Can the superb new Marklin Re 6/6 be improved? Of course!
The chunky pantographs were quickly unscrewed and disposed of.
Looking at my pictures of Re 6/6s, the roof seems fairly silvery where it meets the red sides, and then usually dirties up on the top, especially around the pantographs. I assume they stay cleanish on the sides due to the train washing facilities. So the grey roof on the model was painted silver, except for the bits between the pantographs - because I knew I'd be making them dirty soon.
Some brown Tamiya panel line accent was dabbed onto the roof's side grilles as I've seen a few pictures of these looking lightly rusty, and I thought that might be something different to do in terms of looks. In hindsight I'm not sure I'm crazy about this and will probably go back over them with black accent.
Various shades of grey, dark grey and black then found their way onto the roof.
The aerials above the drivers cab (radio and GPS I assume) were painted very light grey. Nice that Marklin included these, and the UIC plug (?) between the front windows is already white. I put some Tamiya Smoke inside the side windows to darken them down a little.
You probably can't see it in the pictures, but I also added tiny red vertical strips between the main front silver window frames and the curved corner windows. I did the same on the Re 4/4.
As mentioned yesterday, the little side details between the bogies (air tanks and boxes) were very lightly glued in with come contact adhesive, as were the cowcatchers. I note that there is an ETCS shoe cast into one each of the side details between the bogies - attention to detail! The lower half of the bogies and those details were washed with a little brown. Most of the 4/4s and 6/6s seem to actually have grey weathering on the bogies - perhaps from use of sand on the way up and composite brake blocks that don't produce as much rusty-dust on the way down??
A little bit of this brown and grey ended up on the sides of the loco. As I have a second 6/6 on the way, I figure this one can be the 'second loco' behind an Re 4/4, and the other 6/6 will 'lead' a train with a 4/4 behind it. As such, I decided I would gunk this up a little more and add a little more detail (including a front cowcather/pilot) to the leader.
As with my 4/4s, it will be nigh impossible for me to change the side numbers and town lettering, but I could change the crest on the side. I was looking for a yellow one, but then found this number, ten less than 11666. Pic below from Christoph Herni on Flickr. I did attempt to change the numbers on one side with a blob of red to change the 6 into a 5. Not worth it! I painted blue inside the crest frame, and put three angled white lines across it.
After I'd done most of this, I added a set of etched pantographs.
So here is a closer pic:
And as it looked yesterday:
I'll probably revisit this again tomorrow and clean up a few areas.
Other things I might add to the 'lead' 6/6, once it gets here, include side mirrors, maybe a front step, that door behind the cab on one side, the little white triangle on the cab side doors, maybe some sun shades ...and a driver!
It's been a long wait for the Marklin Re 6/6 (announced more than two years ago), and for me, it's been an expensive exercise.
I feared I'd missed out when the one ordered at the NZ dealer came back as "item on backorder', so I ordered a second one from Z Scale Hobo. Plus a '175th' SBB livery Re 4/4 with a can motor, as I'd heard the new can motor locos don't run well with the old 5 pole cage motors. Plus a few new wagons with both locos. I'd better get a lotto ticket to pay for all of this.
So. A new design of white Marklin card box, and out pops Re 6/6 11666 “Stein am Rhein”, Marklin's item number is 88240.
It looks fabulous. The Re 4/4 was a superb model (except for the pantographs as have been mentioned in the past), but this is at another level. Freestanding handrails,tidy roof detail, detachable front skirt/cowcatcher/snowplows, and most importantly, this is the first of my Marklin Z locos where the chassis 'looks right'. Large diameter, nicely spoked wheels, a prototypically spaced wheelbase so the body doesn't overhang much at the ends, and most importantly, the body is hunkered down on the chassis in a way the Re 4/4 could benefit from. Not bad at all.
The pantographs, while still clunky, are painted black, which reduces their visual impact a little. I believe this is one of the first Marklin locos that doesn't take current from the overhead, which might upset some people with existing layouts (it doesn’t bother me). Given this, why not provide some fine injection moulded plastic ones in the box? One folded up, one down (and several spares of each to allow for breakages!) I'll be replacing mine with etched examples.
Compare the 6/6 and 4/4 bogies/trucks/drehgestell). On the real thing these are almost identical.
A proper Re 10/10!
Popping the top off, the innards look quite different to the 4/4s (even the new can motor-equipped 4/4). The body seems to be cast in a lightweight light coloured metal (? but it feels a bit like plastic). The pickups from the two end bogies are thin wires. I'm not sure if that is a good thing (no rubbing copper strips to get dirty) or merely something that can break. There is now a long circuit board on top. The little air tanks and boxes between the bogies clip in and out (and surprise you by pinging onto the floor the first time you take the shell off). I'll probably glue them to the chassis. The printed boxes and things on the side of the light grey chassis can be seen through the side windows to provide some interior detail, which is a nice tough, and there is cab interior at both ends. Again a nice touch, but that leaves little room for extra weight.
