Playmobil Diesel

Madman

Madman

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I finally had time to put together the yellow Playmobil diesel set. Very impressive. Sounds are excellent, IMHO.

Now here comes the rub. I installed six rechargeable 3000ah, NMh batteries in the loco the first day. My grandson ran it in my garden railway for about an hour or more. When he came back the next day to run it, the batteries needed charging. So I did. The simple plug in charger will charge 4 AA batteries at a time. So after all six were charged I placed them back in the loco, only to have them go dead within minutes. So I replaced the batteries with regular AAs. Now the thing runs strong. Since it was today that I put the new batteries in, I'll have to wait to see how long they last.

One other minor issue is that the loco slows on the R1 plastic curved track that came with the set. No problem in my garden railway where R2 is the tightest curve. The wheel base on this loco is rather long. I don't know why it was designed so. Playmobil rolling stock also has a long wheelbase.
 
I never tried mine on the track supplied as I disposed of it. On the R1's it does slow down! I thought that maybe there was some easement on the Playmobil track - your post dispels that theory! In the garden, there isn't a problem. As I'm no Conan (the Destroyer) I intend to make a drop-over body for it when it moves down the Round Tu-it list. But, overall, it is great value for money.
 
The Playmobil curves are slightly tighter than R1, they are more R0.9. Until I found this out I was often stumped when I tried to convert a layout design on AnyRail into real life, only to find that it didn't fit as it should in the space available,
 
Regarding the battery problem..
?Is the loco 'on' all the time, in effect? - I know the older ones are.. (blue tx).
 
Hi

Sounds to me like something has gone wrong with the battery charging.

I use a set of 2400 NiMH rechargeables with my Playmobil diesel and get several hours out of it no problem, and my little boy does not believe in slow speed running. :)

Regards

Rob
 
The new Playmobil loco should shut its self down after twenty minutes if not being used. I can run mine on the exhibition layout for over two hours. Check your battery charge because unless you have a very fast charger most chargers take up to 14 hours to charge batteries.
 
I find that mine slows down on my 4ft Rad Curves. But it is not a problem as it means that you have to Drive it, upping the Throttle on curves then dropping it down again when it is back in the straight. This I think makes it quite an interesting machine to drive. Oh by the way mine has been got at with the Diode Conversion mentioned on this forum some time back. This certainly improves the drivability of the beast.
JonD
 
Is the problem with the charger?

I have had problems charging batteries with crude chargers. For all my battery powered locos, I use NmH battery packs and charge them with intelligent chargers - no probs.
 
Walts-Playmobil said:
The new Playmobil loco should shut its self down after twenty minutes if not being used. I can run mine on the exhibition layout for over two hours. Check your battery charge because unless you have a very fast charger most chargers take up to 14 hours to charge batteries.
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The charger may be the problem. It's one of those "Plug into the wall socket" types that is supposed to charge NiMH batteries in one hour. I bought it from an Ebay seller. It came with no packaging or instructions. I may have been duped.
 
If I may make so bold------Never , ever buy cheap chargers . Apart from their questionable ability to charge , they are generally very dangerous . After you have redecorated the wall where the charger caught fire you will see why it's a false economy .
If you want a decent reliable charger , get one from Maplin or Boots the Chemist in the UK .
Their chargers can come with a set of batteries , making a decent package .
I have seen the results of cheap chargers damaging the very thing they are supposed to charge , like exploded mobile phones and the odd block of charcoal where someone has said "Here , you ever seen this before ?" , proffering something that looks like it should be in with the barbecue fuel .
And , particularly where children are concerned (us) the danger of electrocution is quite high .

mike m in uk
 
On the question of chargers, I try to avoid using the rapid type charger as, in my experience/perceived experience, the battery powers the loco etx for a shorter time compared with the "slow" charger.
 
There are still some good intelligent chargers on the market that will take a varierty of voltages. Unfortunately, the Ansman one that I have which will automatically adjust to polarity is no longer made.

They are not hugely expensive, and well worth it ;) ;) ;)
 
I hear you all. I went the cheap route and have learned what I always knew, cheap is cheap :'(

I am reading The Last Lion, by William Manchester, at the moment. Yesterday I read this passage, a speech by Churchill in the house of commons, sometime in the '30s.

" When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that is is thoroughly out of hand, we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure.There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the Sybilline books. It falls into that long dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self preservation strikes it's jarring gong---these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history".
 
Madman said:
" When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that is is thoroughly out of hand, we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure.There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the Sybilline books. It falls into that long dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self preservation strikes it's jarring gong---these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history".
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Sounds like the company I work for......
 
My Playmobil loco can haul 60-80 minutes continuously after a full charge. Batteries vary widely. Some couldn't cope beyond 30 minutes!

This loco makes every other locomotive too expensive in comparison. ;)

Playmobil can offer RC loco, a wagon, some tracks for under £100 yet some manufacturers have audacity to ask extra £150 for sound only! :o
 
Yes, Mobi, it is suspicious how Playmobil can do that. Makes you wonder what kind of profit these other manufacturers are making ???
 
Mobi said:
Playmobil can offer RC loco, a wagon, some tracks for under £100 yet some manufacturers have audacity to ask extra £150 for sound only! :o
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But you can hear the difference. Whether it is worth the difference is a personal decision. I cant really afford B&O but I would like to!
 
Dan,

I too was surprised at the length of the wheelbase of the new type of Playmobil loco. They have generally made excellent locos with good mechanisms that until now shared a very short wheelbase. These were ideally suited to the tight PM curves and the smaller LGB curves.

If you compare the screaming noise made by the mech on the new loco, to the quieter older PM RC mechs you can start to understand how it was done so cheaply. The new loco contains two cheap can motors that each drive one axle through reduction gears.

I have tried to make a track powered version of the new diesel, as I have done with all other PM locos, but this was much harder as the only way was to leave the motors as they were, replace the wheels, add pick ups and drop the feed to the motors through diodes. It works but is not a great success. As has been noted earlier in this heading, the ridiculously long wheelbase causes speed loss on curves.

However, if we accept it for what it was supplied as, add the Playmobil 4879 camera set to the mounting point supplied in the cab, stick an EPL magnet underneath you can have a lot of fun driving it from the 'drivers eye' view as it is relayed to the monitor in the camera set. You can bodge-mount this monitor on the RC controller too.

You will also need to buy shares in Duracell as you will be getting through four different sets of batteries, some quicker than others, but it is great fun.

Kids who visit me take turns to drive the loco in sequence with the automated trains running from track power, stopping at red lights and waiting until they go green. This is pretty good fun. I wish that we had toys as good as this when I was child!

As for the sound - Yuk, although I am not a fan of sound anyway, even if it is good quality it soon grates on my nerves, but I like the horn!

James
 
I didn't know about the camera set. Just looked it up on Playmobil USA site. It looks like a non-starter for me as I have an Apple Computer. Just as well, the price tag of $124.00 is not in my budget at the moment. Besides, my grandchildren are thrilled with the loco as is.

You are spot on about the sound, but again, the grandkids love it. I have some sound equipped locos also, and after awhile they do get on my nerves.
 
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