplex]

The problem is that manufacturers only voluntarily abide by NMRA standards.

And Marklin is European, so NMRA (National Model Railroad Association) standards don't matter at all to them.

 

[60103]

Marklin sometimes makes 2-rail equipment under another name (Trix?). Or you could buy the car and switch trucks and couplers, or wheel sets.

 

[nkp174]

Marklin and Fleschmann are AC, but Liliput & some others are DC...so I would expect modern Marklin cars to have been built with insulated axles...so that they could sell them to DC modellers. I have a pair of Liliput box cars and a 2-10-2 that work fine with my atlas track...and I've pulled a string of american freight cars with the 2-10-2 as it was possible to connect the NEMs to the kadees (or maybe I used a car with horn-hooks)...it wasn't ideal, but it did work.

 

[60103]

Re: Couplers.
NEM is a European body that produces some model railway standards. One is for a standard coupler mounting box. This is not universal yet. Kadee makes a set of couplings (4 lengths) labelled NEM that are a push fit in these boxes.