At the open house at RLD hobbies, my wife bought some second hand Marklin Maxi items. She got the pair of Union Pacific F7s that I am repainting into Chessie System colors. I also removed the digital board and replaced it with a battery pack and a toggle switch for now. It will get RC control once I remember where I put everything to do that. It was between the Maxi F units and the LGB version. The LGB looks better, but its sooo much larger and would have clearance issues on our small layout. Where as the Maxi fits quite nicely. She also got 2 of the UP passenger coaches, UP Caboose and a Western Pacific box car. All the UP items will get redone into Chessie system. So far the F unit has run nearly 3 hours on the battery that saw several hours of use at the open house running my LGB Stainz, and still has not needed recharging. Maxi is tinplate for the garden railway, kind of a unique line of trains that Marklin made for about 10 years. The 2-6-0 wild west engines are colorful and look really good under the Christmas tree as they reflect the lights. Mike and Michele T
Saw several guys on Facebook that posted pictures/ videos from there. My credit card would take a beating if I went to the open house, but looks like a fun time. Nice looking F units Mike
Thanks, wont be UP much longer, the lead units shell is in 5 pieces, two sides, rear wall, roof and diecast nose/cab. I think O scale road unit decals for Chessie will work. Not sure how I will do the nose, most units have the huge cat logo there, but with dual headlights and not much room for anything. Caboose and coaches will get chessie blue roofs and new decals.
But I thought that I read somewhere that the Marklin trains don’t like track switches from any other manufacturer except Marklin.
The F units seem to do fine with LGB R1 turnouts so far. Wont know about the starter set 0-6-0 till I find one I can afford. Going to sell/trade off my remaining non 1:32nd gauge stuff and concentrate on gauge one with the Maxi line. I found my chrome/mag wheel polish will remove the lettering on the metal maxi trains and leave a nice shiney paint in its place. Just wipe off with a wax/polish removed and its ready for decals. Mike
Ok, thats nice to know. Maybe the Marklin stuff didnt work on the Aristo swithes. 
Or maybe its the regular gauge one stuff from Marklin. Everything I have is Maxi, including a couple of Euro 2 axle cars and they do ok thru the turnouts A little bumpy going thru the curved route when they hit the frog. Typical LGB turnouts need a thin shim on the guard rail and it will be much smoother. Marklin gauge 1 turnouts do not fair as well outdoors(atleast the powered/remote version). I have all 3 colors done on the lead F unit. Baked for 1 hour, will probably reassemble some of it tonight. Mike
David Maynard said:
Ok, thats nice to know. Maybe the Marklin stuff didnt work on the Aristo swithes.
Heck, nobody’s stuff worked well with Aristo’s turnouts, including Aristo’s stuff.
Steve Featherkile said:
David Maynard said:
Ok, thats nice to know. Maybe the Marklin stuff didnt work on the Aristo swithes.
Heck, nobody’s stuff worked well with Aristo’s turnouts, including Aristo’s stuff.
Ah, yea Steve. That is why I said that. But after fixing my new Aristo turnouts, they have worked well for 15 years.
Steve Featherkile said:
David Maynard said:
Ok, thats nice to know. Maybe the Marklin stuff didnt work on the Aristo swithes.
Heck, nobody’s stuff worked well with Aristo’s turnouts, including Aristo’s stuff.
LOL you beat me to it. Why I dumped all my Aristo turnouts years ago, they never encountered a piece of rolling stock they didnt eventually derail. LGB or bust.