As god intended:
So how does it run? This is the first Marklin loco I have with the new ‘bell armature can motor'. It’s quieter and smoother than the old motors, but not as smooth or quiet as the Rokuhan unit I have. It was also reported to be a bit faster than the old motors - why didn’t they change the gearing so it would run with the old 4/4?! Grrrr. Then I further bolstered Marklin's coffers (voting with my wallet for poor decisions) by buying the 175th livery Re 4/4 which also has a can motor. Despite the top being of no use to me as that livery came out in 2022, after the Gotthard base tunnel opened.
Side by side, the two can motor locos run at different speeds anyway, the 4/4 a little faster, although they run together OK.
I'd also read a review saying the 6/6 was a bit light and wimpy, but I ran th 6 wagon boxcar train with no hassle behind the 10/10. The 620 was a bit jerky in places. I was surprised. It's a brand new loco, so it should be clean, and I cleaned all my track. Almost as if it was losing contact with the rails in spots (wonder if there is enough vertical movement in that middle bogie) and it felt like it got 'tired' the more I ran it!Maybe I just need to re-clean a few spots on the track. It certainly wouldn't hurt either of these locos to have a bit more weight.
So the 10/10 ran well enough other than the occasional herkey-jerky, but with two locos they tended to get past any bad spots. I swapped out the red and cream 175th livery top for one of my red tops for the video.
This first "running session" on Wassen in many years was a mixed bag. One of the levels of loops in the north end hill is too close to the scenery and the Transwagons (and other long wagons from the marks on the inside) scrape inside the paper mache, and on one occasion, they caught and derailed the train. Good to know, as I'm sure that can be fixed.
I then noticed that the new 6/6 ran at a similar speed to the old-motored 4/4s (Grrr!!!) so ran a big container train behind them, which ran reasonably well given its length. One container wagon caused a derailment by clipping a plastic tunnel portal (which was then opened up slightly with a knife blade). I also need to add more vertical clearance on the north loop somehow, as my nice pantographs were getting snagged. The points up top of the south hill seem a bit sketchy in terms of power delivery, which is a pain, but two locos will generally power through them.
With the long train of light wagons and little wheel flanges, sudden stops and starts cause derailments. As does backing the train for photo ops. So the session was a bit frustrating. I need to sort out some of these issues or the layout will just be an exercise in frustration. Fortunately, now that I've identified a few trouble spots, they can be fixed.
A few videos might show up if blogger gets around to processing them:
I'm away in distant lands doing 'field research' again.
Alas, I was a long way from the real (and my model) Wassen, but here is a recent pic of a semi-topical Re 6/6 at St Saphorin just to prove that I'm still alive.
More on my Flickr (warning: it is mainly mainly RhB of late, a probable next project after Wassen)
My normal intermittent service here may resume in about three weeks.
All 'looking' good, but now, how to actually get a speeding Rokuhan loco to run with a slower Marklin one...
I read on the magic interweb that you can take about .7 volts out of a wire using a diode, so 4 were soldered up in pairs and this did indeed slow the loco down a tad - enough that they run fairly comfortably together.
Experimenting:
As installed:
Then after some track cleaning, run-testing commenced. The first issue was the clearances between raised pantographs vs tunnel portals - this was quickly resolved.
As feared, the next problem was some uncoupling from the Re 6/6 on tight curves due to the long overhang of its body-mounted couplers. This was mitigated somewhat by clipping the wee 'uncoupling' nub from the underside of the coupler - on the sharpest curves this was hitting the outer rail and upsetting things.
But uncoupling remains somewhat of a problem, primarily vs the Marklin Re 4/4, as that loco is running slower and gets pushed in places, with its bogie-mounted coupler following the track line and the 6/6's sticking way out beyond the curve.
As an experiment, I put the 6/6 in front and because the 6/6 is a tad faster, the pair runs very well together with no uncoupling issues detected. Arguably the loco combination looks better too (from a distance!), as the 6/6 is a little taller than it should be. But of course this isn't what had been planned... is the 6/6 a good enough model to lead? I suppose it could be made to look a little better with more filling, painting and detailing of the nose, plus the installation of a pilot to replace the front coupler.
The other issue that has to be dealt with somehow is that my 'raised' pantos need to be lowered further to clear the fairly tight spiral in the south hill above the Wassen church just beyond where the above video stops...!
In February, when we last left the Frankenstein Re 6/6 - which you may recall was bashed out of a Marklin Ae 6/6 shell on top of a Rokuhan chassis - it had a couple of issues to be resolved.
