Can you tell me what wire colors I should use where?
Here is some help with Marklin connections and color codings used on wiring. If you follow these same rules, it will make it easier for you to track and find faults later in your wiring.
Marklin Red and Brown Wires
Used to connect power (the speed control AC power) to the track.
- Red is for the center rail (marked B on the bottom)
- Brown is for the outer two rails (marked O on the bottom).
Multiple power feeds
On larger layouts, it is best to have multiple power connections to the track. We have special wire sets that make this easy. The Marklin 74040 wire set is just over 3 feet long, and has spade connectors on one side.
Marklin 74040
You can also run a feeder wire from a track portion (typically a track piece close to where your feeder wire is hooked up), to another track piece further down the track using the Marklin 74042 wire set. It has spade connectors on both sides.
Marklin 74042
Marklin Accessories
Accessories like lights and turnouts are powered by Yellow and Brown.
The brown wire is the wire that typically gets switched, the yellow is always on. Therefore, if you have control boxes like the 72710, 72720, 72730 or 72740, you hook up the brown wire from the transformer to the side of those control boxes. Typical transformer output (the constant voltage AC power) side. Used to power accessories, like turnouts and lights.
Marklin Turnouts
When you equip the turnouts with a turnout motor (Marklin 74491) you can control the turnouts remotely with an electrical push button switch.
The turnout motors have one yellow and two blue wires.
The yellow goes to the yellow from the transformer.
The two blues go to a switch (Marklin 72010), and the switch connects them with the brown wire from the transformer.
- Put a red plug on the blue wire that makes the turnout set itself to curve.
- Put a green plug on the side that sets the turnout straight.
Charlie's Tip: If you need to extend these three wires, consider using the Brawa 3174. This is a 3-strand wire, that has red (for the set-to-curved blue wire), and green (for set-to-straight blue wire).