The chassis runs too fast to mate up with a Marklin Re 4/4
The Japanese prototype chassis has shorter wheelbase bogies so the thing looks a little airy underneath
It has no pantographs (spare Marklin ones were balanced on top for pictures last time)
The chassis has Rapido-style couplers, and I need to mate this to a Marklin Re 4/4 somehow
The roof is a tiny bit too long, overhanging the front face slightly (mainly at one end)
Tackling these in reverse order.... The overhanging roof was something that was always going to bug me, so both roof ends were attacked with a Dremel and files to shave a tiny bit of material off, and repainted/weathered.
You can also see panto stands made from plastruct ladder on the roof
The coupling situation was resolved (hopefully!) with the arrival of Rokuhan snap-in Markin-style couplers. None of this Z scale stuff is close coupling, but as the 6/6 couplers are body mounted, it probably helps that the shafts are a little long. Hopefully...!
The original Rapido-style coupler circled in the above pic.
Pantographs were folded up and glued on top, and some boxes added between the bogies to fill the spaces somewhat. The real Re 6/6 has these boxes on one side and air reservoirs on the other, but I put boxes on both sides. As they are 'thin' in depth there is less risk of them getting in the way of the bogies moving about than thick round air tanks.
So that leaves one remaining issue :
The chassis runs too fast to mate up with a Marklin Re 4/4
Where our hero discovers that when polishing up excrement, you eventually you realise that you're still left holding a piece of excrement...
The Re 6/6 story continued with the reinstallation of the end-slivers removed to make the shell thinner. The shell is looking reasonable now, although the slightly protruding foreheads are starting to annoy me. It looks acceptable from a distance though.
Feet were provided by a passing Rokuhan bo-bo-bo chassis - which is a gorgeous piece of engineering compared to the rough guts of its Marklin 4/4 brother:
The chassis underbits were painted black, and with some trimming, the shell fits nicely on top.
Even without any detailing of the stock Rokuhan chassis and it's short-wheelbase bogies, it doesn't look completely terrible except in these closeups. I can add some air tanks between the bogies and some clutter to fill those air gaps out, and with everything painted black, hopefully the small bogies won't be too noticeable.
Other than this detailing and some shell-finishing, the Re 6/6 story will probably pause here for a while as there are a few issues to be resolved before continuing onwards:
1. The Rokuhan chassis comes with a very tidy wee version of the 'Rapido' coupler that used to be the old N scale standard back in the dark ages. Obviously this isn't going to mate with a hideously big Marklin chunky coupler, but there are a few options...
Rohukan sells a Marklin coupler that will slot in.
I could probably glue one-onto-tuther myself.
I could make a close-coupling solid drawbar between the locos (perhaps not a bad idea)
It's also chassis mounted (the 4/4's is bogie mounted) so some testing will have to occur on Wassen's tight curves - both between locos that could surge, and also between locos and the light wagons on a train that could be thrown off on a curve by a long, outswinging Re 6/6 chassis.
2. The Rokuhan chassis is considerably smoother, quieter and (unfortunately) faster than the Marklin, so it might need to be slowed down (with diodes perhaps).... Or, more radically, I could buy a 4 wheeler Rokuhan chassis and put it under the 4/4. This way I wouldn't have to worry about the coupler issue between the locos. The old Marklin 4/4 chassis could be used later on to make a BLS brown 4/4.... Decisions, decisions.
While a bit of work (and rework) has been going on behind the scenes on the Marklin Ae 6/6 --> Re 6/6 project over the past few days, I don't have much in the way of pictures to show for it, as this wasn't that visually stimulating. Or stimulating at all in fact. But here is a summary report on the current sorry state of affairs from the Re 6/6 department:
The paper roof grilles were darkened with a wash of black so they look a bit better now.
Some (fairly random) roof detailing was added ex the Ae 6/6 shell and painted.
I cut away a sliver of the dark grey sill along the bottom of the sides, as the real locos have this shapeliness (the Re 4/4 and Ae 6/6 are flat along the bottom). I didn't do a great job of this - taking a bit much off in places and it's not that even or straight, despite using a metal straightedge of considerable even-ness. I probably should have just used a marker to put a sliver of black along the bottom in the right place.
The red sides were given a light spray of dullcote varnish and this eliminated 95% of the barely-visible difference between the stock Marklin red and my painted red patches between the windows where the Ae grilles used to be.
The tinted-clear strips containing the 4 rectangular side windows have been glued back into place
The two larger 'main' front windows have been edged in silver like the prototype.
So, with that largely sorted, I stuck everything together.
With the sides attached, it seems my homemade 6/6 roof is a smidge long (probably half a mm or less at each end) but overall it looks pretty decent alongside the 4/4, and at least they are the same width now.
Once this has all set solid, I'll add the sliver of red front and back that is missing in these pictures - it looks like it has a gap between its two front teeth at the moment. You may recall that this was removed to 'slim down' the overscale Ae 6/6 donor shell.
I'll also paint the quarter/corner windows dark grey in the next episode to match the other cab windows. The pantos are borrowed from another shell and just propped on top for looks here.
Obviously this conversion was never going to be a super-accurate, exact-scale model. For starters, the four side windows are too close to the roof. The position of the SBB/CFF/FFS on the side is too low... but that was never the intention here. It never is in my modeling. The plan was to get a believable Re 6/6 on the layout at a reasonable price and provide a bit of a modeling challenge and fun in the interim. So far we are on course...
The quintessential loco lashup on the Gotthard over the past few decades would have to be the so-called 'Re 10/10' pairing of an Re 4/4 and an Re 6/6.
So without a doubt, I need an Re 6/6 for Wassen - no model of an SBB Swiss railway in recent years would be complete without them....
While Marklin has produced Z scale Re 4/4s since 2012, the only Re 6/6s that have been produced in Z - that I'm aware of - were a very, very limited run of fairly expensive brass models from SZL (Swiss Z Line - the same folks as AZL who make the American stuff) several years back. These 6/6s seem to be an excellent model from what I have seen online, but as rare as hen's teeth and equally pricey.
A second option is a Shapeways shell, and perhaps I should have had a crack at that, but who doesn't enjoy a good modeling challenge!
So, I plumped for the third option, deciding it might be economical to convert a Marklin Ae 6/6 into an Re 6/6 if I could pick one up on the cheap.
The Ae 6/6 has a Co-Co wheel arrangement (instead of the Re's Bo-Bo-Bo) and is a little shorter in length and roof height, but it has the same general look, with a similar nose and four windows along the side. A year or more ago I purchased a red 'for spare parts' Ae 6/6 off eBay which was missing some bits, but had an intact body shell. Due to some misplacement by my parcel forwarding service (my old neighbours) it arrived a few days ago.
As I didn't have my phone with me when I started attacking this like a bull in a China Shop the day it arrived, let me present my initial findings via a borrowed picture (the model I purchased is actually red (fortunately) and missing pantographs among a few other bits):
As you can see, the overall look of the body is similar to the Re 6/6. The Re has single arm pantographs, but that's fine as my model didn't come with them anyway. And as I've mentioned - the wheel arrangement differs, but we'll tackle that later. My red one has rectangular buffers, which is actually correct for red Re 6/6s
So the immediate tasks to be tackled on the shell :
The roof (hmmmm, more on this below... )
Remove the bogie springing (molded onto the shell) - this was a one minute job.
Carve off the front panel in front of the driver at each end (ditto). Well, actually I removed the edge closest to the side as this will be visible and left the inboard edge - this loco is always going to run behind a 4/4.
Fill in those grilles - quick and easy enough with some Squadron Putty.
Reshape the 'corner' windows.
A bit of painting to cover all this mess up.
Voila:
At this stage I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.
Until it was placed next to the Marklin Re 4/4...
I guess this Ae is quite an old model, probably with a chassis recycled from something else, and perhaps back then, being in scale wasn't so important.
Despite the 'real' Ae being shorter than the Re, this model is Re length. That's actually fine by me!
But it is a bit taller than it should be (worryingly so, as I still have to lift the roofline) and dealbreakingly, the model Ae 6/6 is almost 4mm wider than the model Re 4/4, and all these things should be within a hair. I think that even in Z scale, and even with visitors being vigorously discouraged from looking too closely, this big puppy would look far too wide rolling around behind a skinny little Re 4/4.
So the decision on what to do with the roof was solved for me: the roof would come off, the body split into two halves, and shrunk under a new roof of the correct width. The razor saw was duly engaged.
As an aside, this is the paint I'm using, which is a Vellajo Game Colour red. And a lucky guess, as it was purchased two years ago and is almost a perfect match for the red on the Ae 6/6 (less so for Marklin's darker and less-orangy 4/4 - they must have decided to change colour over the years). The filled-in grilles need another coat or two. Note that I've left the coat of arms in place. All Ae and Re locos were 'named' and carry canton or town coat of arms. I'll do something to the 'Altdorf' that came on this one in due course.
The genesis of a new plasticard roof at the correct width:
The new roof was shaped using knife, fine sandpaper, trial and error, and then some details added:
I mixed some silver and black to darken it a little for the main roof paint. The 4/4's roof should also be a silvey shade instead of Marklin's dark gray, but that will be dealt with in the future.
The distinctive Re 6/6 roof-edge grilles were made up in Photoshop, printed out on a laser printer and glued on top of the painted roof with PVA white glue. Some leftover bits were added to the top of the roof boxes per the prototype. Once these are all set I'll fill those white bits on the edges with paint and dark-wash the grilles.
